Love, Africa by Jeffrey Gettleman

The biggest stories often start with a scrap of paper, a phone number and an obviously fake name….

From Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Jeffrey Gettleman, comes a memoir spanning three decades, his story of love, war and survival. Entrenched in a world of chaos, with the written word taking prominence, from not wanting to be a journalist, Gettleman became New York Times’s East Africa bureau chief.  Lessons learnt in Africa, and at his first small-time reporting job in Brooksville, made him adept at traversing the ever-changing and adrenaline-pumping world of news-reporting, especially from conflict zones.

…But there were rules. The trick was to write with a measure of restraint. The editors were teaching me my third language, newspaperese. Think of it as eighth-grade English, heavy on verbs, light on adjectives, the shorter the sentences, the better. The idea is, if you keep out emotions and play it straight, the journalism will be objective or something close to it. There were also the practicalities of deadline. It’s not easy to make art in an hour. But you can write a story….

An in-depth and honest work of non-fiction, telling the story of Africa, a mass of land- that had the rotten luck to gain its freedom at the height of the Cold War, which meant dozens of young nations had been instantly reeled into the maelstrom, on one side or the other, and instead of  building courthouses, highways or universities- exactly what these fragile, artificially created countries needed- the United States and the USSR built arsenal. 

A perfect alchemy of  screwed-up love, personal self-discovery, adventure and power-struggle.

About artikaaurorabakshi

Artika Aurora Bakshi Artika Aurora Bakshi is the author of five well-acclaimed children’s books,My Little Sikh Handbook, My Little Sikh Handbook 2: Ardas, My Little Sikh Handbook: Travel Journal, My Little Sikh Handbook: The Mighty Sikh Empire, My Little Handbook of Feelings, and an anthology of stories, Hold On To Me. Her first story, set in Amritsar, during the pre-Partition period, All She Had Left, was published on Story Mirror. Her short stories have been published on Kitaab. She co-manages thegoodbookcorner.com, a manuscript help and book review site. Her passion for reading has led her to helping other writers with their manuscripts. She is a Contributing Editor for Nishaan, and the Associate Editor for SLIM Marketer. She comes from a family of lawyers and has a master’s degree in International Banking & Finance. A regular at the Galle Literary Festival and The Ceylon Literary and Art Festival, Artika’s articles and book reviews have featured in the Daily Mirror, Daily News, The Ceylon Chronicle, and various blogs, such as, talkingcranes.com, sikhchic.com, sikhnet.com. An avid reader, Artika runs an online book club with a membership base of over 600 members. Her quotes are featured under soul_nightingale_artika on Instagram and on Soul Nightingale by Artika Aurora Bakshi on Facebook. You can reach Artika at bakshiartika@gmail.com .

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