The Last Banana by Shelby Tucker
The Last Banana began when the author visited his university friend Marios Ghikas, whose family farmed in Tanzania. Anticipating nationalization, Marios invited Tucker to visit again to help him spend 'the last banana' of his 'unremittable fortune', and Tucker returned in 1972. These were the first of 16 African trips spanning 43 years. There were 180 Greeks in Chaggaland, but Nyerere's policy of returning land to the watu people destroyed this community. Three stayed on; Marios was one. In this absorbing and elegantly written book, Tucker recalls conditions in equatorial Africa before the European scramble for colonies. He reminds us of Livingstone's vision of ending the slave trade by bringing 'the 3 Cs' (Commerce, Christianity and Civilization) to the interior of Africa and suggests that Greek settlement in Africa was an important, part of fulfilling this vision - a story previously untold in English. Tucker contrasts the moral force and fruits of the pioneer missionaries and explorers who brought Christianity to Africa with the triviality of modern travel and the surrealism of democracy and freedom expounded in Africa today.
Shelby Tucker has travelled widely in Burma researching this book. During his time in the country he was captured by the Burmese Communist Party and interviewed most of the leaders of Burma's ethnic insurgents. He read law at Oxford University, and he is also the author of Among Insurgents: Walking Through Burma.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781906768966 |
| ISBN 10 | 190676896X |
| Title | The Last Banana |
| Author | Shelby Tucker |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Stacey International |
| Year published | 2012-06-25 |
| Number of pages | 320 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |