The Ostrich Wakes: Struggles for Change in Highland Kenya;

In this age of globalization, fear of terrorist threats and pandemic diseases such as AIDS, author Jean Davison returns to Mt. Kenya's foothills to discover how farmers whose lives she has followed for 20 years, view the changes of the last decade, especially the seismic shift in the political landscape at the end of 2002. It's a tumultuous moment; villagers are dancing in the streets. They walked miles to vote. The sole party in power since independence was trounced. With keen insight and a sensitivity born of living elbow to elbow with Kenyan villagers, Davison captures their anxieties and hopes for the future and links them to our own hopes in America. Part travel tale and part social commentary, "The Ostrich Wakes" both engages and enlightens us. It is unique in drawing on the voices of both elders and, especially, young people and weaving them into her story.