What is more profitable than cocaine, heroin, marijuana or guns? Illegally trafficked cigarettes . . .

Reputable tobacco companies have – for decades – been complicit in cigarette smuggling. In this gripping exposé, former SARS lawyer Telita Snyckers uncovers the dark underbelly of the tobacco industry.

She recounts the instances where big tobacco itself was caught redhanded and explores not only why a listed company would want to smuggle its own product, but also how it was done.

Daniel Dumile Qeqe (1929–2005), ‘Baas Dan’, ‘DDQ’. He was the Port Elizabeth leader whose struggles and triumphs crisscrossed the entire gamut of political, civic, entrepreneurial, sports and recreational liberation activism in the Eastern Cape. Siwisa tells the story of Qeqe’s life and times and at the same time has written a social and political biography of Port Elizabeth – a people’s history of Port Elizabeth. As much as Qeqe was a local legend, his achievements had national repercussions and, indeed, continue to this day.

Central to the transformation of sports towards non-racialism, Qeqe paved the way for the mainstreaming and liberation of black rugby and cricket players in South Africa. He co-engineered the birth of the KwaZakhele Rugby Union (Kwaru), a pioneering non-racial rugby union that was more of a political and social movement. Kwaru was a vehicle for political dialogues and banned meetings, providing resources for political campaigns and orchestrations for moving activists into exile.

This story is an attempt at understanding a man of contradictions. In one breath, he was generous and kind to a fault. And yet he was the indlovu, an imposing authoritarian elephant, decisively brutal and aggressive. Then there was Qeqe, the man whose actions were not in keeping with the struggle. This story narrates his role in ‘collaborationist’ civic institutions and in courting reactionary homeland structures, yet through all that he was the signal actor in the emancipation of rugby in South Africa.

Knowledge And Global Power is a ground-breaking international study which examines how knowledge is produced, distributed and validated globally.

The former imperial nations – the rich countries of Europe and North America – still have a hegemonic position in the global knowledge economy. Fran Collyer, Raewyn Connell, João Maia and Robert Morrell, using interviews, databases and fieldwork, show how intellectual workers respond in three Southern tier countries, Brazil, South Africa and Australia. The study focuses on new, socially and politically important research fields: HIV/AIDS, climate change and gender studies.

The research demonstrates emphatically that ‘place matters’, shaping research, scholarship and knowledge itself. But it also shows that knowledge workers in the global South have room to move, setting agendas and forming local knowledge.

For all the critique of interparty coalitions, they become inevitable – and essential instruments of governance – when absolute majorities are not realised in an election. Such governments are, in a sense, a product of the people’s will in that the electorate asserts a lack of overwhelming confidence in any single contestant in the polls.

Marriages of Inconvenience: The politics of coalitions in South Africa is a research- based volume that collates and interprets lessons that South Africa should take to heart in managing such eventualities. This book explores domestic experiences of coalition government as well as case studies from the rest of the African continent and instances further afield.

On the whole, it would seem that South Africa is poorly equipped for coalition politics. This volume seeks to distil the factors that leverage successful coalitions, along with those that undermine them. Authors show that instability in coalitions is not an inevitable product of multiparty governance. In many countries, and indeed in some municipalities in South Africa, there is appreciation of the need to govern cooperatively, constructively and in the popular interest when coalitions become inevitable.

Various chapters of this volume reveal the stabilising effects of coalitions when political parties engage in mature consensus-building and cooperation to deliver effective governance. But there is also acknowledgement of co-governing arrangements beset with debilitating rivalry, which result in severely compromised governance and services to the public. Marriages of Inconvenience: The politics of coalitions in South Africa identifies and explores critical questions about how to stabilise coalition governance in the South African setting. The volume is an essential guide for both practitioners and analysts.

The Nightwatchman: Representing Black Men in Colonial South Africa brings into focus African men in colonial uniforms as a subject of portraiture. While colonial governments coopted and conscripted Africans into military and policing services, it was after the Zulu defeat of the English in the battle of Isandlwana that a genre of photography developed around images of the ‘Zulu warrior’ and ‘Zulu policeman’.

In this illustrated book, Hlonipha Mokoena extends the literature on colonial ethnographic photography by creating a narrative of nightwatchman portraiture from the rich archive of images. Although the origins of this genre lay in the representation of ‘Fingoes’ (amaMfengu) during the frontier wars, she argues that the spectacle of the Zulu male body was inaugurated aft er the last Zulu king, Cetshwayo, was photographed as a posing subject.

While much research has focussed on the African man employed in emasculating labour or as a functionary of settler power, this book shift s debates about how the body moves in history. Placed in uniform, the male subject becomes aestheticised and admired. Mokoena
focuses on the sartorial selection processes and co-optation of colonial aesthetic culture that constructed the idea of the Nonqgqayi or nightwatchman as a fully formed photographic presence. The beauty captured in these images upends conceptions of colonial photography as a tool of oppression.

In its focus on the figure of the black and brown fi ghting man, The Nightwatchman offers an innovative work on the history of portraiture and dress in colonial South Africa. Incorporating insights from African history, art history, anthropology and critical theory, it offers new insights about the use of men of colour in colonial warfare and new avenues for the interpretation of visual representations of the black male figure.

A riveting, action-filled account that sheds light on the realities of working in a war-torn country, this is the first book on the war in Iraq by a South African.

Johan Raath and a security team were escorting American engineers to a power plant south of Baghdad when they were ambushed. He had first arrived in Iraq only two weeks before. This was a small taste of what was to come over the next 13 years while he worked there as a private military contractor (PMC). His mission? Not to wage war but to protect lives. Raath acted as a bodyguard for VIPs and, more often, engineers who were involved in construction projects to rebuild the country after the 2003 war. His physical and mental endurance was tested to the limit in his efforts to safeguard construction sites that were regularly subjected to mortar and suicide attacks. Key to his survival was his training as a Special Forces operator, or Recce.

Working in places called the Triangle of Death and driving on the ‘Hell Run’, Raath had numerous hair-raising experiences. As a trained combat medic he also helped to save people’s lives after two suicide bomb attacks on sites he then worked at.

The commemoration of the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 has brought renewed interest in the fortunes and strategies of the two warring parties and the various battles that were won and lost. But it has also aroused great curiosity about how the ordinary South African people of all races experienced the war. This book looks at how the war impacted upon a particular community – that of Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal republic and the seat of the Boer government.

When the war clouds gathered, how did Pretorians react? What were their emotions when war broke out and how did they cope with wartime conditions?

The effect of the war on schools in the town, on commerce and industry, social activities and the provision of public amenities is described, as well as the way in which residents dealt with new challenges such as treatment of the wounded and the influx of prisoners of war. When the British troops under Lord Roberts began their inexorable march towards Pretoria, the people were thrown into panic. Would the town be defended, and if so what would become of them?

As Roberts drew ever nearer, tension and dismay gave way to utter disbelief when President Kruger and his senior government officials left and the republic’s funds were removed from the National Bank. There is also insight into why this general state of panic flared up into a period of crazy looting and disorder at the end of May 1900. Finally you will read of the occupation of Pretoria and how the ordinary people reacted when Roberts’s weary troops plodded into Church Square in their thousands on the winter afternoon of 5 June 1900.This is a story – a true story – of how the people of Pretoria dealt with a crisis situation more than a hundred years ago. The Boer War has direct mirrors in the US war of independence.

This book has a unique focus on one town and its citizens; and is relevant to all military historians throughout the world as the lessons can be extrapolated.

Most South Africans have strong views on our past and present, often based on how we have been personally affected by history, and an understanding of the challenges that face us as a country. But how well-examined and solid are these positions? Have your views been properly thought through? Are you correctly informed? Do you even have the facts straight?

Rattling the Cage takes the reader on an informed tour of the South African reality: from the highs and lows, the successes and failures, FW de Klerk’s gaffes to Fees Must Fall, the Oscar Pistorius trial, the 2010 FIFA World Cup, triple BEE, global warming, the Covid-19 pandemic, gay rights in Africa, and veganism.

Among the questions Meersman asks are: Do South Africans still believe in their Constitution and democracy? Why do so many young South Africans say Nelson Mandela was a sell-out and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a dismal failure? Is outlawing hate speech and criminalising racist behaviour really a good idea? Why do communities still burn down their schools? How did the Marikana massacre happen in the democratic era? Why are African immigrants increasingly unwelcome in South Africa? Can our media be trusted to tell us the truth? And how do we embrace climate change?

History, big-picture philosophy, grassroots journalism and a novelist’s eye – animated by a genuine sense of moral indignation at the current state of the nation – come together in these essays to provide critical perspectives on and insights into South Africa’s recent past and current political, economic and social undercurrents. No matter what your views are, you are sure to find your understanding of the country deepened, challenged and sometimes changed.

The future of mining in South Africa is hotly contested. Wide-ranging views from multiple quarters rarely seem to intersect, placing emphasis on different questions without engaging in holistic debate.

This book aims to catalyse change by gathering together fragmented views into unifying conversations. It highlights the importance of debating the future of mining in South Africa and for reaching consensus in other countries across the mineral-dependent globe.

It covers issues such as the potential of platinum to spur industrialisation, land and dispossession on the platinum belt, the roles of the state and capital in mineral development, mining in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the experiences of women in and affected by mining since the late 19th century and mine worker organising: history and lessons and how post-mine rehabilitation can be tackled.

It was inspired not only by an appreciation of South Africa’s extensive mineral endowments, but also by a realisation that, while the South African mining industry performs relatively well on many technical indicators, its management of broader social issues leaves much to be desired. It needs to be deliberated whether the mining industry can play as critical a role going forward as it did in the evolution of the country’s economy.

By uncovering the untold story of Vesta Smith (1922–2013), a community activist from Noordgesig, Soweto, this biography addresses a crucial gap in the literature on the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.

Based on extensive interviews and previously unexamined archival materials, it reveals how her Christian faith fuelled her commitment to non-racialism and lifelong pursuit of social justice and how her non-sectarian, anti-apartheid activism connected generations, ideologies and communities.

This book reframes Ma Vesta’s legacy, celebrating her contributions while offering fresh insights into non-racialism, the politics of the everyday and the role of black women and Christians in the liberation struggle.

A powerful tale of resilience and hope, it stands as an inspiration for contemporary movements seeking social justice and community empowerment.

The defeat of Apartheid and triumph of non-racial democracy in South Africa was not the work of just a few individuals. Ultimately, it came about through the actions – large and small – of many principled, courageous people from all walks of life and backgrounds.

Some of these activists achieved enduring fame and recognition and their names today loom large in the annals of the anti-apartheid struggle. Others were engaged in a range of practical, hands-on activities outside of the public eye. These were the loyal foot soldiers of the liberation Struggle, the unsung workers at the coal face who, largely behind the scenes, made a difference on the ground and helped to bring about meaningful change.

Even though Apartheid was aimed at entrenching white power and privilege, a number of whites rejected that system and instead joined their fellow South Africans in opposing it. Of these, a noteworthy proportion came from the Jewish community.

Mensches in the Trenches tells the hitherto unrecorded stories of some of these activists and the essential, if seldom publicised role that they and others like them played in bringing freedom and justice to their country.

For the first time, the 92-metre frieze of the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, one of the largest historical narratives in marble, has been made the subject of a book.

The pictorial narrative of the Boer pioneers who conquered South Africa’s interior during the ‘Great Trek’ (1835-1852) represents a crucial period of South Africa’s past. Forming the concept of the frieze both reflected on and contributed to the country’s socio-political debates in the 1930s and 1940s when it was made. The frieze is unique in that it provides rare evidence of the complex processes followed in creating a major monument.

Based on unpublished documents, drawings and models, these processes are unfolded step by step, from the earliest discussions of the purpose and content of the frieze through all the stages of its design to its shipping to post-war Italy to be copied into marble and final installation in the Monument. The book examines how visual representation transforms historical memory in what it chooses to recount, and the forms in which it depicts this. It also investigates the active role the Monument played in the development of apartheid, and its place in post-apartheid heritage.

The second volume, to be published later this year, expands on the first, considering each of the twenty-seven scenes in depth, providing new insights into not only the frieze, but also South Africa’s history.

Our country is in turmoil: political corruption at the highest levels of government; criminals able to walk out of prison at their convenience and live lives of luxury; and power blackouts for 12 hours a day.

But we South Africans also know how to make things work.

This book is a wealth of simple, cost-effective ideas that could immediately improve our nation:

• Want to know how to revitalize tourism in SA? There’s a way, and it’s free!
• Transform our policing system without breaking the bank.
• Upgrade our education and healthcare without adding a cent to the budget.
• Implement a sustainable alternative to the basic income grant while boosting the economy.
• Resolve the land issue without resorting to expropriation.

No matter who you vote for, get your politicians to drive these ideas.

Land reform and the possibility of expropriation without compensation are among the most hotly debated topics in South Africa today, met with trepidation and fervour in equal measure. But these broader issues tend to obscure a more immediate reality: a severe housing crisis and a sharp increase in urban land occupations.

In Promised Land, Karl Kemp travels the country documenting the fallout of failing land reform, from the under-siege Philippi Horticultural Area deep in the heart of Cape Town’s ganglands to the burning mango groves of Tzaneen, from Johannesburg’s lawless Deep South to rural KwaZulu-Natal, where chiefs own vast tracts of land on behalf of their subjects. He visits farming communities beset by violent crime, and provides gripping, on-the-ground reporting of recent land invasions, with perspectives from all sides, including land activists, property owners and government officials. Kemp also looks at burning issues surrounding the land debate in South Africa – corruption, farm murders, illegal foreign labour, mechanisation and eviction – and reveals the views of those affected.

Touching on the history of land conflict and conquest in each area, as well as detailing the current situation on the ground, Promised Land provides startling insights into the story of land conflict in South Africa.

In 1987–1988 was die stowwerige Angolese dorpie Cuito Cuanavale die toneel van die laaste gevegte van die Grensoorlog. Sedertdien is dit die fokuspunt van ’n openbare debat oor wie eintlik hierdie oorlog gewen het.

Die leierskorps van die Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag (SAW) hou vol hulle is nooit verslaan nie, terwyl die alliansie van die Angolese MPLA-regering, Kuba en Swapo beweer hulle het die SAW uit Angola en Suidwes-Afrika verdryf. Hulle glo voorts die SAW wou Cuito Cuanavale beset en as afspringplek gebruik om Luanda in te neem.

Maar was Cuito Cuanavale ooit regtig ’n doelwit vir die Suid-Afrikaners? Dit is die vraag wat Leopold Scholtz vra wanneer hy onlangs gedeklassi-fiseerde dokumente in die weermagargief bestudeer en die taktiese en strategiese besluite ondersoek wat ’n bepalende rol in die ses groot veldslae van dié veldtog gespeel het.

Sy kritiese ontleding wys hoe maklik propaganda en politiek in die pad van feite kan staan.

This book is the product of many years’ research by Lodge, whose Black Politics in South Africa since 1945 (1983) established him as a leading commentator on South African politics, past and present.

2021 will mark the centenary of the foundation of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) and today’s South African Communist Party (SACP, founded in 1953 after the proscription of the CPSA) will be extremely fortunate to have the milestone marked by a scholarly work of this calibre. Since 1994, many memoirs have been written by communists, and private archives have been donated to university and other collections. Significant official archives have been opened to scrutiny, particularly those of South Africa and the former Soviet Union. It is as if a notoriously secretive body has suddenly become confiding and confessional! While every chapter draws upon original material of this sort, such evidence is supported, amplified, illuminated and challenged by the scholarship of others: the breadth of secondary sources used by the author reflects what may well be an unrivalled familiarity with the scholarly literature on political organisations and resistance in twentieth century South Africa.

Lodge provides a richly detailed history of the Party’s vicissitudes and victories; individuals – their ideas, attitudes and activities – are sensitively located within their context; the text provides a fascinating sociology of the South African left over time. Lodge is adept at making explicit what the key questions and issues are for different periods; and he answers these with analyses and conclusions that are judicious, clearly stated, and meticulously argued.

Without doubt, this book will become a central text for students of communism in South Africa, of the Party’s links with Russia and the socialist bloc, and of the Communist Party’s changing relations with African nationalism – before, during and after three decades of exile.

1-Recce was die skerpste, veelsydigste en dodelikste spesialiseenheid in die ganse Suid-Afrikaanse weermag. Dié manne was superfiks, bomenslik taai en het vir niks gestuit nie. Hulle het telkens hul lewens op die spel geplaas in die uitvoering van hoogs geheime operasies agter vyandelike linies.

Dekades lank is oor al dié hoogs geheime sendings geswyg. Nou, vir die eerste keer, openbaar die Recce's se groot generaals (waaronder die legendariese kol Jan Breytenbach) hoe hulle gestuur is om verskeie polities sensitiewe operasies uit te voer.

Daar word onthul hoe hulle in die doodsnikke van die apartheidsera gestuur is, en op die laaste oomblik verhoed is, om sleutel ANC-figure op te blaas. Hulle vertel van 1-Recce se betrokkenheid by die omstrede Grensoorlog en die bestaan van 'n hoogsgeheime "Eskadron" in die destydse Rhodesiese Weermag.

Ná jare van mites en geheimhouding gee dié boek 'n totaal nuwe blik op die Recce's en die werk wat hulle onsigbaar agter die skerms gedoen het.

Over 60 million children of primary-school age, mostly in Africa and Asia, are not in school. More then 250 million are in school but are not experiencing meaningful learning.

In South Africa, school is compulsory for children aged seven to 15, where they are expected to learn core skills – reading, writing and arithmetic – and improve their chances of future employment. But for some, schools are places of persistent failure, of humiliation, of boredom and lack of progress.

Finding Place and Keeping Pace: Exploring meaningful and equitable learning in South African schools is about getting access to and completing a full cycle of good-quality basic education. The contributors span a range of methodologies that include policy analysis, classroom observation and learner assessment, bringing together a rich set of studies that explore a pattern of exclusion from meaningful learning by South African schoolchildren. In particular, they look at schoolchildren who attend school regularly, but are not learning due to inadequate facilities, indifferent teachers and socio-economic factors. They are at risk of either dropping out or leaving school with limited resources.

Within the country, access to schooling remains uneven across and within provinces, and between different communities, with poverty, race and location being major factors. Physical access is just the first hurdle – once through the school gates it is expected that children will be provided with knowledge and values that will allow them to function in the economic and social life of the country. However, this is not the general case – children may be at school but without accessing education.

The authors identify several patterns of exclusion, including different forms of marginalisation, age-inappropriate enrolments, and the fact that school choice, voice and quality remain restricted. They also make policy recommendations, which include improving the quality of teachers and teaching, enhancing parental and community involvement, and clarifying the Language-in-Education policy.

As a follow up to the bestselling Killing Kebble: An Underworld Exposed (2010), the new book from Mandy Wiener examines how organised crime, gangsters and powerful political figures have been able to capture the law enforcement authorities and agencies.

These various organisations have been eviscerated, hollowed out and left ineffective. They have been infiltrated and compromised and, as a result, prominent underworld figures have been able to flourish in South Africa, setting up elaborate networks of crime with the assistance of many cops.

The criminal justice system has been left exposed and it is crucial that the South African public knows about the capture that has occurred on different levels.

Twenty years on from South Africa’s first democratic election, the post-apartheid political order is more fractured, and more fractious, than ever before. Police violence seems the order of the day – whether in response to a protest in Ficksburg or a public meeting outside a mine in Marikana. For many, this has signalled the end of the South African dream. Politics, they declare, is the preserve of the corrupt, the self-interested, the incompetent and the violent. They are wrong. In South Africa’s insurgent citizens, Julian Brown argues that a new kind of politics can be seen on the streets and in the courtrooms of the country. This politics is made by a new kind of citizen – one that is neither respectful nor passive, but instead insurgent. The collapse of the dream of a consensus politics is not a cause for despair. South Africa’s political order is fractured, and in its cracks new forms of activity, new leaders and new movements are emerging.

Nicol Stassen is die voorste kenner op die Dorslandtrekkers en hul merkwaardige swerftogte aan die binneland van Suider-Afrika. In Van Humpata tot Upingtonia vertel hy op boeiende wyse hoe dit gebeur het dat ’n aantal trekkers in 1885 die republiek Upingtonia in die noorde van Damaraland gestig het.

Die Kaapse bruin man William Worthington Jordan, een van die merkwaardigste persone wat gedurende hierdie jare in Suider-Afrika geleef het, het ’n belangrike rol gespeel in die stigting hiervan. Sy tragiese dood en die ondergang van die vergete republiek Upingtonia word van naderby belig.

When writer Harriet Perlman and photographer Mark Lewis set about documenting the lives of the families whose loved ones had been so horribly killed in the Life Esidemi tragedy, they were determined to honour the dead, and to recognise the sufferings of those left behind. They embarked on a journey across South Africa, meeting face-to-face with families grappling with the unimaginable loss of loved ones. Their heartbreaking stories, accompanied by powerful photographs, forge a deep connection with the victims. These portraits are not just faces on a page, but a testament to the human cost of this tragedy.

In late 2015 and 2016, South Africa witnessed a horrific human rights tragedy. 144 people entrusted to the public health system died from neglect, starvation, and torture. This book delves into this heartbreaking event, the Life Esidimeni tragedy, offering a powerful narrative built on the stories of those most affected.

The investigation goes beyond the headlines, exposing the systemic failures that led to this national crisis. It explores the vast distances families were forced to travel in search of their loved ones, many living on the periphery with limited resources. This unflinching book sheds light on the social and economic factors that contributed to the Life Esidimeni disaster.

This book is not merely a chronicle of loss; it is a celebration of resilience and courage. It shines a light on the tireless efforts of organisations like SECTION27, SADAG, and the Life Esidimeni Family Committee. These unsung heroes fought relentlessly for truth, justice and accountability, holding those in power responsible for their actions.

South Africa approaches 20 years of democracy and what better way to look back at the country's wild ride than through the lens of Zapiro.

Look back to see how far the country has come but also how much further we still need to go to fulfil the promise of those early years of democracy.

South Africa may have changed in twenty years but Zapiro's sharp wit and cutting satire have remained a welcome constant over the years.

This is fundamentally a text about race and antiblack racism and their subsequent production of the problem of alienation (separation) of human beings from one another, from their bodies, and from themselves, globally, but with distinct and conscious focus on the historical context of apartheid and “post”-apartheid South Africa through the psychological lens of one of the country’s first and distinguished clinical psychologists, Noel Chabani Manganyi.

The book is a philosophically critical engagement with his work, and it constitutes, as it were, part of the author’s overarching project of attempting to reclaim and retrieve hitherto overlooked, ignored and invisibilised Black thinkers of the past and present. Although Manganyi has written over 10 books, the most important and popular being Being-Black-in-the-World (1973) and Alienation and the Body in Racist Society (1977), his ideas and work have, for one reason or another, been disregarded by mainstream South African psychology, let alone philosophy. The author foregrounds philosophy as also a culprit because Manganyi himself describes his work as that of “a psychologist who thinks and conceptualises psychological reality in a phenomenological way”.

Manganyi has the distinction of being the first Black clinical psychologist trained in South Africa as the title of his latest book, Apartheid and the Making of a Black Psychologist (2016) indicates. His body of published work reveals that from the beginning he has been involved in an attempt to contextualise his discipline, psychology, to the lived realities of his country, that is, apartheid racism and the alienation it produced on Black people. In other words, his main concern has been to utilise psychological discourse to address issues relevant to what can broadly be called “the Black lived-experience” in an antiblack racist society and their experience of the condition of alienation. As such he stood as a solitary figure whose voice was pushed to the margins of the psychological establishment, which was either silent about or complicit in the oppression of Blacks by the apartheid regime.

By exploring Manganyi’s serious concerns about apartheid racism and its attendant devastating production of alienation among Black people, the author argues that the problem of alienation produced by continuing rampant antiblack racism (even from the hands of a Black government) constitutes itself as a lingering problem of “post”-apartheid South Africa.

The author demonstrates that apartheid and alienation are not only conceptually synonymous but experientially related because what connects antiblack racism (apartheid) and alienation is the fact of our embodied existence in the world and that Black alienation manifests itself through the body. After all, antiblack racism is predicated on bodily appearance and body differences among human beings. Manganyi himself places a high premium on the body precisely because, in his view, the Black subjects have inherited a negative sociological schema of their black bodies as a result of which most of them experience themselves as somethings or objects outside of themselves, that is.

The value of revisiting Manganyi’s contribution can be underlined by reference to imperatives posed in recent incidents of antiblack racism and contemporary approaches to race and embodiment in disciplines such as philosophy (Black existentialism), psychology, sociology, cultural studies and identity politics.

This book's focus spans a wide variety of disciplines, including psychology, philosophy, political philosophy, critical race studies and post-colonialism, and therefore will be of interest to a broad cross-section of undergraduate and graduate students, scholars and activists.

A collection of Robert Sobukwe’s political writings, speeches and court testimonies supplemented by an account of his years in Kimberley following his release from Robben Island.

There are several accounts of Robert Sobukwe’s courageous role in contesting South Africa’s system of apartheid and of his incarceration on Robben Island after the Anti-Pass Campaign that led to the tragic events of Sharpeville in March 1960. Far less attention has been paid to the years the leader of the Pan-Africanist Congress spent in Kimberley, between 1969 and 1978, after his release from the Island.

Darkest Before Dawn, the follow-up to Lie on Your Wounds: The Prison Correspondence of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, captures the story of the post-prison years of Sobukwe’s life. This latest compilation complete with a biographical narrative by the editors and enriched with images from Sobukwe’s life in this period of his life demonstrates the many challenges Sobukwe faced as well as his continued political resolve to fight for an end to apartheid. This is captured in the many meetings he had in spite of banning orders and letters he exchanged with friends and admirers, including the celebrated novelist Bessie Head whose letters to Sobukwe are published here for the first time. Sobukwe continued to meet political allies, such as Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko, he pursued a legal career and played host to international visitors. The portrait of Sobukwe that emerges is that of a highly ethical man, a figure of dignity and fortitude, and a wise elder whose commitment to the people of Africa and to the vision of Pan-Africanism who remained undeterred, despite his being forced to live, in his final years, under near impossible conditions. To do justice to Sobukwe’s legacy, his intellectual contribution and his unfailing desire to pursue liberation for the African people, we need to view his biography against the backdrop of his words.

Darkest Before Dawn includes a definitive collection of his political writings, speeches, unpublished court testimonies, interviews with Gail Gerhart and Joe Thloloe, and expansive annotations by the compilers. The book ends with a reflective essay which highlights the ongoing pertinence of Sobukwe’s legacy.