I have just finished reading 'What is the What' by Dave Eggers and I would like to recommend it to all of you Hanson fans (and Hanson of course) who are interested in Africa and to be more specific: in the events that preceded the Darfur crisis (in Sudan).
The story blew me away and it's really one of those books I'll always remember. Here's a nice review:

http://blog.mawbooks.com/2008/01/28/if-you-read-only-one-book-this-year-let-it-be-this-one/

"What is the What is the autobiographical account of Valentino Achak Deng, a Lost Boy from Sudan who immigrated to the United States in 2001. He collaborated with Dave Eggers to share his story. From the preface of the book, Valentino writes:

This book is the soulful account of my life: from the time I was separated from my family in Marial Bai to the thirteen years I spent in Ethiopian and Kenyan refugee camps, to my encounters with vibrant Western cultures, in Atlanta and elsewhere.

As you read this book, you will learn about the two and a half million people who have perished in Sudan’s civil war. I was just a boy, when the war began. As a helpless human, I survived by trekking across many punishing landscapes while being bombed by Sudanese air forces, while dodging land mines, while being preyed upon by wild beasts and human killers. I fed on the unknown fruits, vegetables, leaves, animal carcasses and sometimes went with nothing for days. At certain points, the difficulty was unbearable. I hated myself and attempted to take my own life. Many of my friends, and thousands of my fellow countrymen, did not make it through these struggles alive.

This book was born out of the desire on the part of myself and the author to reach out to others to help them understand the atrocities many successive governments of Sudan committed before and during the civil war. To that end, over the course of many years, I told my story orally to the author. he then concocted this novel, approximating my own voice and using the basic events of my life as the foundation. Because many of the passages are fictional, the result is called a novel. It should not be taken as a definitive history of the civil war in Sudan, nor of the Sudanese people, nor even of my brethren, those known as the Lost Boys. This is simply one man’s story, subjectively told. And though it is fictionalized, it should be noted that the world I have known is not so different from the one depicted within these pages. We live in a time when even the most horrific events in this book could occur, and in most cases did occur.

Even when my hours were darkest, I believed that some day I could share my experiences with readers, so as to prevent the same horrors from repeating themselves. This book is a form of struggle, and it keeps my spirit alive to struggle. To struggle is to strengthen my faith, my hope, and my belief in humanity. Thank you for reading this book, and I wish you a blessed day. - Valentino Achak Deng, Atlanta, 2006."

I hope this book has the same effect on you as it had on me!