Killing for Profit has been described as a good book on a bad subject – the tracking and poaching of rhinoceroses that is threatening to make these animals extinct. A terrifying true story of greed, corruption, depravity and ruthless criminal enterprise…
Rat Roads is a searing story of hardship and survival, and an unforgettable tale of courage and triumph. In this extraordinary book, celebrated journalist Jacques Pauw gives a human face to some of the most tumultuous events in recent African history.
In the world of Imraan Coovadia’s tragicomic novel, The Institute for Taxi Poetry, taxi companies thrive in a single-party state. Taxi poets are admired, sliding-door men rule, professors and politicians strut and fret and connive in a society shaped by violence and ambition, love, and the unsettling power of the imagination.
Jacques Pauw, author of Rat Roads, spoke to John Maytham on 567 Cape Talk on the 20th anniversary of Chris Hani’s assassination.
Pauw was working for Special Assignment covering the Truth and Reconciliation Commission when South African Conservative Party member Clive Derby-Lewis and Janusz Waluś both appealed their sentences for the assassination, but were not granted amnesty by the Commission. Pauw and Maytham discussed the case:
Corina van der Spoel gesels op dié aflewering van die RSG-program “Skrywers en boeke” met die joernalis en skrywer Jacques Pauw oor Rat Roads, sy boek oor die lewensverhaal van Kennedy Gihana. Gihana was ’n Rwandese rebellesoldaat wat 5000km gestap het van Rwanda af na Pretoria om hom daar as prokureur te kwalifiseer.
Pauw vertel ook van die trauma waaraan ‘n ondersoekende joernalis soos hy blootgestel word tydens sulke navorsing.
Kennedy Gihana, whose life story was the subject of Jaques Pauw’s book Rat Roads, appeared on the South2North television talk show on Al Jazeera hosted by Redi Tlhabi.
Gihana addressed the issues that face stateless people, and what happens when a people are faced with genocide, such as the tragedy in the Myanmar community of the Rohingya that’s currently unfolding. Gihana, having himself fled Rwanda’s genocide, has a special empathy for those facing a similar plight. The show’s guests included Maung Tun khin, a Rohingya, and a human rights activist. Beatrice Mtetwa, a human rights lawyer, was the third guest on the show, and the show was filmed just a few days before she was jailed in Zimbabwe.
The Guardian has shared a video of Andrew Rugasira, Ugandan author of A Good African Story, discussing investment in Africa.
Rugasira says that one of the challenges of post-colonial Africa has been corrupt regimes constraining private business instead of fostering an environment that allows them to grow. He recounts how his father was imprisoned for over a year and a half because he was perceived to be a threat to the state as a successful entrepreneur.
Rugasira highlights the difference between foreign aid and humanitarian assistance, saying that foreign aid goes into the government’s treasuries. He is opposed to this as he says that governments can’t be the engine for economic growth, although they can create an enabling environment for it. The driving force of economic growth is the private sector, he explains, which needs capital in order to do this. Therefore, giving money to government in order to spur growth is not going to work.
The inspirational story of how an African-owned coffee company became a profitable global brand.
Since it was founded in 2003, Good African Coffee has helped thousands of farmers earn a decent living, send their children to school and escape a spiral of debt and dependence. Africa has received over $1 trillion in aid over the last fifty years and yet despite these huge inflows, the continent remains mired in poverty, disease and systemic corruption. In A Good African Story, Andrew Rugasira argues that trade has achieved what years of aid failed to deliver, and has provided a tantalising glimpse of what Africa could be.
As he recounts the very personal story of his company and the challenges that he faces – and has overcome – as an African entrepreneur, Rugasira discusses the barriers that currently prevent fair and equal trade between Africa and the rest of the world. He sets out the arguments for building a sustainable trade framework and reducing dependency on handouts. And he builds up a manifesto for a revolution in the way that Africa is perceived.
This book is about Africa taking its destiny in its own hands, and dictating the terms of its future.
About the author
Andrew Rugasira grew up in Uganda and went to the University of London for his undergraduate degree in Law and Economics. He later completed a masters degree in African Studies at the University of Oxford. In 2003, he founded Good African Coffee, the first African-owned coffee brand to be stocked in UK supermarkets and US retailers. He regularly speaks at leadership and business conferences, and is passionate about initiatives that lead to community transformation.
In 2007, he was nominated as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He has won several awards, including the Legatum Pioneers for Prosperity award, and in 2010 was nominated for a Financial Times/ArcelorMittal Boldness in Business award. Rugasira lives in Kampala with his wife Jacqueline and their children.
Sue Grant-Marshall has written about the emotional interviews that Jacques Pauw conducted with Kennedy Gihana, the subject of his book. Rat Roads tells the story of Gihana’s extraordinary life and journey from Rwanda to South Africa after the 1994 genocide.
In the article for Business Day, Grant-Marshall talks about how Pauw recorded the interviews and said that he made sure that whatever he taped would stay in the book:
The bare bones of this story scrape at my heart like sandpaper on a blister. A young man who has lost his family in the Rwandan genocide walks nearly 6,000km, much of it without shoes, from Kigali to Joburg, to get himself educated.
Kennedy Gihana, who started life as a cattle herder for his impoverished grandparents, succeeds, eventually. Today he has a master’s degree in international law.
Jacques Pauw was recently interviewed on Reading Matters by Radio Today’s Sue Grant-Marshall about his book, Rat Roads.
Pauw spoke about the time he spent in Rwanda in 1994, when the genocide occurred, and said that anyone who was in Rwanda during that time will have a deep connection to the country:
South African photographer Obie Oberholzer has written about Jacques Pauw’s book, Rat Roads, about Rwandan-born Kennedy Gihana who literally walked from Rwanda to South Africa after surviving the 1994 genocide.
Oberholzer called the book “a must read for anyone who loves and travels this African continent”, saying that it “illustrates the pinnacles of evil, goodness and determination”. Oberholzer also shared a story of a man he encountered in 1994 near Lake Victoria, whose family had been murdered in front of him. Oberholzer said that he often wonders what became of him after he gave him a lift to the Kenyan border and watched him walk away:
I have just read Jacques Pauw’s latest book, ‘Rat Roads’ (Zebra Press) and am still shaking somewhat. It’s bloody spine chilling stuff. What an incredible depiction of one man’s journey: all the way from the 1994 genocide in Rwanda to South Africa. It illustrates the pinnacles of evil, goodness and determination. Congratulations to Jacques Pauw on portraying this man and his unbelievable story. This is a must read for anyone who loves and travels this African continent.
Jacques Pauw se jongste boek, Rat Roads, oor Kennedy Gihana se reis van Rwanda na Johannesburg, het onlangs verskyn. Rian van Heerden het op sy kykNET-geselsprogram, Rian, met Gihana en Pauw oor die boek gesels.
Gihana vertel van die oomblik toe hy besluit het om sy lewe in Rwanda agter te laat en hoe hy met slegs sy matrieksertifikaat vir ses maande lank Johannesburg toe gestap het om ’n nuwe begin te maak. Pauw deel waarom hy so ’n belangstelling in Rwanda het:
Download this eBook at LittleWhiteBakkie.com
Download this eBook at LittleWhiteBakkie.com
