No comments about The Rough Guide to Gambia 2 (Rough Guide Travel Guides).

No comments about Southern Africa Revealed.

5 comments about Adventuring in Southern Africa: The Great Safaris and Wildlife Parks of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Malawi, Lesotho, and Swaziland.

1. Prior to my trip, I purchased 4 travel books on Southern Africa then found this guidebook at the Miami airport. It was by far the most accurate and contained all the "need to know" information. Unlike the others, it contained excellent hotel and activity descriptions plus gave detailed information on each region. Sure you want to know some local history but I'm more interested in where to stay, where to eat and what things I can do. At the end of the trip, I left my first 4 guidebooks in Botswana and brought this one home!



2. This book is full of interesting and pertinent travel information; it is a MUST for anyone interested in game-viewing and travelling in southern Africa. The author gives best times to travel depending on what you want to see, and for each country, lists brief history/present politics, places to stay--easily accessible to remote--and how to get there and what you may see. He also gives a comprehensive packing list, medical info, and tips on game viewing. Out of the 4 books I bought on southern Africa, this is the one I referred to most often. This book, coupled with The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals, is an invaluable southern Africa traveller's necessity.



3. This book is an outstanding resource to be read prior to traveling to South Africa. It covers many different aspects of what the experience will entail. These include the history, etiquette, positives and negatives of each type of travel, various diseases and safety precautions one should take. In addition, he thoroughly delivers every aspect of each south african country...ie. countryside, animals, weather, and history. This book in interesting, exciting, and educational!



4. This book is an outstanding resource to be read prior to traveling to South Africa. It covers many different aspects of what the experience will entail. These include the history, etiquette, positives and negatives of each type of travel, various diseases and safety precautions one should take. In addition, he thoroughly delivers every aspect of each south african country...ie. countryside, animals, weather, and history. This book in interesting, exciting, and educational!



5. ...I bought this book to make plans for a trip to Zambia but the chapter about this country is only 40 pages long, both verbose and superficial. Don't get fooled by the "Adventuring" in the title, unless your idea of adventure is to hop by plane from lodge to lodge at $200 or $300 a night. More importantly, except for the park entrance fees, this book doesn't list any price at all (I got them from two other, excellent, travel guides). Comments on cheaper accomodations are few and disenchanted. The maps are equally few and over-simplified (the roads don't even appear!...) Finally, I looked at the chapters about the other countries and it certainly didn't change my opinion about this book. Note also that the date of the last edition (October 97) makes it relatively outdated.

4 comments about English - Somali; Somali - English Dictionary;INGRISI SOOMAALI - SOOMAALI INGRISI QAAMUUS.

1. I'm an English-Somali dictionaries' freak. As such, I can tell you with an absolute certainty that this dictionary is not a new one. It's the exact copy of another dictionary published in Somalia three decades ago. The authors are Said Warsame Hirsi and Abdirahman C. Oomar. The cover of the original dictionary was yellow and it contained allegedly 5000 words, but when I counted was much less than that.
   
   What's more, this new edition doesn't show the pronounciation as it did in a middle column of the original dictionary. There are no new entries and it is an exact copy of the old dictionary. The only difference is that it has a Somali-English section.
   
   In conclusion I was disappointed and I would advise anyone considering of buying this new edition to reconsider their decision.



2. This is dictionary is the best of the three or four Somali dictionaries probably because it has been prepared by academics at Magadishu University, there is a message from the President of the University in the introductory pages.
   My favorite dictionary from which I learned Somali used to be the Af-Garad by Saciid Warsame Xirsi but sadly this went out of print I was quite happy to see that half this dictionary about 250 pages is a revamped version of the Af-Garad
   But this dictionary has been revised in that extant that two hundred new pages have been added in a new Somali English section.
   As far as I am concerned an old favorite dictionary just got better as I can now do a lookup both ways instead of buying another dictionary. This is what makes it affordable.
   This dictionary is not to the high standard of an Oxford dictionary but it is the best of the lot believe me. I have been teaching Somali refugees in New York and this is the one I would recommend for students.



3. This is a great dictionary and I find it very useful. I have had the first edition for about three years and carried it on my frequent trips to Ethiopia and Somalia.
   This is a dictionary that fulfills its purposes. I have looked at the others and this one is not only cheaper but better.
   The dictionary is not a exact copy but similar to the one by Said Warsame Hirsi and Abdirahman C. Oomar as it has a large number of new words also the text on the definitions have been changed but the look and feel is very similar, but I for one appreciate this as that was a very good dictionary which now is sadly out of print.
   This dictionary has also a Somali English section of two hundred new pages which the old dictionary did not have.
   One drawback of this dictionary is that its no longer so portable as the first edition was smaller, however since it has thousands of more definitions that the first edition I think compromises had to be made.
   Anyway, this is the dictionary you must own if you are in any way serious about learning the Somali language.
   Somalia has been without a government for many years and Hats Off! To the scholars at Mogadishu University who have amidst these troubled times brought out a dictionary for the benefit of all the people of Somalia. I believe that the teachers have not been paid for a number of years due to the wars but still continue to teach out of public service.
   There are four dictionaries that you may encounter in your battle with the Somali language this one is the best so far.



4. I was pretty dissapointed when I received this dictionary. The pages consist of one column of English words followed by one column of Somali words. I expected a great deal more like pronunciation and grammatical guides.

No comments about South Africa (Countries of the World (Capstone)).

No comments about Ugandan Society Observed.

No comments about East Africa Alive.

No comments about Insight Guides the Gambia & Senegal (Insight Guide Gambia & Senegal).

No comments about Flash Afrique! Photography from West Africa.

2 comments about Warriors: Life and Death Among the Somalis.

1. Though describing a bygone era in Somalia, this book has few peers when it comes to giving an up-close-and-personal view of the Somalis. Anyone wishing to understand how the US and United Nations came to get so mired in this Horn of Africa country should read this book--and note the lessons that that were never learned before the 1992-1993 humanitarian and military intervention there.



2. this is a hasty review. If you want to know about life in very hard places and times where people live constantly on the border beetween life and death and to undersand how people survive, love, live and die in such places then read this book.