FEAST OR FAMINE

MARTINA NICOLLS  is an international aid and development consultant, and the  author   of: Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

I Remember Abbu (1989, English edition 2019) is set in Bangladesh in 1971.  This is partly the history of the birth of Bangladesh as a county: before 1947 as part of India; between 1947-1971 as part of East Pakistan; and after 1971 as independent Bangladesh. It is mainly about Abbu, the narrator’s father. In 1971, the narrator is a two-year-old girl child, her father’s daughter – the one he calls fool, aged one, genius, thou, son, and her highness. Writing as an adult in 1987, she does not remember Abbu. She looks at the beautiful handwriting of his diary on the day she was born – and subsequently as he writes about the birth of Bangladesh.  Her father’s diaries tell of the deaths, the jubilation at Bangla’s declaration of freedom, and the birth of a new flag ‘entirely green, with a bright red sun in the center’ flying in celebration at the University of Dhaka where he was a professor. He writes of the acts of revolution and of people fleeing Dhaka during th...

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the  author of:-  Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

On 26 May 1918, the National Council of Georgia, made up by 42 members and 36 candidates, gathered at the former residence of the Caucasus viceroy. The Council adopted the act of independence and created a new Georgian state - the Democratic Republic of Georgia. The Georgian National Museum, together with the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, National Parliamentary Library of Georgia, Korneli Kekelidze Georgian National Centre of Manuscripts, and National Archives of Georgia, present the exhibition "The Democratic Republic of Georgia - 100 years" from 26 May to 30 September 2018. On 26 May 2018 Georgia celebrated 100 years since the restoration of the state of an independent Georgia and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Georgia. The exhibition "The Democratic Republic of Georgia - 100 years" narrates the story of Georgia's struggle for freedom from the early 19th century to  9 April 1991 - when Georgia re-establishe...

A hundred and thirty one years ago, on 28 October 1886, the people of France dedicated the gift of The Statue of Liberty to New York Harbour. The Statue of Liberty, La Liberté éclairant le monde ( Liberty Enlightening the World) is a copper statue in New York Harbor in New York City, America. French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi designed it, and engineer Gustave Eiffel (who built the Eiffel Tower in  Paris) constructed it. Construction commenced in May 1876. It was France’s gift to America to commemorate its independence on 4 July 1776. Liberty holds a torch in her right hand, above her head, and carries a tablet in her left hand, with a broken chain at her feet. MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Kni...

Kintu (2014) is the generational epic tale of the Kintu family in Uganda over 250 years from 1754 to 2004. The prologue begins in 2004 with the death of Kamu Kintu. The origins of the tragedy begin in 1754 with Kintu Kidda, his two wives (twins Babirye and Nnakato), their four sets of twins, and their two sons Kalema and Baale. With the birth of their youngest child Baale, ‘’that is when the trouble started.’’ Baale was his father’s favourite son. An angry incident results in Baale’s death and a curse bestowed upon the family that plagues them throughout the generations. Kamu is a direct descendant of Baale. At his funeral are family members, such as Suubi Nnakintu and Kanani Kintu from the lineage of the four sets of twins, to the youngest of the Kintu family, Paulo. Paulo receives a letter about an elders’ council meeting, which he gives to his   74-year-old grandfather Kanani. Kanani has been invited to arrange a family reunion of Kintu Kidda’s descendants, sp...

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun (2006) is Peter Godwin’s reportage and biography of his birthplace, Zimbabwe, from July 1996 to February 2004. The award-winning journalist, now living in New York, was on assignment in Zululand when he received a telephone call from his mother in Zimbabwe telling him that his father was ill. Peter travels immediately to Zimbabwe as his father’s health deteriorates. He chronicles his father’s illness against the historic times of Zimbabwe’s political landscape. He writes of the country’s independence from colonial rule in 1980 and the shift from ‘’white-dominated Rhodesia to black-ruled Zimbabwe.’’ He writes of President Robert Mugabe’s politics, racial violence, the exodus of white farmers, and his parents refusal to leave the country throughout its upheaval. Peter also writes of personal times, such as his sister Georgina’s wedding, the birth of his son Thomas in 2000 and his son Hugh in 2001, his wife Joanna, the purchase of their apa...