The Ringtone and the Drum

A travel book on West Africa

[markweston19]

'They've Never Heard of Cheese' and other tales of island life - new article by me on travel website Roads and Kingdoms:  http://roadsandkingdoms.com/2013/theyve-never-heard-of-cheese/

[markweston19]

The walk into a new country across the brown dividing river, beggars on the bridge; a visa for $2 a day; a hanging skinned goat carcass by the butcher’s shack, freshly cooked skewers of meat thrust through the minibus window. The clamour as the bus moves off without all its passengers, the driver...

[ebruweston]

Another great review for The Ringtone and the Drum - http://www.perceptivetravel.com/issues/0913/books.html … The book is available on Amazon if you would like to buy it.

http://amzn.to/14LSSc8

http://amzn.to/Z4ByKi

[ebruweston]

'A powerful and uplifting read...like the best kind of journalism from The Economist: sound explanations of brutal economics, heartfelt empathy for the sufferers, and a clear understanding of history, and the political conditions that are making everything worse.' New review on the Vulpes Libris book blog: http://vulpeslibris.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/people-in-a-hot-place/ http://www.theringtoneandthedrum.net/

[ebruweston]

‘If you want to kill someone, the sorcerer will call down a fly from the air and tell it to land on your enemy. The fly can travel hundreds of miles. It lands on your enemy’s arm, and when he slaps it to kill it’ – Musa smacks his own forearm hard to demonstrate – ‘his arm and then his whole body start to rot.’ …

http://www.theringtoneandthedrum.net/

[ebruweston]

‘They were worse than the rebels,’ says Ali. ‘They would bring a human head into my shop, put it on the counter and ask for money to take it away. Then they’d go and play football with it.’ …

Bo, Sierra Leone

Read more on local people's stories of the civil war in Sierra Leone in The Ringtone and the Drum by Mark Weston: Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/14MeDN9 Amazon USA: http://amzn.to/1cF0Kn7

http://www.theringtoneandthedrum.net/

[ebruweston]

The Ringtone and the Drum by Mark Weston

‘A must read for anyone interested in West Africa, and anyone who wants to get a feel for what extreme poverty is like. I wholeheartedly recommend it.’ Baroness Jenkin of Kennington, Conservative Friends of International Development

Buy from Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/14LSSc8

Buy from Amazon USA: http://amzn.to/Z4ByKi

[ebruweston]

Book Reviews, The Roundtable: The Commonwealth Journal  of International Affairs, August 2013

The Ringtone and the Drum: Travels in the World’s Poorest Countries Mark Weston Winchester, Zero Books, 2012, pp. 330, ISBN:9781780995861

From the very beginning, the choice of ‘travel destinations’ made by Mark Weston, a researcher and policy adviser specialising in development, public health and human rights, places the book in a sorely underrepresented category. Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso. None of these West African countries would be considered tourist options and, except for Sierra Leone where the civil war and the British military intervention in 2000 have given rise to numerous publications, they do not figure prominently in academic output—be it in history or political science, and particularly in the literature in English. First drawn to the region on an assignment in Ghana, Weston has intentionally chosen to write about its too often forgotten, and desperately poor, countries... Read more here: http://bit.ly/18n9k8b

[ebruweston]

Turkish court rules against Taksim Square development

Turkish court rules against Taksim Square development and the government is expected to appeal against the ruling: http://bbc.in/15gn7t1

[ebruweston]

Tanzania voted Africa's top safari destination: 

http://huff.to/19oGT6C

[ebruweston]

Taksim, Tayyip and Turkey - a balance sheet by Mark Weston

Taksim, Tayyip and Turkey - some thoughts (and some data) by Mark Weston:http://bit.ly/15K36ub

[ebruweston]

BUBAQUE, FAR AWAY

Writer Mark Weston finds a West African archipelago full of mangroves, spirit medicine and crops fertilized with cocaine powder.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/13QU26O

The Ringtone and the Drum is available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Delivering oil drums, Bubaque, Guinea-Bissau

[ebruweston]

Bubaque, Guinea-Bissau  (www.theringtoneandthedrum.net)

[ebruweston]

The African Exodus: A View from the Ground

The African Exodus: A View from the Ground (new blog post by Mark Weston - Author of The Ringtone and the Drum): http://www.globaldashboard.org/2013/05/07/urbanisation-in-the-developing-world-a-panacea-for-some/

[ebruweston]

Bubaque, Guinea-Bissau

[ebruweston]

"Juju, guilt and so much more in West Africa. Meet the couple behind the travels...." by TripFiction

"West Africa  is nobody's idea of a dream holiday destination" - so opens The Ringtone and the Drum by Mark Weston; Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and and Guinea-Bissau are the world's poorest countries. Mark's wife Ebru is persuaded to accompany him on this trip, to a part of the world where you can neither retreat into the comfortable cocoon of a Western hotel chain to get a breather, nor is detachment possible - your physical and psychological distance is stripped away and you are dragged into the pulsating mêlée.

New review of The Ringtone and the Drum, plus an interview with Mark and Ebru Weston about travelling in West Africa: http://bit.ly/10dlxla

[ebruweston]

A guide to dictatorship by Mark Weston

Our hotel room in Ouagadougou, unlike all the other rooms we have stayed in on our trip, has a television. This allows us to watch the celebrations marking fifty years of Burkina Faso’s independence, which are being held on a football field in Bobo-Dioulasso. Blaise Compaoré is the guest of honour.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/16HuZU3

The Ringtone and the Drum