What if there was a contract that expressly stipulated how you should run your life? A contract that was designed by you, signed by you and monitored by you. A contract that honoured the wishes of the most important person in your life - you. Dineshrie Pillay explores what the ideal contract with yourself could look like, with a view to achieving your personal success.

Instructive and inspirational, The Contract With Yourself is filled with useful stories, analogies, and practical action steps that you can easily apply to assess and plan your life. This easy-to-read self-motivation book runs 182 pages and deals with all areas of life, including work, family, finances, health, self-image and personal goals. It is a practical and simple reminder of all the action steps that can be taken to make progress towards achieving individual success and fulfilment.

Each chapter includes activities, post-chapter reflection, guiding questions and reminders that can be used as a tool for ongoing personal reflection. The main text is easy to read and follow, supported by examples and anecdotes to illustrate key points. Each chapter can be read in isolation, making it easy for the reader to work their way through the book in their own time.

The wealth of information that is contained within this book can easily be carried along on business travels, holidays or longer trips as the reader progresses through the book.

Lewensgids vir vroue, Aletté-Johanni se nuwe boek, is geskryf vanuit ’n vars, nuwe perspektief en bied tydlose wysheid wat aanklank by vroue van alle ouderdomme sal vind.

Die boodskappe in hierdie handige lewensgids is gegrond op wat die Woord sê oor ’n wye verskeidenheid onderwerpe en uitdagings in vroue se daaglikse lewens. Aletté-Johanni gesels met die leser soos ’n goeie, wyse vriendin. Die inhoud bied die leser praktiese en geestelike raad en wenke wat vroue se hedendaagse leefstyl, verhoudings en situasies in ag neem en spreek die verskillende fases van vrouwees aan.

Van die onderwerpe wat bespreek word is ‘Hoe om die beste JY te wees’, ‘Hoe om ’n goeie vriendin te wees’, ‘Hoe om ’n goeie jong student te wees’, ‘Hoe om die beste vrou te wees’, ‘Hoe om die beste ma te wees vir babas/kleuters/laerskool kinders/tieners’, ‘Hoe om sosiale media te benader’, ‘Hoe om finansies te hanteer as individu/getroud/gesin’ en vele meer.

Lewensgids vir mans, Heinz Winckler se nuwe boek, is geskryf vanuit ’n vars, nuwe perspektief en bied tydlose wysheid wat aanklank by mans van alle ouderdomme sal vind.

Die boodskappe in hierdie handige lewensgids is gegrond op wat die Woord sê oor ’n wye verskeidenheid onderwerpe en uitdagings in mans se daaglikse lewens. Heinz gesels met die leser soos ’n goeie, wyse vriend. Die inhoud bied die leser praktiese en geestelike raad en wenke wat mans se hedendaagse leefstyl, verhoudings en situasies in ag neem en spreek die verskillende fases van manwees aan.

Van die onderwerpe wat bespreek word is ‘Hoe om die beste JY te wees’, ‘Hoe om ’n goeie vriend te wees’, ‘Hoe om ’n goeie jong student te wees’, ‘Hoe om die beste getroude man te wees’, ‘Hoe om ’n goeie pa te wees, ‘Hoe om sosiale media te benader’, ‘Hoe om finansies te hanteer as individu/getroud/gesin’ en vele meer.

The Jacana Literary Foundation and the Other Foundation are thrilled to announce the publication of the fourth volume of The Gerald Kraak Anthology, The Beautyful Ones Have Just Been Born.

With the prize ceremony linked to Africa Day, the publication of the anthology is tied to the Pride Month of June and the celebrations of the LGBTQI+ community which occur across the globe.

This year’s anthology is filled with inspiring and fearless literary works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry from across Africa.

These stories capture the essence of the African LGBTQI+ community and showcase some of Africa’s most talented writers. The anthology gives a voice to those who would otherwise be marginalised and it insists that differences must be recognised, embraced and celebrated.

A simple guide to all the tools, methods and exercises to manage your stress.

What if you could feel in control of your stress levels? How would it be to access qualities like self-worth, grounded confidence, inspiration and inner peace when faced with stress?

Stress, anxiety and depression have become a sign of our times. We have lived through a global pandemic with fears that more may follow. We continue to face global crises like climate change and war or threats of war in parts of the world that affect us all through our shared humanity and the global economy. Then there is the continuation of a modern, fast-paced, highly competitive lifestyle to contend with, that can affect young and old alike.

How have your stress levels been lately? Maybe stress has left you feeling depleted and tired. Or maybe it has wired you up to feel moody and irritable.

International bestselling and award-winning author, Noa Belling has put together a tried and tested, scientifically backed and power packed toolkit to help you. It targets different ways that stress can show up in our lives, that might leave some of us depleted and depressed and others wired and anxious.

Veronique Jephtas verteenwoordig die kraakvars stem van ’n nuwe generasie Afrikaanssprekendes – die born frees, gebore ná 1994 – wat grootgeword het in ’n land met meer geleenthede vir almal maar waar die wonde van die verlede halsstarrig bly sweer.

In Soe rond ommie bos skryf Jephtas protesposie en verbeel ’n gemeenskap wat vry is van gesprekke wat rondom die bos loop.

A Brief History of South Africa is an introduction to South African history from the earliest times to the Mandela Presidency.

Using both a narrative chronology and thematic chapters, the book encourages critical thinking about how history shaped South Africa. While presenting an account of colonisation and the policies of successive governments, A Brief History portrays the resistance to colonisation, segregation and apartheid, including the role of political, social and trade union movements.

A Brief History does not aim to be comprehensive, but rather provides the basic facts for the general reader. The book can also act as a study guide for both formal and non-formal adult education. Equally important, A Brief History can be used to strengthen history teaching in schools.

The book provides history teachers with the opportunity to expand their own knowledge, especially if they do not have a history qualification. Each chapter points readers to a range of further readings with a variety of historical interpretations, and provides questions for group discussion.

2016 was 50 years on from when District Six was declared a whites only area and this publication commemorates this event in our history. This revised edition (in a smaller format aimed at the tourist market) of this beautiful book shows poignant images from Breytenbach’s collection of District Six during the 1970s before the area was dramatically demolished by the apartheid government. It is an historical record about the inhabitants and their surroundings of that time and was compiled over a period of five years.

The Cape Town area known as District Six (so called for its geographic position on the municipal map of the city) developed into a dense residential area close to the centre of Cape Town during the second part of the nineteenth century. Home to a diverse community with a wide range of historical origins, neglect on the part of landlords and local authorities led to the area becoming rundown. The government repeatedly directed requests to the city council and the landlords – most of whom were white and not residing in the area – to upgrade what was fast becoming a slum on the doorstep of one of the most beautiful cities in the world. On 11 February 1966, the government declared District Six a white area under the Group Areas Act, and the wholesale removal of the inhabitants was started – mainly to areas away from the city.

This process took fifteen years and some 60 000 people were removed.

From over-the-counter cough syrups and prescribed painkillers to street economies of heroin and fentanyl, opioid substances and uses have ignited global debates about national drug policy reform. This book is the first to focus on these issues in South Africa, through a range of disciplinary perspectives.

In twelve chapters, scholars from community medicine, pharmacology, social science and the humanities, along with civic actors and researchers, present their evidence-based arguments and insights, and explore possibilities for harm reduction approaches in South Africa. Chapters cover three core areas: dilemmas of drug policy; contradictions of care and treatment; and the issue of stigma.

Opioids in South Africa invites wider conversation, asking us to imagine policy responses that can better protect the constitutional dignity, health and access to healthcare of people using drugs as well as of their families and communities.

San material culture has been a subject of study for many researchers and archaeologists but rarely has the documented material been seen through the eyes of the people themselves. San Elders Speak: Ancestral Knowledge of the Kalahari San is the first attempt to document indigenous knowledge through the voices of four San elders from the Kalahari. Over a period of seven days, the authors presented the four San elders, leaders in their community and custodians of ancient knowledge, with of the largest collection of KhoiSan ethnographica collected by Dr Louis Fourie at the beginning of the 19th century.

The San elders rediscovered objects last seen in their childhood and shared stories inspired by their handling of the objects. They provide the correct traditional names and explain how items were made, from what material, who used them, why and when. In a number of instances the elders changed the identification given by Louis Fourie. The knowledge they shared over those several days at Museum Africa in Johannesburg provide an enriching account that links the past and present in San life in illuminating ways. The text is accompanied by a rich visual record of the artefacts and how the San elders portray their use.

Aimed at scholars and students of archaeology, human evolution, anthropology, material culture studies, conservation, museology, and African studies, San Elders Speak is a captivating record into all aspects of this ancient and vanishing world of indigenous knowlegde, and represents a unique heritage for the people of descendant San communities.

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. South African women are silent no more on the roles that we have played in advancing our lives as artists, storytellers, writers, politicians and educationists. The title 'Imbokodo' was been chosen as it is a Zulu word that means "rock" and is often used in the saying 'Wathint' Abafazi, Wathint' Imbokodo!', which means "You Strike a Women, You Strike a Rock!" These books were made possible with the support of Biblionef and funding from the National Arts Council. In 10 Curious Inventors, Healers & Creators you will read about the women who shape our world through education, science and maths. You will read about women who became teachers, nurses, social workers, scientists and community workers, overcame obstacles and through their work fought for social change.

When last did you get lost? We rarely do in the era of Google Maps and Waze, but satellite navigation systems are of no use when disruption turns our lives upside down. When swirling mists of uncertainty block our view of the future, we might question our ability to cope. But with awareness, determination and practise we can improve our competence, build our resilience and confidence, and gain a sense of control, even when everything feels out of control.

Whether your life has been disrupted by death, divorce, disease, Covid-19 lockdown, working from home, moving town, starting a new job, or any of a host of other disruptive events that can either make or break you, this book will guide you to the best possible outcome. Disruption is never comfortable, but regardless of whether it is positive or negative, it is a catalyst for change.

Future-Proof Yourself provides simple but effective lessons and frameworks to help you future-proof yourself to win at both work and life. Dip into chapters on disruption, remote working, resilience, teamwork, leadership and family, and learn how to remain focused, utilise pressure and create a recipe for personal success. A distillation of Nikki Bush’s professional insights as a human-potential and parenting expert, combined with her personal honesty and vulnerability, this book is a must-read for anyone looking to harness their courage and curiosity to build a rewarding, fulfilling future for themselves – no matter what life throws at them.

This ethnography explores the Ngoma healing tradition as practiced in eastern Mpumalanga, South Africa. 'Bungoma' is an active philosophical system and healing practice consisting of multiple strands, based on the notion that humans are intrinsically exposed to each other and that this is the cause of illness, but also the condition for the possibility of healing. This healing seeks to protect the 'exposed being' from harm through augmenting the self. Unlike Western medicine, it does not seek to cure physical ailments but aims to prevent suffering by allowing patients to transform their personal narratives of Self. Like Western medicine, it is empirical and is presented as a 'local knowledge' that amounts to a practical anthropology of human conflict and the environment. The book seeks to bring this anthropology and its therapeutic applications into relation with global academic anthropology by explaining it through political, economic, interpretive, and environmental lenses

Die Bybelse vas is ’n omvattende studie en eietydse uiteensetting van hoe die Bybelse vas gelowiges kan versterk in geloof en hulle verhouding met Jesus Christus verdiep.

Wanneer ons verstaan hoe om te vas en waarom ons dit doen, betree ons nuwe hoogtes van vryheid, geestelike vuur en oorwinning wat vir alle gelowiges deur Christus bewerk en beskikbaar gestel is. Die Bybelse vas ontsluit die verborge kern van geestelike gesag en berei lesers voor om meer van God in hulle daaglikse wandel te ontdek en te ontvang.

Deur doelbewus die rumoer en bedrywighede van die wêreld opsy te skuif, skep ons meer ruimte vir God, sy stem, sy Woord, sy vrede en sy herstellende teenwoordigheid. Vas is ’n geestelike gebaar van onderwerping en innerlike verootmoediging aan God se gesag en sy koninkryk wat lewensveranderinge gevolge kan hê, want wanneer ons voor God neerbuig, lig Hy ons op.

Elke kind van God is bestem om die misterie van die transformerende krag van die Bybelse vas vir daadwerklike deurbrake op elke vlak van hulle lewe te ontdek en ervaar. Die Bybelse vas is jou sleutel vir die deure na vryheid, oorwinning en ’n ongeskonde verhouding met die Drie-enige God.

By the time you are thinking about divorce you either want one or you’ve just learned your marriage is over. This is often the start of an uphill battle that leaves most people in financial and emotional ruin. Well, not if you Divorce Smart.

With one in three marriages now ending in divorce, it is imperative to be informed of the long-term challenges involved in divorce and separation. This book is a step-by-step guide to navigating the legal paper work, child care planning and financial security issues you will face during and after divorce. Divorce Smart gives the reader clear, concise information on maintenance, property, health care, pension funds and investments, ensuring that women are empowered to secure their home, keep as much wealth as possible and provide for their children well beyond the end of this marriage.

Whether you are married in community of property, traditionally or in a same-sex civil union there is always a way to Divorce Smart.

Francis Grobler skuif die sluier van ’n verskuilde wêreld met ’n afgerigte werklikheid en konformiteite oop met ’n moderne benadering tot digkuns. Die digbundel se outentieke benadering dra by tot ‘n skaars, maar nodige kommoditeit in Afrikaanse poësie.

Nagblind is ’n kragtige, eiesoortige en eenmalige leserservaring. Die woord word verhelder deur retoriek en metafore wat vonk en word sterk beeldend verwoord. Dit delf in die geestelike dimensie en verfyn en rond die eindproduk tot ’n “andersheid” af wat ver verby die grense van konvensies gaan en aan die geskrewe woord ’n nuwe betekenis gee.

Nagblind breek behoorlik die skedels tot nuwe denke.

Olie vir jou lamp bevat 180 maklik-lees dagstukkies vir geestelike inspirasie en bemoediging in moeilike tye, tye waarin mense soms tou opgooi omdat dinge net te veel raak, en tye wanneer ’n mens emosionele en sielgerigte onderskraging nodig het.

Die skrywer deel waarhede oor leiding uit die Woord wat mense soms nie wil hoor nie, maar tog so nodig het. Die doel van hierdie boek is om ander te inspireer, te bemoedig en geestelik te versterk in geloof.

Die skrywer het mense se nood ondervind in versoeke oor seer, bitterheid, vergifnis, familietwis, koue geestelike lewe, huweliksprobleme, verwerping, ontrou, selfdood van geliefde, selfverwyt, afguns, die nagevolge van die Covid-19-pandemie en vele meer relevante temas.

A woman reluctantly takes on the responsibility of putting her eccentric rebellious mother into a retirement home, and managing her care. She has her own daughter to raise and nurture, a marriage and a business to hold together, and her own psychological troubles due in good part to how she was mothered.

My Mother, My Madness is Colleen Higgs’s diary of her mother’s last ten years. It is at once funny, harrowing, mundane, chaotic, and full of insight. It is a rich and moving story which unfolds through its characters like a novel.

Colleen Higgs is the author of two collections of poetry (Halfborn Woman, 2004, and Lava Lamp Poems, 2011) and a short story collection (Looking for Trouble – Yeoville Stories, 2012). She founded Modjaji Books in 2007 and, after publishing more than 150 books, is still Modjaji’s manager and publisher.

Hierdie boek behandel vier hooftemas:

Die toekoms van Afrikaners in `n uiters onseker land;

Die aard van Afrikaans-wees en Afrikaner-wees - verlede, hede en toekoms;

Sleutelvoorwaardes vir `n vooruitstrewende Suid-Afrika;

Wat staan ons as Afrikaners te doen om `n goeie toekoms te help skep?

The first book for a popular audience on the transformative, democratising technology of 'DeFi'.

After over a decade of Bitcoin, which has now moved beyond lore and hype into an increasingly robust star in the firmament of global assets, a new and more important question has arisen. What happens beyond Bitcoin? The answer is decentralised finance - 'DeFi'.

Tech and finance experts Steven Boykey Sidley and Simon Dingle argue that DeFi - which enables all manner of financial transactions to take place directly, person to person, without the involvement of financial institutions - will redesign the cogs and wheels in the engines of trust, and make the remarkable rise of Bitcoin look quaint by comparison. It will disrupt and displace fine and respectable companies, if not entire industries.

Sidley and Dingle explain how DeFi works, introduce the organisations and individuals that comprise the new industry, and identify the likely winners and losers in the coming revolution.

This book takes readers on a series of stimulating intellectual journeys from the late nineteenth century to the contemporary era to explore notions of modernity in the production and reception of the African moving image and of African archival practices. Ideas are presented from multiple historical and contemporary perspectives, while inviting new voices to participate in discussions about the future of the African moving image.

Reframing Africa? makes a plea for the recognition, preservation and repatriation of the African moving image archive, advancing ideas about how it speaks to contemporary Africans, possessed of the power to elucidate their lived experiences and to reorientate perceptions of the past, present and future. On the basis of this wide-ranging appreciation of the archive, the book charts a way forward for African-inflected film studies as well as other programmes in the humanities and social sciences.

Reframing Africa? will appeal to scholars, academics and practitioners across the continent and beyond.

Around the world, more young people than ever before are attending university. Student numbers in South Africa have doubled since democracy and for many families, higher education is a route to a better future for their children. But alongside the overwhelming demand for higher education, questions about its purposes have intensified. Deliberations about the curriculum, culture and costing of public higher education abound from student activists, academics, parents, civil society and policy-makers.

We know, from macro research, that South African graduates generally have good employment prospects. But little is known at a detailed level about how young people actually make use of their university experiences to craft their life courses. And even less is known about what happens to those who drop out.

This accessible book brings together the rich life stories of 73 young people, six years after they began their university studies. It traces how going to university influences not only their employment options, but also nurtures the agency needed to chart their own way and to engage critically with the world around them.

The book offers deep insights into the ways in which public higher education is both a private and public good, and it provides significant conclusions pertinent to anyone who works in - and cares about - universities.

The emigration debate is as old as our democracy itself.

When the “new South Africa” dawned in 1994, many people left the country out of fear for what majority rule would hold. More still left in the years that followed to seek a better life elsewhere, and communities of expats can be found all over the world in places such as Canada, England and Australia. Today, 25 years after the dawn of democracy, as optimism about the country's future ebbs and flows, new impetus has been given to the emigration debate. This time around, it is not only being discussed in reactionary circles, but around dinner tables of all creeds as many people leave for better education, job opportunities and safety. With the reality of nine wasted years tugging at our wallets and future prospects, and the allure of a global economy pulling strong, more and more people are asking, “Should I go?”

In Should we go? more than 20 of South Africa's foremost thought leaders such as Jonathan Jansen, Mandy Wiener, Phumzile van Damme and Ferial Haffajee grapple with this question. It is an attempt to find some answers that will give insight to and challenge every person who is thinking of leaving, has already left, or has decided to stay so that they may thrive as South Africans wherever they are.

Alet Law is the newsletter and engagement editor at News24 and former opinions editor. She holds a PhD in political communication from the University of Cape Town.

The politics of black education has long been a key issue in southern African studies, but despite rich debates on the racial and class dimensions of schooling, historians have neglected their distinctive gendered dynamics. "A World of Their Own" is the first book to explore the meanings of black women's education in the making of modern South Africa. Its lens is a social history of the first high school for black South African women, Inanda Seminary, from its 1869 founding outside of Durban through the recent past.

Employing diverse archival and oral historical sources, Meghan Healy-Clancy reveals how educated black South African women developed a tradition of social leadership, by both working within and pushing at the boundaries of state power. She demonstrates that although colonial and apartheid governance marginalized women politically, it also valorized the social contributions of small cohorts of educated black women. This made space for growing numbers of black women to pursue careers as teachers and health workers over the course of the twentieth century. After the student uprisings of 1976, as young black men increasingly rejected formal education for exile and street politics, young black women increasingly stayed in school and cultivated an alternative form of student politics. Inanda Seminary students' experiences vividly show how their academic achievements challenged the narrow conceptions of black women's social roles harbored by both officials and black male activists. By the transition to democracy in the early 1990s, black women outnumbered black men at every level of education--introducing both new opportunities for women and gendered conflicts that remain acute today.