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Books > Humanities > History > African history
Survival in the 'Dumping Grounds' examines a defining aspect of
South Africa's recent past: the history of apartheid-era
relocation.
While scholars and activists have long recognised the
suffering caused by apartheid removals to the so-called
'homelands', the experiences of those who lived through this
process more often have been obscured. Drawing on extensive
archival and oral history research, this book explores the makings
and multiple meanings of relocation into two of the most notorious
apartheid 'dumping grounds' established in the Ciskei bantustan
during the mid-1960s: Sada and Ilinge.
Author Laura Evans describes
the local and global dynamics of the project of bantustan
relocation and develops a multi-layered analysis of the complex
histories-and ramifications-of displacement and resettlement in the
Ciskei.
Gedurende die Grensoorlog het die Spesiale Magte se 4 Verkenningsregiment tientalle klandestiene seewaartse operasies saam met die SA Vloot uitgevoer. Van Cabinda in Angola tot Dar es Salaam in Tanzanië het hulle strategiese teikens soos oliedepots, vervoerinfrastruktuur en selfs Russiese skepe aangeval. Die bestaan van 4 Recce is grootliks geheim gehou, ook in die SAW.
Ystervuis uit die see beskryf 50 operasies deur 4 Recce, ander Spesmagte-eenhede en die SA Vloot. Daaronder tel Operasie Kerslig (1981), waartydens ’n operateur dood en ander beseer is in ’n aanval op ’n olieraffinadery in Luanda, en Operasie Argon (1985) toe kaptein Wynand du Toit in Angola gevange geneem is.
Die skrywers, wat self aan etlike van die operasies deelgeneem het, het ook toegang gekry tot uiters geheime dokumente wat intussen gedeklassifiseer is. Hul dramatiese vertellings wys hoe veelsydig en doeltreffend hierdie elite-eenheid was.
Die omvattende boek is ’n moet vir enigeen met ’n belangstelling in die Spesmagte. Dit neem jou na die hart van die aksie, die adrenalien en vrees van seewaartse operasies.
Through reconstruction of oral testimony, folk stories and poetry,
the true history of Hausa women and their reception of Islam's
vision of Muslim in Western Africa have been uncovered. Mary Wren
Bivins is the first author to locate and examine the oral texts of
the 19th century Hausa women and challenge the written
documentation of the Sokoto Caliphate. The personal narratives and
folk stories reveal the importance of illiterate, non-elite women
to the history of jihad and the assimilation of normative Islam in
rural Hausaland. The captivating lives of the Hausa are captured,
shedding light on their ordinary existence as wives, mothers, and
providers for their family on the eve of European colonial
conquest. From European observations to stories of marriage, each
entry provides a personal account of the Hausa women's encounters
with Islamic reform to the center of an emerging Muslim Hausa
identity. Each entry focuses on: BLFemale historiography BLThe
importance of oral history BLNew methodoligical approaches to the
oral culture of popular Islam BLThe raw voice of Hausa women. The
comprehensive history is easy to read and touches on an era that no
other scholar has dissected.
The Khoesan were the first people in Africa to undergo the full
rigours of European colonisation. By the early nineteenth century,
they had largely been brought under colonial rule, dispossessed of
their land and stock, and forced to work as labourers for farmers
of European descent. Nevertheless, a portion of them were able to
regain a degree of freedom and maintain their independence by
taking refuge in the mission stations of the Western and Eastern
Cape, most notably in the Kat River valley. For much of the
nineteenth century, these Khoesan people kept up a steady
commentary on, and intervention in, the course of politics in the
Cape Colony. Through petitions, speeches at meetings, letters to
the newspapers and correspondence between themselves, the Cape
Khoesan articulated a continuous critique of the oppressions of
colonialism, always stressing the need for equality before the law,
as well as their opposition to attempts to limit their freedom of
movement through vagrancy legislation and related measures. This
was accompanied by a well-grounded distrust, in particular, of the
British settlers of the Eastern Cape and a concomitant hope, rarely
realised, in the benevolence of the British government in London.
Comprising 98 of these texts, These Oppressions Won't Cease - an
utterance expressed by Willem Uithaalder, commander of Khoe rebel
forces in the war of 1850-3 - contains the essential documents of
Khoesan political thought in the nineteenth century. These texts of
the Khoesan provide a history of resistance to colonial oppression
which has largely faded from view. Robert Ross, the eminent
historian of precolonial South Africa, brings back their voices
from the annals of the archive, voices which were formative in the
establishment of black nationalism in South Africa, but which have
long been silenced.
‘The freezing loneliness made one wish for death,’ journalist Joyce Sikakane-Rankin said of solitary confinement. With seven other women, including Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, she was held for more than a year.
This is the story of these heroic women, their refusal to testify in the ‘Trial of Twenty-Two’ in 1969, their brutal detention and how they picked up their lives afterwards.
At the start of his administration John F. Kennedy launched a
personal policy initiative to court African nationalist leaders.
This policy was designed to improve U.S.-African relations and
constituted a dramatic change in the direction of U.S. foreign
relations. The Kennedy administration believed that the Cold War
could be won or lost depending upon whether Washington or Moscow
won the hearts and minds of the Third World. Africa was
particularly important because a wave of independence saw nineteen
newly independent African states admitted into the United Nations
during 1960-61. By 1962, 31 of the UN's 110 member states were from
the African continent, and both Washington and Moscow sought to add
these countries to their respective voting bloc. For Kennedy, the
Cold War only amplified the need for a strong U.S. policy towards
Africa-but did not create it. The Kennedy administration feared
that American neglect of the newly decolonized countries of the
world would result in the rise of anti-Americanism and for this
reason needed to be addressed irrespective of the Cold War. For
this reason, Kennedy devoted more time and effort toward relations
with Africa than any other American president. By making an
in-depth examination of Kennedy's attempt to court African
nationalist leaders, Betting on the Africans adds an important
chapter to the historiography of John F. Kennedy's Cold War
strategy by showing how through the use of personal diplomacy JFK
realigned United States policy towards Africa and to a large extent
won the sympathies of its people while at the same time alienating
more traditional allies.
Nine days that set the course of a nation... Johannesburg, Easter
weekend, 1993. Nelson Mandela has been free for three years and is
in slow-moving power-sharing talks with President FW de Klerk when
a white supremacist shoots Mandela's popular young heir apparent,
Chris Hani, in the hope of igniting an all-out civil war. Will he
succeed in plunging South Africa into chaos, safeguarding apartheid
for perhaps years to come? Or can Mandela and de Klerk overcome
their differences and mutual suspicion and calm their followers,
plotting a way forward? In The Plot to Save South Africa, acclaimed
South African journalist Justice Malala recounts the riveting story
of the next nine days - never before told in full - revealing
rarely seen sides of both Mandela and de Klerk, the fascinating
behind-the-scenes debates within each of their parties over whether
to pursue peace or war, and their increasingly desperate attempts
to restrain their supporters despite mounting popular frustrations.
Flitting between the points of view of over a dozen characters on
all sides of the conflict, Justice Malala offers an illuminating
look at successful leadership in action... and a terrifying
reminder of just how close a country we think of today as a model
for racial reconciliation came to civil war.
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