Anderkant die Gariep, in die harde, wye wêreld van die Noord-Kaap, het sedert die vroeë 1900’s pioniersmense gewoon wat deur g’n stof of droogte, g’n lamsiekte of beespes ondergekry kon word nie.

Dit was ’n tyd voor selfone en kitsoplossings, toe ’n man se woord nog sy woord was, en ’n afspraak ’n afspraak; ’n tyd toe jagtogte, Boeredanse en familietroues mense saamgesnoer het en swaarkry en verlies bloot ’n deel van die natuurwette was.

In hierdie wêreld word drie geslagte Bredenkamps groot – en maak die leser kennis met mense wat in die wêreldgeskiedenis maar klein sandkorreltjies is, maar wie se vreugdes en plesier; sweet en trane die fondament gelê het vir ’n koersvaste, trotse nageslag.

Kojo Baffoe embodies what it is to be a contemporary African man. Of Ghanaian and German heritage, he was raised in Lesotho and moved to South Africa at the age of 27. Forever curious, Kojo has the enviable ability to simultaneously experience moments intimately and engage people (and their views) sincerely, while remaining detached enough to think through his experiences critically. He has earned a reputation as a thinker, someone who lives outside the box and free of the labels that society seeks to place on us.

Listen to Your Footsteps is an honest and, at times, raw collection of essays from a son, a father, a husband, a brother and a man deeply committed to doing the internal work. Kojo reflects on losing his mother as a toddler, being raised by his father, forming an identity, living as an immigrant, his tussles with substance abuse, as well as his experiences of fatherhood, marriage and making a career in a fickle industry. He gives an extended glimpse into the experiences that make boys become men, and the battles that make men discover what they are made of, all the while questioning what it means to be ‘a man’.

When Mark Gevisser was a little boy, growing up in a apartheid South Africa, he was obsessed with maps, and with the Holmden’s Registry, Johannesburg’s Street Guide, in particular. He played a game called “Dispatcher” with this eccentric guide, transporting himself across the city into places that would otherwise be forbidden him. It was through “Dispatcher” that he discovered apartheid, by realising that he could not find an access route to the neighbouring township of Alexandra, and later, by realising that Soweto was not mapped at all.

This was the beginning of a lifelong obsession with maps and with photographs, and what they tell us about borders and boundaries: how we define ourselves by staying within them, or by transgressing them.

Johannesburg is a place of edges and boundaries; no place for a flaneur: this book is Gevisser's account of getting lost in his home town, and then finding himself, and then getting lost again, as a gay Jewish South African who was raised under apartheid and who became an adult and married a man of a different race as the country moved towards freedom.

Using maps and memories, photographs and stories, Lost And Found In Johannesburg presents a new way of understanding race and sexuality, heritage and otherness. If Gevisser transcended boundaries by playing “Dispatcher” as a boy, his own boundaries were brutally ruptured when he was attacked in a home invasion in January 2012, while completing this book.

Lost And Found In Johannesburg is the story of that journey.

One of the greats of South African rugby shares the many layers of his colourful and eventful life. From rugby legend to businessman, wine farmer, cultural custodian, musician, father and grandfather, Schalk Burger’s memoir is an intensely personal and honest journey of the triumphs and hardships that have shaped the life of a much-loved South African.

Burger is a storyteller extraordinaire and he’ll have you snorting into your beer as you read about run-ins with officialdom, fisticuffs on the field, how he became the first white Springbok selected from a Coloured team, and the day Cheeky Watson asked to wash his feet.

This is a glimpse into the life and times of one of the country’s most recognised figures, and told in the stories of the many lives that intersected with his. “Who am I, and how do I live? That is something this story will bring out of me.”

Ruth was four years old when her father was arrested for high treason and her world was turned upside-down. She grew up in constant fear of Special Branch policemen knocking on the door to arrest her mother or father, prominent South African communist. Ruth learned how to keep her mouth shut, to look out for microphones in the walls and to beware of friends who could betray her trust.

At fourteen, Ruth left South Africa, clutching her teddy bear in one hand and her drawings in the other. A plan to England carried her into exile, a new world where she struggled to reconstruct a life fractured by fear.

With an artist’s eye for detail and colour, Ruth recalls her life with unflinching honesty: the Treason Trial; her struggle to conform; Friern Barnet Asylum for the ‘hopeless insane’; LSD, protests, and free love in London, art school and motherhood; communes and camping- all steps in a journey that finally brought her home to South Africa on the brink of change.

Heart- wrenchingly sad one minute, bursting with life and vigour the next, seamed throughout by strength and courage, girl on the edge allows us to look deep into one woman’s life and travel with her to the brink and back again.

In December 1965, in a smoke-filled hotel room in Morocco, South African journalist Terry Bell accepted a challenge: to paddle a kayak from London to Tangier.

At the time, Terry and his wife Barbara were living as political exiles in London. By August 1967, they agreed it was time to get back to Africa. But they decided to up the ante. Their plan: paddle 11 000 kilometres from England to Dar es Salaam in a 5-metre glass fibre kayak.

The book includes a section on culinary kayaking – the recipes that Barbara cooked along the way.

Hierdie verhalende nie-fiktiewe werk vertel die storie van Beryl Botman wat aan Russel Botman onthul hoe sy sy skielike afsterwe ervaar en hanteer. “Hoe moet sy leer leef en hul liefde vir mekaar herken in hierdie nuwe dimensies van bestaan?” is die sentrale vraagstuk van die eenrigtinggesprek.

Die gebeure speel af vanaf die oomblikke voordat sy besef dat Russel gesterf het tot die op die dag van die eerste herdenking van sy afsterwe – die verloop van een jaar. Dis vir haar die jaar waarin sy haar op haar diepste sterkpunte beroep; haar troebelste swakhede in die gesig staar en op haar hele wording staatmaak om selfs een tree te gee.

Die vertelling vind in drie dele plaas en begin met ‘n dag-vir-dag weergawe van die eerste twee weke van ervaringe en gewaarwordinge. Die daaropvolgende twee dele is weeklikse en daarna maandlikse onthullings. Haar spirituele en reële blootlegging volg ‘n reis vanaf Stellenbosch tot Wynberg en sommige ander plekke in die wêreld.

Beryl hanteer lewensveranderende besluite en optredes in haar wêreld met die gemak en liefdevolle ondersteuning van familie en vriende, en terselfdertyd die vyandigheid van ander familie en die afsydigheid en verwerping van vriende en kennisse.

‘It is the godly feeling of dancing like a goddess and snapping on a beat with sheer joy that makes all the trouble life demands worthwhile. In these moments, of intensive freedom from pain, of joy that knows no bound and peace that passeth all understanding, I become that kid again, dancing with my mother.’

Welcome Mandla Lishivha’s exquisitely crafted memoir is unlike anything you’ve ever read. Boy On The Run is a staggeringly beautiful and honest exploration of identity through grief, love and friendship, giving us, the readers, a glorious song of self-expression.

This book will change your life.

Imbokodo: Women Who Shape Us is a groundbreaking series of books which introduces you to the powerful stories of South African women who have all made their mark and cleared a path for women and girls. These books recognise, acknowledge and honour our heroines and elders from the past and the present.

In 10 Inspiring Singers, Writers & Artists, you will read about the poets, singers, painters and writers who used their creative talents to express themselves. These are women who shape our worlds with art, culture and literature.

• Nontsizi Mgqwetho
• UMntwana uMagogo Constance Zulu
• Gladys Mgundlandlu
• Noni Jabavu
• Miriam Masoli Tlali
• Dorothy Masuku
• Esther Nikwambi Nostokana Mahlangu
• Madosini Latozi Mpahleni
• Busi Mhlongo
• Brenda Nokuzola Fassie

When the first missiles rattled Kyiv in February 2021, Kobus Olivier was ready for it. Or so the South African thought.

He knew a war was brewing when thousands of Russian troops gathered at the border, but the locals laughed it off. Fleeing alone was never an option for Kobus.

Not without my dogs tells the remarkable story of how Kobus managed to save himself and his four-legged friends. This book is a testament of the human spirit and how even in times of war, strangers lend a hand.

Albertina Sisulu is revered by South Africans as the true mother of the nation. A survivor of the golden age of the African National Congress, whose life with the second most important figure in the ANC exemplified the underpinning role of women in the struggle against apartheid.

In 1944 she was the sole woman at the inaugural meeting of the radical offshoot of the ANC, the Youth League, with Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Anton Lembede in the vanguard. Her final years were spent in an unpretentious house in the former white Johannesburg suburb of Linden. A friend said of her, "she treated everybody alike. But her main concern was the welfare of our women and children." This abridged account of Sisulu’s overflowing life provides a fresh understanding of an iconic figure of South African history.

This new abridged memoir is written by Sindiwe Magona, one of South Africa’s most prolific authors, and Elinor Sisulu, writer, activist and daughter-in-law of Albertina.

Die band Fokofpolisiekar en die woord "kontroversie" gaan hand aan hand. Sedert hul eerste optrede in 2003 het hulle aanhangers gegroei – en hul teenstanders ook. Een ding is seker: Hierdie band kan nie geignoreer word nie. Annie Klopper, 'n deurwinterde musiekjoernalis, is bekend daarvoor dat sy die groep se doen en late oor die jare fyn dopgehou het en hulle selfs die onderwerp van haar meestersgraad in Afrikaans gemaak het. Biografie van 'n bende het hieruit gespruit. In die biografie maak die leser kennis met Francois, Hunter, Wynand, Jaco en Johnny – die vyf lede agter Fokofpolisiekar. Die boek onthul fassinerende inligting wat tot nog toe nie gepubliseer is nie, soos dat die lede grotendeels hul vriendskappe met mekaar in 'n charismatiese kerk gesmee het. Die leser kry insae in hoe hul persoonlike ervarings neerslag gevind het in hul lirieke. Die staaltjies van die vyf vriende wat saam die Suid-Afrikaanse musiekbedryf op sy kop gekeer het, sorg vir baie ligte oomblikke en groot vermaak. Die meeste van die foto's in die boek is tot op datum nog ongepubliseer en vorm saam met die noukeurige navorsing van Klopper ’n moetlees-boek vir elke Fokofpolisiekar-aanhanger, belangstellende of nuuskierige!

Bill Freund, the late social historian and leading analyst of African history, passed away in 2020 soon after finishing his autobiography. Often described as the academy’s ‘outsider insider’, he was an eminent South African historian who published prodigiously in the areas of labour, capital and economic history. What influenced this American-educated academic to become such an astute and trusted observer of the political economy in Africa?

In this deeply introspective autobiography, we follow Bill’s intellectual journey from a modest Jewish home in Chicago in the 1950s – where new vistas were opened up through voracious reading, inspiring teachers and intellectual engagement – to the Universities of Chicago, Yale, Ahmadu Bello, Dar es Salaam and Harvard, and finally to a permanent teaching position at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa in 1985. Freund begins with his family’s fascinating history in Habsburg Austria, describes émigré life in the USA, and provides astute reflections on his teaching experiences. Peppered in between the commentaries on academic life are stories of his travels, poems he wrote for loved ones, and endearing anecdotes of friendships that shaped his life.

Freund offers rich insights into the world of Africanists and their scholarship on different continents, as well as thoughtful and balanced observations on late- and post-apartheid South Africa. His autobiography reveals the intellectual man and the world that shaped him – and which he in turn influenced through a deep commitment to rigorous scholarship. It includes a select bibliography of his many publications as well as a foreword by Robert Morrell on the making of this book.

As the Mangaung Conference draws closer, many people have been asking the question, who is Kgalema Motlanthe – what is his background, and what does he stand for?

Ebrahim Harvey presents a superb account of a man characterised by his reticence. Harvey provides a rare and thorough insight into this most private and yet among the most powerful of men in South Africa. We learn about Motlanthe’s ancestral family and political awakenings as he discovers the ANC. From here we come to understand the importance of his time on Robben Island and the friendships and alliances he formed there, which would later define his political career.

In 1997 he succeeded Cyril Ramaphosa as ANC Secretary General and the mark of this reserved but often courageously independent politician was beginning to be noticed. Just over 10 years later, Motlanthe had risen to become the third President of the Republic of South Africa, though under exceptional circumstances.

It was Gwede Mantashe who said that it was a measure of the man that he could allow a strong critic of the ANC to write his biography. With impeccable timing and a real sense of history, this book for the first time allows the public to get to know and understand Motlanthe.

This biography contains wide-ranging interviews with Kgalema, his family, his friends and comrades at Cosatu, NUM, the SACP, the ANC and government. It also includes interviews with leading figures in other political organisations, civil society, academia and the media.

Unsparing in its scope, detailed in its revelations and with a rigorously critical analysis, this book will reveal not only the complex politician but also the very human nature of the man.

In September 2018, Collan Rex, former water polo coach at Parktown Boys High, was found guilty of 144 charges of sexual assault and sentenced to 23 years in prison. He had molested and choked a boarding house full of school boys into silence and shame, leaving behind a trail of broken lives. His response in court? It'd been done to him, in the same way, at the same school.

Now the victims, the parents and the abuser tell their stories.

Sometimes real life is stranger than fiction. That certainly is the case when considering the things that happen to Khaya Dlanga in the course of his everyday life. Khaya often shares these stories in brief via Instagram or his other social media platforms. He is finally succumbing to the pressure from the many people who read his posts and want more details, and is telling all of these stories and more in These Things Really Do Happen To Me.

Always entertaining, and often containing astute observations regarding various social practices and situations, Khaya tells wide-ranging stories – his lunch with William Shatner; how he fell asleep next to President Thabo Mbeki; how he got hit on by a deaf girl; how his dreadlocks didn’t get the expected reaction from his mom; the greatest pick-up line ever used on him; awkward encounters with exes; what happens when you parallel park in Parkhurst; and what he has learnt in the course of his eventful life – that are guaranteed to entertain and enlighten readers.

Bruce Bryden's true stories about the life of a bushveld conservationist draws on 27 years in the service of the Kruger National Park. It makes for a gripping read, abounding with encounters with elephant, lion, buffalo, leopard and rhino, whether darting for research, managing culling operations by helicopter or stalking on foot. In the best tradition of bushveld stories, there is a great deal of shooting, and a fair amount of running away; there are meetings with extraordinary characters among the rangers; memorable gatherings; hilarious mishaps and narrow escapes; and throughout, a great love and respect for both the wilderness and the creatures that inhabit it. Bruce Bryden started his career in the Kruger National Park in 1971 as a graduate assistant biologist. He progressed through the ranks as ranger, district ranger, park warden and regional ranger, eventually becoming chief ranger in 1983.

In 2011 the world was shocked when the news broke that Joost van der Westhuizen, known for years as the golden boy of South African rugby and a former Springbok captain, had been diagnosed with motor neuron disease (MND).

This rare condition attacks the central nervous system, causing progressive disability. There is no known cure. All who have seen Joost in action will know that he is not one to give up without a fight. His game-changing prowess as a brilliant scrum half is now focused on a battle for survival and, more importantly, on making a difference to the lives of others with the disease. In a race against time, Joost has a dream to fulfil. He says: “In the beginning you go through all the emotions and you ask, ‘Why me?’ It’s quite simple. ‘Why not me?’ If I have to go through this to help future generations, why not me?” His acceptance of his symptoms is equally pragmatic: “One day you can’t move your arm, another day you don’t have speech. Every day you are reborn and you take the day as it comes.”

Glory Game – The Joost van der Westhuizen Story is a compelling narrative of redemption set against the backdrop of an illustrious career in rugby. It is the story of a modern-day warrior forced to face his own human frailty. Joost shows us that beyond ambition, success and fame lies the true wealth of family and friends, and that within a ravaged body the spirit can remain invincible.

Springs, 1977. Robert en Jeanne Smit word wreed om die lewe gebring in wat die WVK later as 'n politiese gemotiveerde moord sou beskryf. Dekades daarna gons dit oor wie presies vir die grudaad verantwoordelik was. Daar is rookskerms en ontkenning, verduistering en misleidings, en bespiegelings en teorieë oor presies wie die aanvanklike opdrag gegee het.

En iewers in die politieke kookpot prut stories van 'n dapper dertienjarige dogter Liza Smit. Nadat haar ouers uit haar lewe geruk is, sou niks ooit weer dieselfde wees nie. Toe sy hoor dat die WVK die saak wil ontrafel, begin sy en die ondersoekende joernalis Alet van Rensburg die saak navors. Saam-saam durf die twee, met enorme deursettingsvermoë, vasberadenheid en 'n porsie domastrantheid die taak aan : om die waarheid te ontbloot oor die dood van Liza se ouers.

Liza se verhaal word afgewissel met uittreksels uit die oorspronklike veslag wat sy aan die ongure onderwêreld van die destydse Suid- Afrika vol korrupte politici, taakmagte en internasionale intriges. Dis ook die storie van 'n lewe wat afspeel teen hierdie agtergrond, en hoe een indrukwekkende vrou haarself uit haar persoonlike hel reg.

Hailed in the Times Literary Supplement as ‘probably the finest piece of non-fiction to come out of South Africa since the end of apartheid’, The Dream Deferred is back in print and updated with a brilliant new epilogue.

The prosperous Mbeki clan lost everything to apartheid. Yet the family saw its favourite son, Thabo, rise to become president of South Africa in 1999. A decade later, Mbeki was ousted by his own party and his legacy is bitterly contested – particularly over his handling of the AIDS epidemic and the crisis in Zimbabwe.

Through the story of the Mbeki family, award-wining journalist Mark Gevisser tells the gripping tale of the last tumultuous century of South Africa life, following the family’s path to make sense of the liberation struggle and the future that South Africa has inherited. At the centre of the story is Mbeki, a visionary yet tragic figure who led South Africa to freedom but was not able to overcome the difficulties of his own dislocated life.

It is 15 years since Mbeki was unceremoniously dumped by the ANC, giving rise to the wasted years under Jacob Zuma. With the benefit of hindsight, and as Mbeki reaches the age of 80, Gevisser examines the legacy of the man who succeeded Mandela.

Join Hloni Bookholane on his journey of becoming a doctor: from student to intern at the world-famous Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town to the best school of public health in the world across the Atlantic, and back home amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are highs and lows – learnings and unlearnings – about the personal versus political as he discovers how government policy, socioeconomics and more influence disease and medicine.

'Let me say to Mr Botha: apartheid is doomed! It has been condemned in the Councils of God, rejected by every nation on the planet and is no longer believed in by the people who gave it birth. Apartheid is the god that has failed.' So preached Bishop Peter Storey in 1986. Challenging apartheid wherever he could, he led the SA Methodist Church into what many whites saw as uncomfortable 'political' territory.

Join him in his inspiring journey from sailor-turned-minister to the South African Council of Churches leadership in its darkest hour, from tending to Robert Sobukwe and Nelson Mandela on Robben Island, through the forced removals of District Six and the storm surrounding Stompie Seipei's murder. I Beg to Differ spans a parish minister’s sorrows and joys, founding Life Line SA, the bombing of Khotso House and a close shave with death with Desmond Tutu. Storey shares the convictions that inspired him to minister amid the teargas, violence and intimidation of the apartheid regime.

Ben Viljoen sal in die eerste plek onthou word as die Boeregeneraal, die oorwinnaar in die Slag van Vaalkrans en, danksy FW Reitz se bekende gedig, die veroweraar van die Lady Roberts. Viljoen was flambojant van geaardheid, romanties, ’n sterk leier, behulpsaam en lojaal. Gedurende die Anglo-Boereoorlog word hy bevorder van kommandant tot assistent-kommandant-generaal. Sy individualisme het hom egter verhinder om effektief in ’n groter georganiseerde eenheid te funksioneel. Hy verkies om sy eie kop te volg en sy besluite was dikwels omstrede. Kort voor die einde van die oorlog word hy krygsgevange geneem en na St. Helena verban. Na die oorlog vestig hy hom in Nieu-Mexiko in die VSA en Mexiko en word daar militere raadgewer van die Mexikaanse president.

This is a fascinating collection on the life and times of Brenda Fassie, which includes a Foreword by Hugh Masekela and contributions from people who knew Brenda in both professional and personal capacities. It is being published in the year of the tenth anniversary of her death and is intended as both a tribute and to give fresh insight into Africa's biggest pop star.

The collection includes reminiscences, criticism, elegies, essays and appreciation by friends, ex-lovers, critics, poets, academics and musicians, reflecting the endless and boundary-crossing legacy of Brenda Fassie.

Funny, crazy, poignant, insightful and tragic, I'm Not Your Weekend Special traces the highs and lows of Brenda Fassie's life, celebrating the significance of this South African icon.

Jan Smuts, one of the most infamous South Africans of the twentieth century remains a controversial figure. Was he one of the outstanding statesmen of his time or was he perhaps a traitor of Afrikaner interests and possibly a racist? Today there are still strong opinions on Smuts’s role.

Like Paul Kruger at the end of the nineteenth century, and Nelson Mandela as the twentieth century drew to a close, it was Jan Smuts who stood head and shoulders above his contemporaries in the first half of the twentieth century; he was a leader of extraordinary stature and his statesmanship is recognised internationally. And yet, the NP and ANC governments have downplayed his contributions for decades, because it did not endorse their Afrikaner and black nationalist versions of South African history. A reappraisal of Smuts will fill a gap in the literature on the history of South Africa in the first half of the twentieth century. Many of the biographies and other works on Smuts appeared during his lifetime or soon after his death. Today, a few generations later, we have a better perspective on his contributions within the historical context of his time. New evidence continues to come to light, making it possible to reach a more informed opinion on questions about Smuts, issues which previously could not be answered conclusively.

The purpose of the book, written almost three generations after his death, is to recall and re-evaluate Smuts’s contributions in various fields and in this way introduce him to the younger generation. It is important that Smuts be judged in the context of his particular time and circumstances. As far as his outlook on war and peace, civilisation, race and class differences, the capitalist system and South Africa’s place in the wider world are concerned, Smuts was certainly a product of his time. It would be unfair to measure him and his contemporaries against today’s norms and values. To do justice to him, his supporters, as well as his opponents and critics, due consideration should be accorded to how they lived, thought and reasoned in that era.