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Books > History > History of specific subjects

Capture In The Court - In Defence Of Judges And The Constitution (Paperback): Dan Mafora Capture In The Court - In Defence Of Judges And The Constitution (Paperback)
Dan Mafora
R320 R275 Discovery Miles 2 750 Save R45 (14%) In Stock

Are the courts against the people of South Africa?

Since populist factions claim to be the people, judges confronting them do not just decide against the people; they are against the people.

The judiciary faces a barrage of attacks not just from the ruling ANC but from other political parties clamouring for power. There comes a predictable phase in the cycle of politics where this is most likely to occur. Why does it benefit political parties to deflect from their failure to deliver with calls for parliamentary sovereignty? Why do so many myths circulate about the nature of our courts and constitution?

Dan Mafora answers these questions and more in an inspired analysis. He takes us through the historical ideological clashes within the ANC that make judicial independence up for debate, how administrations since '94 have responded to judicial decisions and why this phenomenon is important to watch globally. He also examines how disinformation campaigns play a big role.

Field Guide to the Battlefields of South Africa (Paperback): Nicki Von Der Heyde Field Guide to the Battlefields of South Africa (Paperback)
Nicki Von Der Heyde
R450 R359 Discovery Miles 3 590 Save R91 (20%) Ships in 5 - 10 working days

There are two major types of battlefield terrain in South Africa: first the open plains and savannah lands of the Highveld, a land where cavalry rules supreme. The second type is the thornbush of the Eastern Cape, a setting more suited to skirmishing rather than set-piece battles. Then, in KwaZulu-Natal, the two terrains merge to create the country s most dramatic battlefield landscape and one of the largest military graveyards in the world where the fates of colonies, republics and kingdoms were decided.For more than two centuries, from the late 1700s to the early 1900s, conflict, in one form or another, swept across this countryside; its combatants as diverse, hardy and tenacious as the land and its resources that almost always was at the root of hostilities.In this groundbreaking book, author and specialist battlefields guide, Nicki von der Heyde, presents over 70 battles and skirmishes covering five wars that shaped the course of South African history from the Frontier Wars that started in 1779 to the Second-Anglo Boer War of 1899 1902, a bitter and costly confrontation triggered by the discovery of the world s richest gold fields on the Witwatersrand.Detailed accounts of the engagements, based on extensive research, are provided, with special attention given to the terrain, key phases and outcomes, and the combatants involved. Battle timelines succinctly set out the passage of each campaign, while international timelines catalogue concurrent events around the world.More than 400 original documentary and contemporary photographs and over 60 short features have been assembled to provide a rich, enthralling and haunting account of these momentous events. Detailed historical maps that include annotations have been created for 16 high-profile engagements, while 10 regional maps indicate the locations of the battle sites. Arranged in regional order, with concise directions to each battle site and GPS coordinates for main locations, the "Field Guide to South Africa s Battlefields" is not only indispensable for professional and amateur military historians, but is of great interest to general readers, too if only as a reminder of the devastating human cost of war and the value of exploring the past to make sense of the present.It is beautifully illustrated with historical and contemporary photographs and detailed battle and regional maps."

Spear - Mandela And The Revolutionaries (Paperback): Paul S. Landau Spear - Mandela And The Revolutionaries (Paperback)
Paul S. Landau
R340 R266 Discovery Miles 2 660 Save R74 (22%) Ships in 5 - 10 working days

Drawing from several hundred first-person accounts, most of which are unpublished, Spear reshapes our understanding of Mandela by focusing on this intense but relatively neglected period of escalation in the movement against apartheid.

Landau’s book is not a biography, nor is it a history of a militia or an army; rather, it is a riveting story about ordinary civilians debating and acting together in extremis.

Contextualizing Mandela and MK’s activities amid anti-colonial change and Black Marxism in the early 1960s, Spear also speaks to today’s transnational anti-racism protests and worldwide struggles against oppression.

General Jan Smuts - And His First World War In Africa 1914-1917 (Paperback): David Brock Katz General Jan Smuts - And His First World War In Africa 1914-1917 (Paperback)
David Brock Katz
R310 R248 Discovery Miles 2 480 Save R62 (20%) Ships in 5 - 10 working days

Jan Smuts grabbed the opportunity to realise his ambition of a Greater South Africa when the First World War ushered in a final scramble for Africa. He set his sights firmly northward upon the German colonies of South West Africa and East Africa.

Smuts’s abilities as a general have been much denigrated by his contemporaries and later historians, but he was no armchair soldier. He first learned his soldier’s craft under General Koos de la Rey and General Louis Botha during the South African War (1899−1902). He emerged from that conflict immersed in Boer manoeuvre doctrine.

After forming the Union Defence Force in 1912, Smuts played an integral part in the German South West African campaign in 1915. Placed in command of the Allied forces in East Africa in 1916, he led a mixed bag of South Africans and imperial troops against the legendary Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and his Schutztruppen. His penchant for manoeuvre warfare and mounted infantry freed most of the vast German territory from Lettow-Vorbeck’s grip.

General Jan Smuts and his First World War in Africa provides a long-overdue reassessment of Smuts’s generalship and his role in furthering the strategic aims of South Africa and the British Empire during this era.

The Man Who Shook Mountains - In The Footsteps Of My Ancestors (Paperback): Lesley Mofokeng The Man Who Shook Mountains - In The Footsteps Of My Ancestors (Paperback)
Lesley Mofokeng
R270 R216 Discovery Miles 2 160 Save R54 (20%) In Stock

Journalist Lesley Mofokeng investigates the life of his remarkable grandfather, Mongangane Wilfred Mofokeng, a prominent Dutch Reformed Church evangelist, who built a thriving community out of the dust of the far Northwest.

The journey takes him from Joburg’s Marabi-soaked townships of the 1930s to his childhood home of Gelukspan near Lichtenburg and then to the rural Free State and the remote mountain kingdom of Lesotho. In what becomes a spiritual quest, he traces the inspirational footsteps of his ancestors and the legendary King Moshoeshoe.

In the process, Mofokeng proudly claims his heritage and also uncovers a long-lost chapter of South African history and the church of the apartheid regime.

Wieg - Die Lewe Van Maria Du Plessis, née Buisset, (1679 - 1751) Hugenoot En Vroedvrou (Afrikaans, Paperback): Joan Kruger Wieg - Die Lewe Van Maria Du Plessis, née Buisset, (1679 - 1751) Hugenoot En Vroedvrou (Afrikaans, Paperback)
Joan Kruger
R362 Discovery Miles 3 620 Ships in 4 - 8 working days

Hierdie is 'n biografie in konteks en lees soos 'n roman.

Die jaar is 1700, die plek Amsterdam. Die bruid is 21 jaar oud en inderhaas getroud met 'n wewenaar wat oud genoeg is om haar pa te wees. Wie is die Franse vrou wat kans sien vir 'n pionierslewe op 'n verre voorpos? Marie Buisset is 'n vlugteling, 'n weeskind uit Sedan, Frankryk, gebore tydens die felste Hugenootvervolging. Sy word die stammoeder van die families Du Plessis en Smith in Suid-Afrika. As vroedvrou - later op die loonlys van die VOC - word Marie (later genoem Maria) die hulp van die kwesbares: 'n verkragte meisietjie, 'n tiener wat geboorte gee en verskeie vroue wat deur hul eienaars, minnaars of eggenote verniel is.

Die leser ontmoet talle bekende name in die Suid-Afrikaanse geskiedenis. Dis 'n verhaal van politieke stryd, ontbering, politiek en liefde. Dis 'n storie oor mense en die uitdagings wat hulle aanpak.

Uit skrapse oorblyfsels soos hofverslae, mediese rekeninge, veilings en testament onthul Joan Kruger 'n ryk en boeiende verhaal, vol humor en patos. Wieg: die verhaal van Maria du Plessis, née Buisset, (1679 - 1751) Hugenoot en vroedvrou is a vonds vir historici en lesers wat nuwe lig werp op 'n gedeelde verlede. 'n Kragtoer.

Convening Black Intimacy - Christianity, Gender And Tradition In Early Twentieth-Century South Africa (Paperback): Natasha... Convening Black Intimacy - Christianity, Gender And Tradition In Early Twentieth-Century South Africa (Paperback)
Natasha Erlank
R350 R273 Discovery Miles 2 730 Save R77 (22%) Ships in 5 - 10 working days

An unprecedented study of how Christianity reshaped Black South Africans’ ideas about gender, sexuality, marriage, and family during the first half of the twentieth century.

This book demonstrates that the primary affective force in the construction of modern Black intimate life in early twentieth-century South Africa was not the commonly cited influx of migrant workers but rather the spread of Christianity. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, African converts developed a new conception of intimate life, one that shaped ideas about sexuality, gender roles, and morality.

Although the reshaping of Black intimacy occurred first among educated Africans who aspired to middle-class status, by the 1950s it included all Black Christians—60 percent of the Black South African population. In turn, certain Black traditions and customs were central to the acceptance of sexual modernity, which gained traction because it included practices such as lobola, in which a bridegroom demonstrates his gratitude by transferring property to his bride’s family. While the ways of understanding intimacy that Christianity informed enjoyed broad appeal because they partially aligned with traditional ways, other individuals were drawn to how the new ideas broke with tradition. In either case, Natasha Erlank argues that what Black South Africans regard today as tradition has been unequivocally altered by Christianity.

In asserting the paramount influence of Christianity on unfolding ideas about family, gender, and marriage in Black South Africa, Erlank challenges social historians who have attributed the key factor to be the migrant labor system. Erlank draws from a wide range of sources, including popular Black literature and the Black press, African church and mission archives, and records of the South African law courts, which she argues have been underutilized in histories of South Africa. The book is sure to attract historians and other scholars interested in the history of African Christianity, African families, sexuality, and the social history of law, especially colonial law.

The Better Angels Of Our Nature - A History Of Violence And Humanity (Paperback): Steven Pinker The Better Angels Of Our Nature - A History Of Violence And Humanity (Paperback)
Steven Pinker 1
R603 R497 Discovery Miles 4 970 Save R106 (18%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

This acclaimed book by Steven Pinker argues that, contrary to popular belief, humankind has become progressively less violent over millenia and decades. Can violence really have declined?

The images of conflict we see daily on our screens from around the world suggest this is an almost obscene claim to be making. Extraordinarily, however, Steven Pinker shows violence within and between societies - both murder and warfare - really has declined from prehistory to today. We are much less likely to die at someone else's hands than ever before. Even the horrific carnage of the last century, when compared to the dangers of pre-state societies, is part of this trend.

Debunking both the idea of the 'noble savage' and an over-simplistic Hobbesian notion of a 'nasty, brutish and short' life, Steven Pinker argues that modernity and its cultural institutions are actually making us better people.

Handbook To The Iron Age - The Archaeology Of Pre-Colonial Farming Societies In Southern Africa (Hardcover): Thomas N Huffman Handbook To The Iron Age - The Archaeology Of Pre-Colonial Farming Societies In Southern Africa (Hardcover)
Thomas N Huffman
R365 R285 Discovery Miles 2 850 Save R80 (22%) Ships in 5 - 10 working days

This detailed Handbook to the Iron Age covers the last 2,000 years in Southern Africa.

The first part of the book outlines essential topics such as settlement organization, stonewalled patterns, ritual residues, long-distance trade, and ancient mining. Part two presents a comprehensive culture-history sequence through ceramic analyses, showing distributions, stylistic types, and characteristic pieces. The final section reviews and updates the main debates about black prehistory, including migration vs. diffusion, the role of cattle, the origins of Mapungubwe, the rise and fall of Great Zimbabwe, as well as the archaeology of the Venda, the Sotho-Tswana, and the Nguni speakers.

Handbook to the Iron Age is an abundantly illustrated study that is accessible to a wide range of people interested in African prehistory.

Cave Of Bones - A True Story Of Discovery, Adventure And Human Origins (Paperback): Lee Berger Cave Of Bones - A True Story Of Discovery, Adventure And Human Origins (Paperback)
Lee Berger 1
R420 R328 Discovery Miles 3 280 Save R92 (22%) In Stock

A true-life scientific adventure story, this thrilling book takes the reader deep into South African caves to discover fossil remains that compel a monumental reframing of the human family tree.

In the summer of 2022, Lee Berger lost 50 pounds in order to wriggle though impossibly small openings in the Rising Star cave complex in South Africa—spaces where his team has been unearthing the remains of Homo naledi, a proto-human likely to have coexisted with Homo sapiens some 250,000 years ago. The lead researcher on the site, still Berger had never made his way into the dark, cramped, dangerous underground spaces where many of the naledi fossils had been found. Now he was ready to do so.

Once inside the cave, Berger made shocking new discoveries that expand our understanding of this early hominid—discoveries that stand to alter our fundamental understanding of what makes us human. So what does it all mean?

Join Berger on the adventure of a lifetime as he explores the Rising Star cave system and begins the complicated process of explaining these extraordinary finds—finds that force a rethinking of human evolution, and discoveries that Berger calls “the Rosetta stone of the human mind.”

History Of South Africa - From 1902 To 2021 (Paperback): Thula Simpson History Of South Africa - From 1902 To 2021 (Paperback)
Thula Simpson
R450 R351 Discovery Miles 3 510 Save R99 (22%) Ships in 5 - 10 working days

This book explores South Africa’s tumultuous history from the aftermath of the Second Anglo-Boer War to the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on never-before-published documentary evidence – including diaries, letters, eyewitness testimony and diplomatic reports – the book follows the South African people through the battles, elections, repression, resistance, strikes, massacres, economic crashes and health crises that have shaped the nation’s character.

Tracking South Africa’s path from colony to Union and from apartheid to democracy, History of South Africa documents the influence of key figures including Pixley Seme, Jan Smuts, Lilian Ngoyi, H.F. Verwoerd, Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, P.W. Botha and Jacob Zuma. The book also gives detailed accounts of definitive events such as the 1922 Rand Revolt, the Defiance Campaign, Sharpeville, the Soweto uprising and the Marikana massacre. Looking beyond the country’s borders, it unpacks military conflicts such as the World Wars, the armed struggle and the Border War. The book explores the transition to democracy and traces the phases of ANC rule, from the Rainbow Nation to transformation to state capture. It examines the divisive and unifying role of sport, the ups and downs of the economy, and the impact of pandemics from the Spanish flu to AIDS and COVID-19.

As South Africa faces a crisis as severe as any in its history, the book shows that these challenges are neither unprecedented nor insurmountable, and that there are principles to be found in history that may lead us safely into the future.

The Diamond Queen - Elizabeth II: The Last Great Monarch? (Paperback): Andrew Marr The Diamond Queen - Elizabeth II: The Last Great Monarch? (Paperback)
Andrew Marr
R280 R219 Discovery Miles 2 190 Save R61 (22%) Ships in 5 - 10 working days

With the flair for narrative and the meticulous research that readers have come to expect, in The Diamond Queen Andrew Marr turns his attention to the monarch, chronicling the Queen’s pivotal role at the centre of the state, which is largely hidden from the public gaze, and making a strong case for the institution itself.

Arranged thematically, rather than chronologically, Marr dissects the Queen’s political relationships, crucially those with her Prime Ministers; he examines her role as Head of the Commonwealth, and her deep commitment to that Commonwealth of nations; he looks at the drastic changes in the media since her accession in 1952 and how the monarchy has had to change and adapt as a result. Under her watchful eye, it has been thoroughly modernized but what does the future hold for the House of Windsor?

This edition, fully revised and updated, features a new introduction and a new chapter that sets out to answer that crucial question. In it, Marr covers the Queen’s reign from the Diamond Jubilee to the run-up to the Platinum Jubilee in 2022, taking in the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles’s plans for the future of the monarchy and examines what Elizabeth II’s lasting legacy might be.

Queen Of Our Times - The Life Of Elizabeth II (Hardcover): Robert Hardman Queen Of Our Times - The Life Of Elizabeth II (Hardcover)
Robert Hardman
R920 R608 Discovery Miles 6 080 Save R312 (34%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The definitive biography of Her Majesty The Queen by one of Britain’s leading royal authorities.

With original insights from those who know her best, new interviews with world leaders and access to unseen papers, bestselling author Robert Hardman explores the full, astonishing life of our longest reigning monarch in this compellingly authoritative yet intimate biography.

Elizabeth II was not born to be queen. Yet from her accession as a young mother of two in 1952 to the age of Covid-19, she has proved an astute and quietly determined figure, leading her family and her people through more than seventy years of unprecedented social change. She has faced constitutional crises, confronted threats against her life, rescued the Commonwealth, seen her prime ministers come and go, charmed world leaders, been criticised as well as feted by the media, and steered her family through a lifetime in the public eye.

Queen of Our Times is a must-read study of dynastic survival and renewal, spanning abdication, war, romance, danger and tragedy. It is a compelling portrait of a leader who remains as intriguing today as the day she came to the throne aged twenty-five.

Die Boereoorlog (Afrikaans, Paperback): Martin Bossenbroek Die Boereoorlog (Afrikaans, Paperback)
Martin Bossenbroek
R420 R328 Discovery Miles 3 280 Save R92 (22%) Ships in 5 - 10 working days

Die Nederlandse historikus, Martin Bossenbroek, het in 2013 die Nasionale Nederlandse Geskiedenis-prys gewen vir sy nuwe kroniek oor die oorlog wat Suid-Afrika gevorm het, en die boek is ook in 2013 op die kortlys vir die AKO Letterkunde-prys geplaas. Beide hierdie toekennings is vername Nederlandse letterkundige pryse. Hierdie Afrikaanse hardeband, wat in 2015 as 'n Engelse en 'n Afrikaanse sagteband uitgegee gaan word, sal die lof en byval bevestig wat Bossenbroek reeds ontvang het, en aan Suid-Afrikaanse lesers die geleentheid bied om sy unieke storieverteltegniek te ervaar. Die Anglo-Boereoorlog (1899-1902) is al verskeie dinge genoem: die oorsaak van apartheid, die voorganger van die Eerste en Tweede Wereldoorloe, en die eerste media-oorlog (waar joernaliste vir die eerste keer by 'n oorlog ingebed was). Dit het gehelp om die nasiestaat van Suid-Afrika te skep en meer as 'n honderd jaar nadat die oorlog geeindig het, lei dit steeds tot vurige debatte. In Die Boereoorlog bied Martin Bossenbroek vir die eerste keer aan lesers die volledige storie met ongeewenaarde insig en detail. Bossenbroek volg drie kleurvolle hoofkarakters: die Nederlandse prokureur, staatsprokureur van die Suid-Afrikaanse Republiek, staatsekretaris en uiteindelike Europese gesant Willem Leyds; die Britse oorlogsjoernalis Winston Churchill, en die Boerekryger en toekomstige Suid-Afrikaanse politikus, Deneys Reitz. Bossenbroek se fassinerende nuwe blik op die oorlog troef Thomas Pakenham se klassieke topverkoper, en is 'n moet-lees vir alle Suid-Afrikaanse geskiedenis-entoesiaste.

Prisoners Of The Past - South African Democracy And The Legacy Of Minority Rule (Paperback): Steven Friedman Prisoners Of The Past - South African Democracy And The Legacy Of Minority Rule (Paperback)
Steven Friedman
R300 R234 Discovery Miles 2 340 Save R66 (22%) Ships in 5 - 10 working days

South Africa’s democracy is often seen as a story of bright beginnings gone astray, a pattern said to be common to Africa. The negotiated settlement of 1994, it is claimed, ended racial domination and created the foundation for a prosperous democracy – but greedy politicians betrayed the promise of a new society.

In Prisoners Of The Past, Steven Friedman astutely argues that this misreads the nature of contemporary South Africa. Building on the work of the economic historian Douglass North and the political thinker Mahmood Mamdani, Friedman shows that South African democracy’s difficulties are legacies of the pre-1994 past. The settlement which ushered in majority rule left intact core features of the apartheid economy and society. The economy continues to exclude millions from its benefits, while racial hierarchies have proved stubborn: apartheid is discredited, but the values of the pre-1948 colonial era, the period of British colonisation, still dominate. Thus South Africa’s democracy supports free elections, civil liberties and the rule of law, but also continues past patterns of exclusion and domination.

Friedman reasons that this ‘path dependence’ is not, as is often claimed, the result of constitutional compromises in 1994 that left domination untouched. This bargain was flawed because it brought not too much compromise, but too little. Compromises extended political citizenship to all but there were no similar bargains on economic and cultural change. Using the work of the radical sociologist Harold Wolpe, Friedman shows that only negotiations on a new economy and society can free South Africans from the prison of the past.

Parcel Of Death - The Biography Of Onkgopotse Abram Tiro (Paperback): Gaongalelwe Tiro Parcel Of Death - The Biography Of Onkgopotse Abram Tiro (Paperback)
Gaongalelwe Tiro
R310 R242 Discovery Miles 2 420 Save R68 (22%) Ships in 5 - 10 working days

Parcel of Death recounts the little-told life story of Onkgopotse Abram Tiro, the first South African freedom fighter the apartheid regime pursued beyond the country’s borders to assassinate with a parcel bomb.

On 29 April 1972, Tiro made one of the most consequential revolutionary addresses in South African history. Dubbed the Turfloop Testimony, Tiro’s anti-apartheid speech saw him and many of his fellow student activists expelled, igniting a series of strikes in tertiary institutions across the country. By the time he went into exile in Botswana, Tiro was president of the Southern African Student Movement (SASM), permanent organiser of the South African Student Organisation (SASO) and a leading Black Consciousness proponent, hailed by many as the ‘godfather’ of the June 1976 uprisings.

Parcel of Death uses extensive and exclusive interviews to highlight significant influences and periods in Tiro’s life, including the lessons learned from his rural upbringing in Dinokana, Zeerust, the time he spent working on a manganese mine, his role as a teacher and the impact of his faith in shaping his outlook. It is a compelling portrait of Tiro’s story and its lasting significance in South Africa’s history.

‘A biography of Onkgopotse Tiro, who was at once a catalyst and an active change agent in the South African struggle for freedom, is long overdue. For generations to come, this book will be a source of valuable information and inspiration.’ – MOSIBUDI MANGENA

A House Divided - The Feud That Took Cape Town To The Brink (Paperback): Crispian Olver A House Divided - The Feud That Took Cape Town To The Brink (Paperback)
Crispian Olver 2
R285 R228 Discovery Miles 2 280 Save R57 (20%) Ships in 5 - 10 working days

Cape Town, 2018. South Africa’s mother city is wracked by drought. The prospect of premier Helen Zille’s ‘Day Zero’ – the day when all taps run dry – is driving its citizens into a frenzy. When it’s announced that Mayor Patricia de Lille is off the water crisis, the predicament reaches its zenith and politicians turn upon each other.

And so begins a stupendous battle within the Democratic Alliance: who will lead Cape Town? It’s during this time that author and researcher Crispian Olver applies to the City of Cape Town to gain access to certain official documents as part of a research project. He is baffled when his application is rejected without explanation, but this only strengthens his resolve to explore how the city of his childhood is run. In particular, he has his sights set on the relationship between city politicians and property developers.

Olver interviews numerous individuals, including many ‘chopped’ from the city administration. What he uncovers is a pandora’s box of backstabbing, in-fighting and backroom deals. He explores dodgy property developments at Wescape and Maiden’s Cove, delves into attempts to ‘hijack’ civic associations, and exposes the close yet precautious relationship between the mayor and City Hall’s so-called ‘laptop boys’. But his main goal is to understand what led to the political meltdown within the Democratic Alliance, and the defection of De Lille to form her own party.

A Breed Apart - The Inside Story Of A Recce's Special Forces Training Year (Paperback): Johan Raath A Breed Apart - The Inside Story Of A Recce's Special Forces Training Year (Paperback)
Johan Raath 2
R295 R236 Discovery Miles 2 360 Save R59 (20%) Ships in 5 - 10 working days

Over the years, many have signed up for the South African Special Forces selection course but only a select few have ever passed. The gruelling course pushes recruits to their physical and mental limits. Those who make it through selection still have to complete a demanding year-long training cycle before they can join the ranks of this elite unit.

In A Breed Apart, former Special Forces operator Johan Raath offers a rare insider’s view on the training he and other young soldiers received in the mid-1980s. Drawing on the reminiscences of his fellow Recces, he describes the phases of selection and training, and offers valuable insights into what makes a successful operator.

The courses in the training cycle show the range and standard of Special Forces training, including weapons handling, bushcraft/survival, parachuting, demolitions and urban warfare, as well as seaborne and riverine operations. For Raath and his training cycle buddies, the cycle culminated in an operation in southern Angola where the young Recces saw action for the first time.

Much of what Raath underwent still forms part of present-day Special Forces training. Comprehensive and revealing, this book shows why these soldiers truly are a breed apart.

The Bill Gates Problem - Reckoning With The Myth Of The Good Billionaire (Paperback): Tim Schwab The Bill Gates Problem - Reckoning With The Myth Of The Good Billionaire (Paperback)
Tim Schwab
R420 R297 Discovery Miles 2 970 Save R123 (29%) In Stock

A critical look at how Bill Gates uses his wealth and power through the Gates Foundation to advance his own agenda and erode democratic institutions in the process.

From greedy to generous, from cold to kind-hearted, from rogue to hero, Bill Gates is an extraordinarily complex public figure. Yet over the last decade, we've reduced him to a flat caricature - a sweater-wearing, avuncular, well-meaning billionaire, who is adamantly giving away all of his money through the Gates Foundation in order to improve the lives of others.

This simplistic portrait perilously ignores the political influence that Gates has acquired through his charitable work, and the controversial ways through which he utilises it. The charity internally sets a policy agenda for how to fix the world - based on one man's worldview - then imposes this vision onto the developing world by funding groups that align with it.

Combining rich storytelling and ground-breaking reporting, The Bill Gates Problem offers readers a provocative and timely counter-narrative about one of the world's most famous figures. But more than that, this book speaks to a vital political question around economic inequality and the erosion of democratic institutions - why should the super-rich be able to transform their wealth into political power, and just how far can they go?

Born White, Zulu Bred - A Memoir Of A Third World Child (Paperback): G.G. Alcock Born White, Zulu Bred - A Memoir Of A Third World Child (Paperback)
G.G. Alcock
R350 R280 Discovery Miles 2 800 Save R70 (20%) In Stock

You may have read GG Alcock’s books about the kasi economy; now follow his journey to the dynamic world of KasiNomics and learn about the tribal forces that shaped him.

Born White Zulu Bred is the story of a white child and his brother raised in poverty in a Zulu community in rural South Africa during the apartheid era. His extraordinary parents, Creina and Neil Alcock, gave up lives of comfort and privilege to live and work among the destitute people of Msinga, whose material and social well-being became their mission. But more than that, this is a story about life in South Africa today which, through GG’s unique perspective, explores the huge diversity of the country’s people – from tribal Zulu warriors to sophisticated urban black township entrepreneurs. A journey from the arid wastes of Msinga into the thriving informal economies of urban townships.

GG’s view is that we do not live in a black and white world but in a world of contrast and diversity, one which he wants South Africans, and a world audience, to see for what it is without descending into racial and historical clichés. He takes us through the mazes of township marketplaces, shacks and crowded streets to reveal the proud and dignified world of township entrepreneurs who are transforming South Africa’s economy. This is the world that he moves in today as a successful businessman, still walking those spaces and celebrating the vibrant informal economies that are taking part in the KasiNomic Revolution.

GG’s story is about being truly African, even as a white person, and it draws on the adventures, the cultural challenges, the informal spaces and the future possibilities of South Africa.

Breaking The Bombers - How The Hunt For Pagad Created A Crack Police Unit (Paperback): Mark Shaw Breaking The Bombers - How The Hunt For Pagad Created A Crack Police Unit (Paperback)
Mark Shaw
R310 R248 Discovery Miles 2 480 Save R62 (20%) In Stock

At the very dawn of the country’s brave new democracy, Cape Town was at war. Pagad, which started as a community protest action against crime, had mutated into a sinister vigilante group wreaking death and destruction across the city. Between 1996 and 2001, there were more than 400 bombs – most famously at the popular Planet Hollywood restaurant at the V&A Waterfront – and there were countless targeted hits on drug lords and gang bosses.

The police were at their wits end. The new ANC government was alarmed. The citizens of Cape Town were living in fear.

Mark Shaw tells the incredible tale of how the police’s response pulled together former foes – struggle cadres and the apartheid security apparatus – to break the Pagad death squads. It is a story that has never been told in full and was not possible until recently, when many were released from prison or had retired and were finally willing to talk openly about this revealing chapter in South Africa’s recent history.

My Friend Anne Frank (Paperback): Hannah Pick-Goslar My Friend Anne Frank (Paperback)
Hannah Pick-Goslar
R380 R304 Discovery Miles 3 040 Save R76 (20%) In Stock

In this never-before-seen memoir, Bergen-Belsen survivor Hannah Pick-Goslar shares incredibly powerful words on the final untold portrait of her childhood friend, Anne Frank. The inspiring and heartbreaking true story of two best friends torn apart and reunited against all odds.

When Hannah Pick-Goslar's family fled Nazi Germany for Amsterdam, she struck up a close friendship with her next-door neighbour; precocious, outspoken and fun-loving Anne Frank. Hannah instantly warmed to happy-go-lucky Anne and for seven blissful years, the inseparable pair navigated school, boys and coming of age in Amsterdam's Rivierenbuurt neighbourhood. But in 1942, life quickly changed for the thirteen-year-old girls.

The Nazi occupation of Amsterdam meant the friends were separated without warning. Hannah called on Anne, but there was no trace of her friend or her precious diary. Hannah was tormented over the fate of Anne, wondering if, by some stroke of fortune she had escaped danger and was alive and well elsewhere. It wasn't until Hannah reached her darkest point, imprisoned with her family in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, that she had an astonishing chance reunion with Anne. Desperate to save her friend who was weak and struggling to survive, Hannah risked everything to toss packages filled with food and clothes over a barbed-wire fence. Hannah only learned of Anne's death after her liberation, when Otto Frank came to visit her in hospital. From that day, Otto became a second father to Hannah, making sure that she was always looked after.

In this groundbreaking memoir, Hannah Pick-Goslar shares an intimate portrait of Anne Frank, the young Jewish diarist who has captured the hearts of millions of readers around the world.

Empireworld - How British Imperialism Has Shaped The Globe (Hardcover): Sathnam Sanghera Empireworld - How British Imperialism Has Shaped The Globe (Hardcover)
Sathnam Sanghera
R530 R379 Discovery Miles 3 790 Save R151 (28%) In Stock

In his ground-breaking new book, Sathnam Sanghera traces the legacies of British empire around the world.

2.6 billion people are inhabitants of former British colonies. The empire's influence upon the quarter of the planet it occupied, and its gravitational influence upon the world outside it, has been profound: from the spread of Christianity by missionaries, to nearly 1 in 3 driving on the left side of the road, to the origins of international law. Yet Britain's idea of its imperial history and the world's experience of it are two very different things.

With an inimitable combination of wit, political insight and personal honesty, the award-winning author and journalist explores the international legacies of British empire – from the creation of tea plantations across the globe, to environmental destruction, conservation, and the imperial connotations of Royal tours.

His journey takes him from Barbados and Mauritius to India and Nigeria and beyond. In doing so, Sanghera demonstrates just how deeply British imperialism is baked into our world.

And why it’s time Britain was finally honest with itself about empire.

My Land Obsession - A Memoir (Paperback): Bulelwa Mabasa My Land Obsession - A Memoir (Paperback)
Bulelwa Mabasa
R330 R284 Discovery Miles 2 840 Save R46 (14%) In Stock

Bulelwa Mabasa was born into a ‘matchbox’ family home in Meadowlands, Soweto, at the height of apartheid. In My Land Obsession, she shares her colourful Christian upbringing, framed by the lived experiences of her grandparents, who endured land dispossession in the form of the Group Areas Act and the migrant labour system.

Bulelwa’s world was irrevocably altered when she encountered the disparities of life in a white-dominated school. Her ongoing interest in land justice informed her choice to study law at Wits, with the land question becoming central in her postgraduate studies. When Bulelwa joined the practice of law in the early 2000s as an attorney, she felt a strong need to build on her curiosity around land reform, moving on to form and lead a practice centred on land reform at Werksmans Attorneys. She describes the role played by her mentors and the professional and personal challenges she faced.

My Land Obsession sets out notable legal cases Bulelwa has led and lessons that may be drawn from them, as well as detailing her contributions to national policy on land reform and her views on how the land question must be inhabited and owned by all South Africans.

The Politics Of Housing In (Post) Colonial Africa - Accommodating Workers And Urban Residents (Hardcover): Kirsten Ruther,... The Politics Of Housing In (Post) Colonial Africa - Accommodating Workers And Urban Residents (Hardcover)
Kirsten Ruther, Martina Barker-Ciganikova, Daniela Waldburger, Carl-Philipp Bodenstein
R300 R234 Discovery Miles 2 340 Save R66 (22%) Ships in 5 - 10 working days

Housing matters, no matter when or where. This volume of collected essays on housing in colonial and postcolonial Africa seeks to elaborate how and why housing is much more than an everyday practice.

The politics of housing unfold in disparate dimensions of time, space and agency. Depending on context, they acquire diverse, often ambivalent, meanings. Housing can be a promise, an unfulfilled dream, a tool of self- and class-assertion, a negotiation process, or a means to achieve other ends. This volume analyzes housing in its multifacetedness, be it a lens to offer insights into complex processes that shape societies; be it a tool of empire to exercise control over private relations of inhabitants; or be it a means to create good, obedient and productive citizens.

Contributions to this volume range from the field of history, to architecture and urban planning, African studies, linguistics, and literature. The individual case studies home in on specific aspects and dimensions of housing and seek to bring them into dialogue with each other. By doing so, the volume aims to add to the debate on studying urban practices and their significance for current social change.

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