Research Catalog

Title

Maalika : my life among the Afar nomads of Africa / authors, Valerie Browning ; John Little.

Author

Browning, Valerie

Publication

Sydney : Pan Macmillan Australia, 2008.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Little, John, 1942-

Description

xvi, 264 p. : ill., map; 24 cm.

Summary

"In 1973, Valerie Browning, a young Sydney nurse, volunteered to go to Ethiopia to help the victims of a devastating famine. She had little or no conception of Africa or Africans, and yet the continent and its people would become the guiding force of her life. Galvanised by the suffering she witnessed in Ethiopia, on her return to Australia she became a human rights and aid activist for the people of the Horn of Africa. Valerie's work led her back to Africa again and again, involving her at considerable risk to herself in the armed liberation conflicts of the region. Even as she discovered brutality and corruption at the heart of these political movements, she also found love, marrying Ismael Ali Gardo, whose people, the Afar, roamed Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Sudan as nomadic herdsmen. Ismael's life mission was to help the Afar - desperately poor, uneducated, landless, and the victims of oppression in every country they once roved freely. Soon it became Valerie's too, as she embraced their culture and threw herself into their cause. In one of the most inhospitable landscapes on earth, Valerie and Ismael have waged an incredible struggle, bringing health and education to a people who would otherwise have nothing. Valeries story is both an astonishing adventure and a testament to how determination and passion can achieve extraordinary things. Valerie Browning lives in Ethiopia and runs the Afar Pastoral Development Association. John Little spent 25 years working as a reporter and producer in television current affairs, and his previous non-fiction books are Inside 60 Minutes, The Hospital by the River, The Man Who Saw Too Much, Jem and Christine's Ark. He lives with his wife, Anna, in Avalon, NSW." -- Provided by publisher.

Subject

• Browning, Valerie
• Browning, Valerie
• Health Services, Indigenous
• Black People > ethnology
• Nurses
• Human rights workers > Biography
• Nurses > Biography
• Afar (African people) > Social life and customs
• Black People > ethnology > Ethiopia > Personal Narratives
• Health Services, Indigenous > Ethiopia > Personal Narratives
• Ethiopia > ethnology
• Ethiopia
• Ethiopia > Description and travel

Genre/Form

Personal Narrative

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

"In 1973, Valerie Browning, a young Sydney nurse, volunteered to go to Ethiopia to help the victims of a devastating famine. She had little or no conception of Africa or Africans, and yet the continent and its people would become the guiding force of her life. Galvanised by the suffering she witnessed in Ethiopia, on her return to Australia she became a human rights and aid activist for the people of the Horn of Africa. Valerie's work led her back to Africa again and again, involving her at considerable risk to herself in the armed liberation conflicts of the region. Even as she discovered brutality and corruption at the heart of these political movements, she also found love, marrying Ismael Ali Gardo, whose people, the Afar, roamed Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Sudan as nomadic herdsmen. Ismael's life mission was to help the Afar -- desperately poor, uneducated, landless, and the victims of oppression in every country they once roved freely. Soon it became Valerie's too, as she embraced their culture and threw herself into their cause. In one of the most inhospitable landscapes on earth, Valerie and Ismael have waged an incredible struggle, bringing health and education to a people who would otherwise have nothing. Valeries story is both an astonishing adventure and a testament to how determination and passion can achieve extraordinary things. Valerie Browning lives in Ethiopia and runs the Afar Pastoral Development Association. John Little spent 25 years working as a reporter and producer in television current affairs, and his previous non-fiction books are Inside 60 Minutes, The Hospital by the River, The Man Who Saw Too Much, Jem and Christine's Ark. He lives with his wife, Anna, in Avalon, NSW." -- Provided by publisher.

ISBN

• 9781405038454 (pbk.)
• 1405038454 (pbk.)

OCLC

• 228074760
• SCSB-12594143

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library