Keywords: Russia, Africa, Africanists, publications of African scientists

In recent months, dozens of books and monographs on African issues have been published in Russia. Even veterans of African studies will not remember such an abundance of publications. To present new books to colleagues and share their plans for the future, the Institute of Asian and African Countries of Moscow State University on Mokhovaya Street met specialists working on the distant continent. Almost all research centers in Moscow and even some other cities where African subjects are studied were represented.

Great interest was aroused by the new work of the Head of the Center for History and Anthropology of the IAfr RAS, Head of the Department of International Relations of the Moscow State Linguistic University, scientist and diplomat G. M. Sidorova " Armed conflicts in Africa on the example of the Democratic Republic of the Congo "(Moscow, "Eastern Literature", 2013. 399 p.), which analyzes the origin of conflicts in modern Africa.

It is very important that the author was a participant and eyewitness of many events in the DRC when she worked at the Russian Embassy in Kinshasa. The 1998-2003 war in the DRC reduced many cities to rubble, destroyed State structures, the economy, and reduced the lives of the country's 60 million people to extreme poverty. Studying the experience of domestic and foreign colleagues, using personal observations, as well as documents in the National Archives of the DRC, the author tries to understand the complex political, economic, ethnic and social causes of today's conflicts in Central Africa. Now in the Congo, there are from 30 to 50 different armed groups that are fighting in the east of the country.

The book presented at the presentation is dedicated to the leading South African prose writer of our days - J. M. Kutzie, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, M. S. Kurbak, Ph. D., an employee of the Center for African Studies of the Institute of Universal History of the Russian Academy of Sciences "John Maxwell Kutzie" (Moscow, IVI RAS, 2015. 73 s). According to the author, the figure of the novelist deserves special attention, because in his works he tried to reflect not only on South Africa, but also on the fate of the world, about other countries. He writes about a society on the verge of global change, which is sweeping away the old world, and about the people who were caught in this flurry of changes. About how difficult it is to understand other people if they belong to a different race, another ethnic group, or speak a different language. He also writes about how difficult it is to be a creative person and save your face, especially under the onslaught of a totalitarian or authoritarian state. Kutzieh is revered all over the world, but few people love him, because reading his works leaves a heavy residue - there is a feeling of hopelessness when there is no hope of salvation.

Head of the Department of African Studies at ISAA MSU, Professor, Doctor of Philology N. V. Gromova noted that African studies is a complex science that deals not only with history and ethnography, but also with philology. "Our department is an example of such an integrated approach, here we deal with languages, history, ethnography, philology, literature of the peoples of Africa," she stressed. - An example of this is our research - " Cultural and linguistic processes in Africa "(edited by N. V. Gromova, Moscow, "Klyuch-S", 2015. 151 p.).

The book consists of three sections. The first is the history of studying and teaching African languages not only in Russia, but also in Africa. Then there is a section devoted to the grammar and lexicology of sociolinguistics of African languages. And the third section is devoted to literature. N. V. Gromova also spoke about the publications of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in particular, about the first edition of the ^{in our country1}, authored by Doctor of Philology A.D. Lutskov, a graduate of the Institute of Linguistics (ISAA).

Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor T. M. Gavristova, head of the Laboratory of Oriental and African Studies at Yaroslavl University, presented her book "Unknown Africa. History in Biographies" (Yaroslavl, 2014, 194 p.). The publication is dedicated to one big topic - Africans outside of Africa. The names of the main characters are little known to ordinary people. But outside of Russia, this Africa is well known. And this Africa is a success story. The book includes four essays: about a famous scientist, writer, artist and poet who became famous far beyond the borders of the continent.

One of the authors of the next

After the publication of the book "In the mysterious country of Madagascar "(compiled by L. Kartashova, N. Radzounarimanana. M.," Ekon-Inform", 2014. 287 p.) N. Kh. Rozov noted that the published collection tells about a phenomenal phenomenon for Africa - the 110th anniversary of the Malagasy National Academy. Both Russian and Malagasy researchers took part in the preparation of the publication. The book consists of essays about the brightest members of the academy. Most of them were humanitarians, and many were famous poets and writers who made a huge contribution to the development of the Malagasy language and culture. L. A. Kartashova informed that a translation of the collection into French is being prepared jointly with the Malagasy publishing house.

Several publications were presented at once by the Head of the Center for Southern African Studies of the IAfr RAS, Candidate of Historical Sciences A. A. Tokarev. The most long-awaited work was the "Handbook of the Republic of South Africa "(Moscow, IAfr RAS, 2014, 256 p.). This is the third comprehensive reference book in our history. The first one was published in 1981. The second edition was published in 1994, just after the fall of the apartheid regime. "We have added what has happened over the past 20 years in this country," said A. A. Tokarev. - The book was written for a long time, almost 10 years. A team of authors who had worked at the institute for a long time started their work, and young people finished it."

Last year, a monograph by A. A. Tokarev was published - the first comprehensive study in the history of our country, "Portuguese studies in the USSR and Russia "(Moscow, "All the World", 2014, 184 p.). It contains everything that was written and published in our country, dedicated to the Portuguese-speaking world - from pre-revolutionary times to the present day: books, names of scientists who did this, translators, dissertations. A large section is occupied by books about Portuguese-speaking Africa. "While working on the book," the author noted, " I found out a very interesting thing - a lot of literature about various areas of the Portuguese-speaking world has been published in our country throughout its history. We have published about 8 million books. But very little has been published about Russia in Portugal."

A. A. Tokarev noted another important area of work of the center with the participation of PhD G. V. Shubin. This is an edition of the memoirs of Soviet military specialists about providing assistance to African countries and not only Africa. "For a long time, the topic was closed," he said. - These memories are not always indisputable, but they are very interesting and unique. They are accompanied by rare photos and facts that we don't know. Many Soviet people died in local conflicts, but they left a very good mark on the history of young countries. In 2014, three books were published, the last of which is "Memoirs of participants in providing assistance to the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria (1960-2000) "(edited by A. A. Tokarev, Moscow, Vse Mir Publishing House, 2014, 164 p.).

Professor of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Doctor of Historical Sciences I. V. Krivushin presented the monograph "One Hundred Days in the Power of Madness" (Moscow, HSE, 2015, 527 p). The publication is dedicated to the monstrous tragedy of the late 20th century - the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. The book is based on the testimony of eyewitnesses, which is its main value. The article examines the prehistory of the genocide, its manifestations, the course of events, and the world's reaction to the tragic reality in this country. The author noted that the topic is not well known in Russia, because during the days of the genocide, our country experienced its own drama - the war in Chechnya.

Doctor of Historical Sciences from the Institute of World History S. V. Mazov published a study " The Cold War in the heart of Africa. The USSR and the Congolese crisis of 1960-1964" (Moscow, IVI RAS, 2015, 312 p.). The paper focuses on the relations between the West and the East, as well as the United States and the USSR during the crisis. The author concludes that the leadership of the Soviet Union did not find forces in the Congo that it would be ready to provide comprehensive assistance, including military assistance. All the attention was focused at that moment on the events in Cuba, known as the "Caribbean Crisis". The study is based on archival materials from Russia, the United States, and Western Europe. In this regard, the author noted that in our archives many materials about those events are still classified as "secret".

Summing up the meeting, Academician A. B. Davidson noted that he does not recall that so many good books about Africa were published in a short time. "The other day, G. V. Shubin," he said, " brought another bundle of books-memoirs about Angola. I just want to emphasize how important this is. About 15 years ago, some of the most prominent British Africanists asked me if you could tell me how the veterans who were in Angola felt. This topic was completely banned. And now all this is being published. It is difficult to write about how our military in peacetime behave in other countries: what can and can't be said?"

In general, A. B. Davidson noted, the authors ' speeches show that their books clearly deserve attention.

The review was prepared by I. O. IVANOV, Candidate of Historical Sciences, columnist of the magazine "Asia and Africa Today"

¹ For more information, see: Urb M. R. Perviy v Rossii [The first one in Russia]. 2015 N 2, pp. 76-77. (Urb M. R. 2015. Pervyi v Rossii // Aziya i Afrika segodnya. N 2) (in Russian)

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