The English naturalist William Burchell set off from Cape Town in June 1811 to explore the flora and fauna of the vast southern African interior. Over a four-year period, and travelling in a custom-built ox wagon, he amassed an astonishing 63 000 specimens of plants, bulbs, insects, reptiles and mammals – many not previously documented for science – as well as over 500 paintings and illustrations.

While the outbound trek is well described in Burchell’s famous Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, little has been published about the challenges and discoveries made on his return journey to Cape Town, from 1812–1815. This pioneering book traces the homeward leg of Burchell’s epic odyssey – through the arid northern Cape, the Great Karoo, the warravaged eastern Cape, and along the Eden-like southern Cape coast.

Drawing on primary and secondary sources, including Burchell’s letters, his handwritten records archived at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the detailed map he created to record his trek, the authors have crafted a thought-provoking and beautifully illustrated account that encompasses both the genius of the man and the natural history of the region that so intrigued him.

Our Poisoned Land is Jacques Pauwʼs sequel to the bestselling The Presidentʼs Keepers. A publishing phenomenon and South Africaʼs fastest-selling book ever, The Presidentʼs Keepers fearlessly exposed former president Jacob Zumaʼs darkest secrets. Our Poisoned Land is as riveting and explosive as its predecessor.

When he took office in 2018, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed new heads for law-enforcement agencies and formed the Investigating Directorate within the National Prosecuting Authority to bring fraudsters and looters to book. Yet, five years on, crime has spiked, most of the looters still walk free and the law-enforcement agencies are in shambles. What went wrong?

Once again, Jacques Pauw delves deep to find answers. Among his shocking findings are top police officers that had a hand in state capture still ensconced in the Hawks and police Crime Intelligence; a cabal of state-capture prosecutors within the NPA; a police minister cavorting with a convicted drug smuggler; and South Africa’s “own Guptas” living in the lap of luxury after the case against them “disappeared”.

In his compelling narrative style, Pauw picks up where he left off in The Presidentʼs Keepers to expose the shadows, deceit and debauchery of Zumaʼs cronies.

This is the English translation of the updated edition of a work first published by SANParks in 1990. It is an in-depth look at the prehistory and history of the Lowveld, as well as at the events that led to the proclamation of the Sabie Reserve in 1898 – one of the first conservation areas in the old Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek.

After the Anglo-Boer War, James Stevenson-Hamilton was tasked with running both the Sabie Reserve and the Shingwedzi Reserve (proclaimed in 1904). Stevenson-Hamilton, along with his small yet dedicated corps of rangers, protected and developed the reserve, and eventually, in 1926, the Kruger National Park was proclaimed – the biggest national park in South Africa. A Cameo from the Past covers the park’s history up until 1946, when Stevenson-Hamilton retired. The work also pays tribute to all of the park’s founders.

A Cameo from the Past describes the long and sometimes difficult developmental history of SANParks in detail. Despite the good and the bad from the past, the organisation has developed into the leading conservation authority in Africa, responsible for 3 751 113 hectares of protected land in 20 national parks.

Die slawe aan die Kaap het as draers en skeppers van kultuur, ten spyte van onderdrukking, ’n groot invloed uitgeoefen op die ontwikkeling van die samelewing aan die suidpunt van Afrika en veral van ’n inheemse, kreoolse kultuur.

In hierdie boek word die slawe se rol in die ontstaan van dié eiesoortige kultuur vir die eerste keer verken.

Historian Karen Horn painstakingly tracked down a number of former POWs in which their interviews reveal rich narratives of hardship, endurance, humour, longing and self-discovery. Instead of fighting, these men adapted to another war, one which was fought on the inside of many prison camps.

In their interviews, all the POWs expressed surprise at being asked to share their experiences of almost 70 years earlier.They returned home in 1945 to a country which soon afterwards tried its utmost to promote national amnesia with regard to the country’s participation in the war.

With great insight and empathy, Karen Horn shines a light on a neglected corner of South African history. Karen Horn is a lecturer at Stellenbosch University.

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.

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.

A quest is never what you expect it to be.

Elizabeth Madeline Martin spends her days in a retirement home in Cape Town, watching the pigeons and squirrels on the branch of a tree outside her window. Bedridden, her memory fading, she can recall her early childhood spent in a small wood-and-iron house in Blackridge on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg. Though she remembers the place in detail – dogs, a mango tree, a stream – she has no idea of where exactly it is. ‘My memory is full of blotches,’ she tells her daughter Julia, ‘like ink left about and knocked over.’

Julia resolves to find the Blackridge house: with her mother lonely and confused, would this, perhaps, bring some measure of closure? A journey begins that traverses family history, forgotten documents, old photographs, and the maps that stake out a country’s troubled past – maps whose boundaries nature remains determined to resist. Kind strangers, willing to assist in the search, lead to unexpected discoveries of ancestors and wars and lullabies. Folded into this quest are the tender conversations between a daughter and a mother who does not have long to live.

Taken as one, The Blackridge House is a meditation on belonging, of the stories we tell of home and family, of the precarious footprint of life.

Ride the trolley up the ridge of Beacon Hill and discover one of South Seattle's most interesting districts. Unique among Seattle neighborhoods, Beacon Hill is a community where immigrants from all over the globe have settled side by side for over 100 years. This new book tells the story of the people and businesses of Beacon Hill in vintage photographs, the majority of which date before World War II. Readers will learn about the immigrants who worked on farms, opened shops, and labored in shipyards, the building of Jefferson Park, as well as the activism and political struggles that shaped the Beacon Hill neighborhood.

The RFC used the Ramsgate site for emergency landings during December 1914, but it was not developed until the 1930s when Ramsgate councillors proposed an airport be established, and flying commenced in June 1935. Popularity was increased by Sir Alan Cobham's National Aviation Day which was held on 1 August 1935, and a Flying Flea Rally took place in 1936. Crilly and Hillman Airways moved in, but suspended services very soon afterwards. The airfield was extended in 1936, and Flying Holidays took place. On 3 July 1937, Ramsgate Airport Ltd reopened the airport, and the following year the Royal Auxiliary Air Force held summer camps there. Thanet Aero Club joined the Civil Air Guard scheme, and Southern Airways operated a service across the Thames Estuary during the summer, but this all came to a close when war was declared on 3 September 1939. The airfield reopened in 1940 for military use and during the Battle of Britain, Ramsgate, along with nearby RAF Manston, was bombed on 24 August 1940. Following this, and with invasion fears at their height, the airport was obstructed, not reopening until 27 June 1953. Air Kruise Ltd operated on a lease from Ramsgate Cooperation, flying to Europe, and Skyphotos and Skyflights 1950s took over until the summer of 1958. Chrisair started joyriding in 1960, and following their departure in 1963 little happened until East Kent Air Services formed in 1967, but they were not commercially successful and Ramsgate Airport finally closed during 1968. Developers took over and the Art Deco Terminal/Clubhouse was demolished. This book is witness to Ramsgate Airport, now sadly gone.

New edition of the late Stephen Ellis' meticulously researched book that penetrates the secrecy of the ANC in exile for the first time.

After the ANC was banned by the apartheid government in 1960, many of its leaders and members were forced to leave the country. During the next three decades, it had to operate in exile and underground. Yet the real history of this period remains shrouded in mystery.

Some events, such as the Rhodesian campaign of 1967–1968 and the Kabwe conference of 1985, are well known, but lesser known are the intense factional struggles within the organisation, recurring pro-democracy protests and the creation of a security apparatus that inspired widespread fear. Some networks within the exiled ANC became heavily involved in corruption, even colluding with elements of the apartheid security police and secret services.

External Mission aims to provide a full account of the ANC’s years in exile, penetrating the secrecy the organisation erected around itself and testing the myths that emerged from that period. It is based on an exceptionally wide range of sources, including the ANC’s own archives and foreign archives such as those in East Germany, where the movement’s security personnel were trained.

Incisive and revealing, External Mission is key to understanding South Africa today.

The University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa's oldest university, celebrates its treasures in this glossy, gorgeous book. This venerable institution's treasures lie in its architecture, its landscape, its students, its works of art, its archives and collections, and its famous moments, all of which are richly portrayed in color photographs and descriptive text. Rated as one of the most beautiful universities in the world, and the best university in Africa, UCT has reason to boast. The book is designed to display it at its best, at the same time as opening fresh paths of reflection on the university's place in history and the context of its treasures.