"Suffering Strong tells as story—an odyssey of a thoughtful person engaged in a relief mission: the listless emaciated girls and boys; western-trained African doctors making their own pills; the quiet dignity of adults struggling for survival; contrasting pools of European luxury in plush city hotels, restaurants, bars; the dust, heat, frustration of waiting for airplanes and trucks that come late—or never; amputees pushing wheelchairs to the ocean's edge to swim, strong armed, against sparkling blue-green waves...
    Step by step, the odyssey details the devastating impact of the West's two hundred year presence on the wars and oppression that today cause hunger and death in Africa. Americans should read and think about this story."

—Ann Seidman, Ph.D.
author of The Roots of Crisis in Southern Africa

"This is a very readable book that will change the American readers perspective on Africa. The author's powers of observation, his sensitivity to African people's aspirations, and his own longings for a more humane world, combine to produce an engaging ground-level account to Africa in crisis and a thoughtful probing Western policy there."

—Marie Giblin, Ph.D., Maryknoll School of Theology

"Mottern's journal tells readers much about the underlying causes of hunger in Africa. He draws readers in to experience the embarrassment of seeing both a starving child and the thrill of accomplishment of irrigated fields in Eritrea. I recommend Nick Mottern's journal for everyone; people who wish to know more about the essence of Africa; those who are promoting peace and justice; and others seeking to prevent further famines."

—Bill Rau, Bread For The World

Nicholas Mottern is a researcher and writer on Africa for Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. In 1986 and 1987 he coordinated for the Africa Peace Committee an American speaking tour on hunger and war in Africa for a coalition of anti-hungar, anti-apartheid, peace and development organizations.

CATEGORIES:

Cultural Studies, Africa