{"product_id":"the-masque-of-africa-glimpses-of-african-belief-paperback","title":"The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Belief - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eV. S. Naipaul\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA remarkable work of African reportage by the Nobel Prize-winning author that surveys the effects of belief (in indigenous animisms, the foreign religions of Christianity and Islam, the cults of leaders and mythical history) upon the progress of civilization. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Neither a romantic's nor an anthropologist's tale. It is a collection of voices that make sense only in relation to one another....[Naipaul's is a] brilliant and elastic mind.\"--\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom V. S. Naipaul: \"For my travel books I travel on a theme. And the theme of \u003ci\u003eThe Masque of Africa \u003c\/i\u003eis African belief. I begin in Uganda, at the center of the continent, do Ghana and Nigeria, the Ivory Coast and Gabon, and end at the bottom of the continent, in South Africa. My theme is belief, not political or economical life; and yet at the bottom of the continent the political realities are so overwhelming that they have to be taken into account. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Perhaps an unspoken aspect of my inquiry was the possibility of the subversion of old Africa by the ways of the outside world. The theme held until I got to the South, when the clash of the two ways of thinking and believing became far too one-sided. The skyscrapers of Johannesburg didn't rest on sand. The older world of magic felt fragile, but at the same time had an enduring quality. You felt that it would survive any calamity. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"I had expected that over the great size of Africa the practices of magic would significantly vary. But they didn't. The diviners everywhere wanted to 'throw the bones' to read the future, and the idea of 'energy' remained a constant, to be tapped into by the ritual sacrifice of body parts. In South Africa body parts, mainly of animals, but also of men and women, made a mixture of 'battle medicine.' To witness this, to be given some idea of its power, was to be taken far back to the beginning of things. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"To reach that beginning was the purpose of my book.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Masque of Africa\u003c\/i\u003e is a masterly achievement by one of the world's keenest observers and one of its greatest writers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eV.S. NAIPAUL was born in Trinidad in 1932. He came to England on a scholarship in 1950. He spent four years at University College, Oxford, and began to write, in London, in 1954. He pursued no other profession. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e His novels include \u003ci\u003eA House for Mr Biswas\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Mimic Men\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGuerrillas\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eA Bend in the River\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Enigma of Arrival\u003c\/i\u003e. In 1971 he was awarded the Booker Prize for \u003ci\u003eIn a Free State\u003c\/i\u003e. His works of nonfiction, equally acclaimed, include \u003ci\u003eAmong the Believers\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBeyond Belief\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Masque of Africa\u003c\/i\u003e, and a trio of books about India: \u003ci\u003eAn Area of Darkness\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eIndia: A Wounded Civilization\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eIndia: A Million Mutinies Now\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In 1990, V.S. Naipaul received a knighthood for services to literature; in 1993, he was the first recipient of the David Cohen British Literature Prize. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001. He lived with his wife Nadira and cat Augustus in Wiltshire, and died in 2018.\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 256\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.9 x 7.9 x 5.1 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 04, 2011\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48876181979385,"sku":"9780307454997","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0789\/2782\/3097\/files\/Xe0kKbcDzU9780307454997.webp?v=1787345444","url":"https:\/\/bookscloud.io\/products\/the-masque-of-africa-glimpses-of-african-belief-paperback","provider":"BooksCloud Book Dropshipping","version":"1.0","type":"link"}