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Books > Language & Literature > Biography & autobiography
A deeply moving and powerful biography of Fezekile Kuzwayo – better known as Khwezi – the woman the ANC tried to forget. In August 2016, following the announcement of the results of South Africa’s heated municipal election, four courageous young women interrupted Jacob Zuma’s victory address, bearing placards asking us to ‘Remember Khwezi’. Before being dragged away by security guards, their powerful message had hit home and the public was reminded of the tragic events of 2006, when Zuma was on trial for the rape of Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo, better known as Khwezi. In the aftermath of the trial, which saw Zuma acquitted, Khwezi was vilified by his many supporters and forced to take refuge outside of South Africa. Ten years later, just two months after this protest had put Khwezi’s struggle back into the minds and hearts of South Africans, Khwezi passed away … But not before she had slipped back into South Africa and started work with Redi Tlhabi on a book about her life. How as a young girl living in ANC camps in exile she was raped by the very men who were supposed to protect her; how as an adult she was driven once again into exile, suffering not only at the hands of Zuma’s devotees but under the harsh eye of the media. In sensitive and considered prose, journalist Redi Tlhabi breathes life into a woman for so long forced to live in the shadows. In giving agency back to Khwezi, Tlhabi is able to focus a broader lens on the sexual abuse that abounded during the ‘struggle’ years, abuse which continues to plague women and children in South Africa today.
What would you do if you discovered that the food you have been told is good for you is actually the cause of your ill health …? In December 2010, Professor Tim Noakes was introduced to a way of eating that was contrary to everything he had been taught and was accepted as conventional nutrition ‘wisdom’. Having observed the benefits of the low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) lifestyle first-hand, and after thorough and intensive research, Noakes enthusiastically revealed his findings to the South African public in 2012. The backlash from his colleagues in the medical establishment was as swift as it was brutal, and culminated in a misconduct inquiry launched by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). The subsequent hearing lasted well over a year, but Noakes ultimately triumphed, being found not guilty of unprofessional conduct in April 2017. In Lore of Nutrition, he explains the science behind the LCHF/Banting diet, and why he champions this lifestyle despite the constant persecution and efforts to silence him. He also discusses at length what he has come to see as a medical and scientific code of silence that discourages anyone in the profession from speaking out against the current dietary guidelines. Experienced journalist Marika Sboros provides the full backstory to the HPCSA hearing, which reads like something out of a spy novel. Written in an accessible style, Lore of Nutrition is informative, highly controversial and an eye-opener for anyone who cares about their health.
Die kranige sportman Alwyn Uys word in die fleur van sy lewe verlam. Ten spyte van dié verlies en ander terugslae bly Alwyn se gees ontembaar. Hy besluit om sy lewe ten volle te leef: Hy word onder andere die eerste parapleeg ooit wat van Robbeneiland na Bloubergstrand swem. Ongeskonde is Alwyn se openhartige vertelling van sy worsteling en hoe hy met genade van Bo besluit het om uit te styg bo sy beperkinge. Sy eerlike verhaal sal jou inspireer om jou eie uitdagings aan te pak en te oorkom.
In May 2015 Weg/Go journalist Erns Grundling was disillusioned with love, life and himself. Then he decided to embark on a life-changing journey, undertaking a solo walk along the Camino, the famous Spanish pilgrimage – despite being illprepared, overweight, unfit and nursing an injury. Walk it Off recounts Erns’s 1 025 kilometre journey, completed in 40 days without cell phone, camera or watch, so that he could rediscover what it means to truly live in the moment. He falls in love (three and a half times), meets a fellow pilgrim who’s his doppelganger, experiences numerous adventures and comes across a series of colourful characters. In the process he sheds 10 kilograms and undergoes an inner transformation. Walk it Off is something out of the ordinary – a travelogue and memoir, and a life-affirming adventure story that will inspire readers to put on their walking shoes and dare to venture where they haven’t gone before.
"I'm at the start of an Olympic Distance Triathlon! A Greek, about to get all Olympic, following in the footsteps of my ancestors who created the games to celebrate human endeavour its ability to be pushed to the limits. Who would have thought that six years earlier I was in a deserted house in rural Mexico with a junkie smoking crack cocaine for the first time? The start of a downward spiral that would bring me to my knees and close to death. Although, maybe the seeds of my descent had been planted long before that." Constantinos Carastavrakis, known to his friends as Costa, tells his story with great honesty and courage. He charts his course through a childhood of identity confusion & growing up Greek and gay in Johannesburg. He built a glamourous life of parties, business triumphs and money but crashed into the devastation of a crystal meth addiction. The gift of desperation' arrived to propel him towards a life without drugs and alcohol. He slowly dragged himself out of toxicity onto a path of recovery. With it came a new quest: to create the best version of himself. He has devoted his energy and drive to fitness; from small beginnings, he has worked his way up to becoming a marathon runner and triathlon athlete. He brings light and humour to the darkness of addiction and shows that true body, mind and spirit recovery is possible for anyone who cares enough to heal themselves.
Let Love Rule is a work of deep reflection as Lenny Kravitz looks back at his life with candor, self-scrutiny, and humour. 'My life is all about opposites,' he writes. 'Black and white. Jewish and Christian. The Jackson 5 and Led Zeppelin. I accepted my Gemini soul. I owned it. I adored it. Yins and yangs mingled in various parts of my heart and mind, giving me balance and fueling my curiosity and comfort.' Let Love Rule covers a vast canvas stretching from Manhattan's Upper East Side, Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant, Los Angeles's Baldwin Hills, Beverly Hills, and finally to France, England and Germany. It's the story of a wildly creative kid who, despite tough struggles at school and extreme tension at home, finds salvation in music. We see him grow as a musician and ultimately a master songwriter, producer, and performer. We also see Lenny's spiritual growth-and the powerful way in which spirit informs his music. The cast of characters surrounding Lenny is extraordinary: his father, Sy, a high-powered news executive; his mother, Roxie Roker, a television star; and Lisa Bonet, the young actress who becomes his muse. The central character, of course, is Lenny, who, despite his great aspirational energy, turns down record deal after record deal until he finds his true voice. The creation of that voice, the same voice that is able to declare 'Let Love Rule' to an international audience, is the very heart of this story. 'Whether recording, performing, or writing a book,' says Lenny, 'my art is about listening to the inspiration inside and then sharing it with people. Art must bring the world closer together.'
Ton Vosloo’s remarkable career in the media spanned nearly 60 years in South Africa’s history. During this turbulent time, South Africa went through the transition from Afrikaner Nationalist rule to an ANC government. At the helm of the leading press group founded in 1913 to support nascent Afrikaner nationalism, Vosloo’s story is not just one of newspapers and politics but also one of singular business and commercial success as the Naspers Group evolved from a print group to an electronic company with significant investments across the world. In 1983 Vosloo was appointed managing director of Naspers and set about vigorously transforming the group. On the ideological front, it was a fight to the death with the old Transvaal’s predominantly right-wing Perskor Group for the soul of the Afrikaner. On the commercial front, Vosloo established the pay television network M-Net. In 1992, Vosloo became chairman of Naspers with Koos Bekker succeeding him as CEO. The story of Naspers’ successes in investing in Chinese internet company Tencent and in establishing a footprint in 130 countries is a continuing one, but one begun under Vosloo’s stewardship. In Across Boundaries, Vosloo gives his account of these momentous times with wry humour and a journalist’s deft pen. ALSO AVAILABLE IN AFRIKAANS AS OOR GRENSE
The definitive account of Commando: A Boer Journal of the Anglo-Boer
War, published word-for-word as Reitz first wrote it; edited and
annotated by historian and Anglo-Boer War expert, Professor Fransjohan
Pretorius.
A moving journey of discovery into the unexplored continent that is often our families’ past. It can be read as a reconstruction of one’s own Jewish and at the same time European-South African roots, but through these micro-histories we arrive at the events of the Second World War and the Holocaust to the level of macro-history. Egonne Roth’s work brilliantly illustrates the complex mechanism of intergenerational, communicative memory and cultural memory (described by Jan and Aleida Assmann, among others). On a feminist level, it is also a personal history of the daughter-father relationship, leading to a kind of purification, a catharsis. The detective-like reconstruction of the multi-ethnic segments of the family’s history has as its backdrop the arduous completion of one’s own biography from scraps of documents, accounts of the now few witnesses, secrets, and traumas hidden for decades.
"I wanted to write this book before I forgot the finer details. As strange as that may sound, you can forget these things, and it is probably healthier to do so. You can visit the depths of hell – just don’t hang around there for too long." – Gérard Labuschagne In this gripping – and sometimes terrifying – account, former South African Police Service (SAPS) head profiler Dr Gérard Labuschagne, successor to the legendary Micki Pistorius, recalls some of the 110 murder series and countless other bizarre crimes he analysed during his career. An expert on serial murder and rape cases, Labuschagne saw it all in his fourteen and a half years in the SAPS. He walks the reader through the first crime scene he ever attended, his arrest of the Muldersdrift serial rapist, his experience as the head of the task team mandated to catch the Quarry serial murderer, his involvement with the Brighton Beach axe murders, and more. Despite often being stymied by a lack of resources, office politics and political interference, Labuschagne and his team were always determined to get their man – or woman, as in the Womb Raider case. The Profiler Diaries is a fascinating – and often hair-raising – glimpse into what it was like to be a profiler in the world’s busiest profiling unit.
As ’n jong seun wat kaalvoet en vry grootgeword het op sy ouers se
sitrusplaas in die Oos-Kaap, sou Ian Roberts nooit kon dink dat hy
eendag ’n ikoon van die silwerskerm sou word nie. Vandag nog herken
mense hom as die taai Bittereinder Sloet Steenkamp van
Joe Modise (1929-2001), a Sophiatown bus driver-turned freedom fighter, was a humble man who tended to avoid the limelight. A protege of the Mandela leadership in the 1950s mass struggle, he was one of the youngest among that decade’s Treason Trial, and was a senior commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) from its inception, facing danger and privation most of his adult life. Modise served with acclaim as democratic South Africa’s first Minister of Defence and won the loyalty of his former enemy when many thought the country could be plunged into civil war or held to ransom by old-order apartheid generals. The fact that Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo selected him for key positions over five decades of exacting struggle testifies to their sustained confidence in him. This fact alone belies the impression some might have that he was an amoral warlord. As a government minister, he led a modest lifestyle and did not die a wealthy man. This book interlinks frank and engaging interviews with family and friends, comrades in-arms and former adversaries. Those who knew him reveal a warm human being and provide endearing insights into who Modise really was. As a soldier, statesman and leader, he has left behind an astonishing legacy that deserves to be widely known.
Eight-year-old Teko Modise didn’t mean to compete with his father, it was just that he was a soccer natural and everyone could see it. His father, in a fit of childlike jealously, kicked him out of the house, and when Teko tried to come back he kicked him out again. So little Teko made a plan. Every day he attended school as normal, and at night he slept out on the streets with other homeless children. This book is the true story of his rise to fame, to becoming ‘the General’, one of the best footballers South Africa has produced, and will allow readers to understand the story behind ‘the Curse’. At the peak of his career the world seemed filled with Teko. His face was on every major billboard, TV advert and magazine cover in the country. Little boys from suburbs to townships everywhere were lining up at barbershops asking for The Teko haircut. With a house in Sandton and driving an Aston Martin, Modise was about to make history in the upcoming Soccer World Cup of 2010. He had gone beyond being football royalty, he became a super star. The tabloids have called him an abusive lover, a cheating ex-husband, a neglectful father and an alcoholic egotistical footballer. But beyond these headlines is a story about a boy who played his way out of poverty on talent alone. Be inspired by this story of a young man with a resilient spirit who kept moving forward chasing his dreams, who not only survived, but made it, and made it big. The Teko Modise story is proof that anything is possible.
Edited and with an introduction by Roxane Gay, the New York Times bestselling and deeply beloved author of Bad Feminist and Hunger, this anthology of first-person essays tackles rape, assault, and harassment head-on. In this valuable and revealing anthology, cultural critic and bestselling author Roxane Gay collects original and previously published pieces that address what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence, and aggression they face, and where they are "routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bullied" for speaking out. Contributions include essays from established and up-and-coming writers, performers, and critics, including actors Ally Sheedy and Gabrielle Union and writers Amy Jo Burns, Lyz Lenz, and Claire Schwartz. Covering a wide range of topics and experiences, from an exploration of the rape epidemic embedded in the refugee crisis to first-person accounts of child molestation, this collection is often deeply personal and is always unflinchingly honest. Like Rebecca Solnit's Men Explain Things to Me, Not That Bad will resonate with every reader, saying "something in totality that we cannot say alone." Searing and heartbreakingly candid, this provocative collection both reflects the world we live in and offers a call to arms insisting that “not that bad” must no longer be good enough.
The remarkable, and often touching, friendship between Winston Churchill and Jan Smuts is a rich study in contrasts. In youth they occupied very different worlds: Churchill, the rambunctious and thrusting young aristocrat; Smuts, the ascetic, philosophical Cape farm boy who would go on to Cambridge. Brought together first as enemies in the Anglo-Boer War, and later as allies in the First World War, the men forged a friendship which spanned the first half of the twentieth century and endured until Smuts’s death in 1950. Richard Steyn, author of Jan Smuts: Unafraid of Greatness, examines this close friendship through two world wars and the intervening years, drawing on a maze of archival and secondary sources including letters, telegrams and the voluminous books written about both men. This is a fascinating account of two remarkable men in war and peace: one the leader of the Empire, the other the leader of a small fractious member of that Empire who nevertheless rose to global prominence.
South Africa has produced two leaders who achieved global recognition and renown in their respective eras: Jan Christiaan Smuts (Prime Minister, 1919-24 and 1939-48) and Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (President, 1994-99). The former was much celebrated for playing a significant role in reconstructing international architecture after both world wars; the latter remains globally admired for his leading part in drawing South Africa back from racial war and becoming a democracy. As a result, both have attracted multiple biographies. Today, however, whereas Mandela remains a much-admired global icon, Smuts’ reputation is much diminished, with contemporary historians citing his racism and role in constructing the foundations of apartheid South Africa. In this controversial book, Roger Southall provides a re-evaluation of Smuts’ hugely contradictory career by proposing fascinating parallels with the life and political trajectory of Mandela. Both came to maturity as political leaders as freedom fighters – Smuts against the British and Mandela against the apartheid regime. Both played a pre-eminent in founding a new South Africa, the first made for whites at Union in 1910 and the second for all South Africans in 1994. Both aspired to be nation-builders, but while Smuts’ hoped-for South African nation was white, Mandela aspired to bring all of South Africa’s people together. Both came to stride on the international stage, albeit in very different ways and for various reasons. Smuts’ career failed, and he was ejected from office. Mandela retired gracefully from office and continued to be lauded for his well-earned retirement, yet South Africa’s contemporary travails reveal his hopes and policies as unfulfilled. This book makes the case that we cannot fully understand Mandela without first understanding Smuts and how South Africa continues to struggle with the legacy he left behind.
Portchie is een van Suid-Afrika se suksesvolste kunstenaars, maar wie
is die man wat agter die skilderye skuil? Waar kom die naam Portchie
vandaan? En hoe en wanneer het Jan Hendrik Viljoen van die klein dorpie
Tweeling in die Vrystaat, aangemeld om die wêreldbekende kunstenaar
Portchie te word? Hierdie memoir kombineer Portchie se inspirerende
verhaal met foto’s, staaltjies en selfs resepte. Dit vertel die storie
agter die storie: onopgesmuk, sonder tierlantjies, maar met ’n tikkie
flair.
The Soul of a Lion, an engaging memoir by Willie Labuschagne, is an exhilarating journey which begins with the young conservationist’s unique experiences with wild animals. From his groundbreaking research on the desert cheetah’s behaviour and ecology to becoming an internationally respected consultant on environmental and wildlife-related issues, he holds the reader’s attention with all the skill of the master storyteller. The numerous occasions when Willie faced potentially life-threatening situations with wild animals are vividly recounted, many of them wryly humorous while others evoke deep emotion. But not all animal encounters took place in the wild. A significant and poignant encounter that further inspired Willie’s approach to conservation occurred when, during his time as director of the Johannesburg Zoo, he and his family hand-raised a newborn lion cub that had been rejected by its mother. He recalls the countless obstacles put in his way by the bureaucratic nature of his own species during his tenure at the zoo. But despite numerous challenges he persisted in his goal of transforming and improving zoological institutions. A moving force behind the changing nature of professionally managed zoological gardens, his book reminds us that, while many of the world’s zoos should be unconditionally closed, progressive modern zoos are becoming increasingly aligned to wildlife conservation: they are vital for ensuring the survival of threatened species. Willie shares his entertaining and often moving life experiences with warmth and understanding, whether it is sleeping under the stars with the bushmen of the Kgalagadi desert or observing the traditions of the Zulu Royal House. His travels in the African landscape in particular are an exciting panorama of many distinctive habitats, from the relentless desert of the Skeleton Coast in Namibia to the pristine beauty of the Tsitsikamma Forest and the breathtaking vastness of the African bushveld. Importantly, he is forthright in his view of the critical position of the world we live in and the future it holds for mankind and believes that we are all part of a custodianship which should do everything in its power to protect our fragile environment.
Herman Mashaba rose from humble beginnings to become one of South Africa’s wealthiest and best-known entrepreneurs, as well as Mayor of Johannesburg. His remarkable story begins in a small village in Gauteng, where we meet the cocky youngster who refused to settle for a future that offered nothing. Forced to drop out of university, the determined young man fought to establish the first black-owned haircare company in South Africa. Mashaba struggled every day of his life – against apartheid, with its demeaning laws, and against his competitors to grab market share for his business. In the process, Mashaba learnt lessons that few business schools teach today. This is a story of survival, and of determination in adversity. It is also a love story between Herman and Connie, his wife of 35 years, who embarked on this journey together. Mashaba shows the importance of having a vision, daring to dream it, and then making it happen. This inspiring book will leave you with the question: “If he did it, why can’t I?”
Anger, hurt, loss, rejection … these feelings are familiar to the families who, in the early 1970s, were forced from their homes in Harfield Village in Cape Town’s southern suburbs. Siona O’Connell brings their stories to light. She examines the lost ways of life, the sense of home and belonging. David Brown’s images show what life was like in Harfield before the removals, and his images are echoed by recent photos of the same former residents.
Farren Cloete is geroep vir ’n tyd soos hierdie, maar wys vir jou
op jou roeping ook: dit maak nie saak wat mense sê nie, as God jou
geroep het kan geen mens jou keer nie en jy hoef aan niemand rekenskap
te gee nie. Farren kom maak ons vry daarvan dat ons dink ons moet ander
gelukkig maak, en help ons om te fokus op wat God van ons wil hê. Dit
maak nie saak hoe moeilik ons roeping is nie, of ons opgewasse voel
daarvoor of nie, God is by ons en Hy roep ons vir ’n tyd soos hierdie.
It is well known that the African National Congress was formed in 1912 and is considered the oldest political organisation on the African continent. What is often not widely known is that the person who founded it was one Pixley ka Isaka Seme, a thirty-year-old black South African from Inanda outside the city of Durban. What is remarkable about Seme’s achievement in founding the ANC is not only that he succeeded where most had failed at forging black political unity. It is also the speed at which he did it. He had just returned to South Africa from the United Kingdom and the United States of America, where he had been a student since he was a teenager. In slightly over a year the founding conference of the ANC was convened and he was at its helm as the main organiser. Seme also established a national newspaper, became one of the pioneering black lawyers in South Africa, bought land from white farmers for black settlement right at the time when opposition to it was gaining momentum, became a sought-after adviser and confidant to African royalty, and was considered a leading visionary for black economic empowerment. And yet, when he became president general of the ANC in the 1930s, he brought it to its knees through sheer ineptitude and an authoritarian style of leadership. On more than one occasion he was found guilty for breaching the law, which partly led to him being struck off the roll of attorneys. This book discusses in detail Seme’s extraordinary life, from his humble beginnings at Inanda Mission to his triumphs and disappointments across the continents, in his public and private life. When Seme died in 1951 he was bankrupt and his political standing had suffered greatly. And yet he was praised as one of the greatest South Africans ever to have lived. For all this, he has largely been forgotten. This biography brings the remarkable life of this extraordinary South African back to public consciousness.
How to Steal a City is an insider account of this intervention, which lays bare how the administration was entirely captured and bled dry by a criminal syndicate, how factional politics within the ruling party abetted that corruption, and how a comprehensive clean-up was eventually conducted. It is written as a gripping real-life thriller, taking the reader deeper and deeper into the rotten heart of the city. As a former senior government official and local government “fixer”, Crispian Olver was no stranger to dealing with dodgy politicians and broken organisations. Yet what he found was graft that went far beyond the dodgy contracts, blatant conflicts of interest and garden-variety kickbacks he had seen before. It had evolved into a web far more sophisticated and deep rooted than he had ever imagined, involving mazes of shell companies, assassinations, criminal syndicates, and compromised local politicians. The metro was effectively controlled by a criminal network, closely allied to a dominant local ANC faction. What he found was complete state capture—a microcosm of what has been happening in South Africa’s national government. But there was a personal price to pay. Intense political pressure and threats to his personal safety took a toll on his mental and physical health. He had to have a full-time bodyguard, and never maintained a regular routine. He eventually lost much of his political cover. Olver ultimately had to flee the city as the forces stacked against him started to wreak their revenge. This is his story.
Thando Manana was the third black African player to don a Springbok jersey after unification in 1992, when he made his debut in 2000 in a tour game against Argentina A. His route to the top of the game was unpredictable and unusual. From his humble beginnings in the township of New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, Thando grew to become one of the grittiest loose-forwards of South African rugby, despite only starting the game at the age of 16. His rise through rugby ranks, while earning a reputation as a tough-tackling lock and later openside flanker, was astonishingly rapid, especially for a player of colour at the time. Within two years of picking up a rugby ball, he represented Eastern Province at Craven Week, and by 2000 he was a Springbok. But it isn’t solely Thando’s rugby journey that makes Being A Black Springbok a remarkable sports biography. It’s learning how he has negotiated life’s perils and pitfalls, which threatened to derail both his sporting ambitions and the course of his life. He had to negotiate an unlikely, but fateful, kinship with a known Port Elizabeth drug-lord, who took Thando under his wing when he was a young, gullible up-and-comer at Spring Rose. Rejected by his father early in his life, Thando had to deal with a sense of abandonment and a missing protective figure and find, along the way, people to lean on. Thando tells his story with the refreshing candour he has become synonymous with as a rugby commentator, pundit and member of the infamous Room Dividers team on Metro FM. He has arguably become rugby’s strongest advocate for the advancement of black people’s interests in the sport, and his personal journey reveals why.
Tales of Two Countries is Ray Dearlove’s third book. He takes the reader through his childhood in apartheid-era South Africa and the turbulent years before Nelson Mandela assumed the presidency in 1994. Living in Australia for more than thirty years brought its own share of interesting people, events and opportunities. There are many stories about the raw challenges of moving countries. It has some very moving and some very humorous moments, all told in Ray’s discerning and direct style. Forewords by Tony Park, Jean-Claude van Damme and Andrian Gardner. |
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