In the Other Direction Now

Dispatches from East Africa
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-914982-22-4
Verlag: Haus Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 256 Seiten, Trade, Format (B × H): 144 mm x 224 mm, Gewicht: 384 g

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From Madagascar to the Sudan, Navid Kermani finds peoples and cultures in flux. In the Nuba Mountains, people are enduring war; residents of Nairobi inhabit a city shaped by colonialism; in southern Madagascar, farmers and fishers struggle with the first drought and famine to be attributed directly to climate change. As China and the West compete for scarce resources and wealthy Arab countries exert their influence on religion and culture, colonial crimes are still felt in extractive economies and through unaccountable governance.

Yet the Eastern Africa that comes to life under Kermani’s critical and sensitive eye is that of the farmers and professionals, artists and soldiers, parents and children, priests and imams. Traditional music, Ethiopian jazz, and Sufi ritual songs are powerful currents of identity; faith is a unifying force in contested areas; violence and oppression are answered with perseverance and resistance.

In the Other Direction Now is an essential work of human observation and understanding that reflects on issues of the present moment, and on the fundamental questions of life, in a region too often excluded from the world’s gaze.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kermani, Navid

Weitere Mitwirkende

Crawford, Tony

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Afrikanische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Sport | Tourismus | Freizeit Tourismus & Reise Tourismus & Reise: Soziologie, Psychologie, Kultur
• Sozialwissenschaften Sport | Tourismus | Freizeit Tourismus & Reise Tourismus & Reise: Allgemeines, Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Geschichte: Sachbuch

Inhaltsverzeichnis

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Getting There 1

Climate: In Southern Madagascar 21

Eternity: In the Highlands of Madagascar 41

Rhythm: With Nainako and His Friends in Antananarivo 49

Development: In the Comoro Islands 59 Mayotte: From a Barter Economy to the European Union 61 Anjouan: Where the Supply Chain Begins 67 Mohéli: Here, All You Have Is the Past 75 Grande Comore: As It Was in Ancient Athens 87

Energy: In Cabo Delgado, Northern Mozambique 103

Peace: In Northern Tanzania 139

Colonialism: In Nairobi 147

War: In the Tigray Region of Northern Ethiopia 161

Prayer: In Ethiopia’s Churches and Monasteries 179

Jazz: With Mulatu Astatke in Addis Ababa 191

Identity: In the Nuba Mountains in Sudan 199

Holiday 229

Acknowledgements 243

Über Autor(innen)

Navid Kermani is one of Germany’s most celebrated writers. His many awards include the Kleist Prize, the Hannah Arendt Prize, the Friedrich Hölderlin Prize, the Peace Prize of the German Publishers’ Association and, most recently, the Thomas Mann Prize.

Tony Crawford is a translator based in Berlin. His translations have been shortlisted for the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize (Goethe-Institut, New York) in 2017 and 2022. Crawford’s translation of Navid Kerman’s Wonder Beyond Belief won the 2018 Schlegel-Tieck Prize (Translators Association/Society of Authors, London).