From 1952 to 1981, South Africa's apartheid government ran a school for the training of African art teachers at Indaleni, in what is today KwaZulu-Natal. The Art Of Life In South Africa is about the students, teachers, art, ideas, and politics that led to the school's founding, and which circulated during the years of its existence at a remote former mission station. It is a story of creativity, beauty, and community in twentieth-century South Africa.

Daniel Magaziner radically reframes apartheid-era South African history. Against the dominant narrative of apartheid oppression and black resistance, this book focuses instead on a small group's efforts to fashion more fulfilling lives through the ironic medium of an apartheid-era school.

Lushly illustrated with almost 100 images, this book gives us fully formed lives and remarkable insights into life under segregation and apartheid.

Paul Erasmus’s searing account of his time as a security policeman during apartheid is nothing short of explosive.

In this book, remarkable for its candour as for its effort at Erasmus’s attempt at coming to a reckoning with the atrocities he committed or was party to, we read of the National Party’s determination to destroy Winnie Mandela, to terrorise anti-apartheid activists, and to smear and compromise people who did not accept the ‘Volk en Vaderland’ way. Erasmus lays bare the corruption and power mongering in the South African Police and the fascist associations that some cops were linked to. He names names, but ultimately asks himself how he could have done what he did.

His testimony before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was extensive and allowed a view into the world of Stratcom. This book takes that testimony a step further.

On 2 February 1959, a musical about the life and times of heavyweight boxing star Ezekiel Dhlamini (known as 'King Kong') opened in Johannesburg to a packed audience that included Nelson Mandela. King Kong was not just South Africa's first ever musical, but one that grew out of a collaboration between black people and white, and showcased an all-black cast.

It was an instant hit, bursting through the barriers of apartheid and eventually playing to 200,000 South Africans of every colour before transferring to London's West End. Pat Williams, the show's lyricist, was at the time an apolitical young woman trying to free herself from the controls and prejudices of the genteel white society in which she lived. Here she recounts her experience of growing up in a divided South Africa, her involvement in the musical, and its lasting impact both on herself and on the show's cast, many of whom went on to find international fame, like South African jazz legends Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela. Her memoir takes the story up to the present day.

It is both a vivid evocation of a troubled time and place as well as a celebration of a joyous production, in which a group of young people came together in South Africa's dark times - to create a show which still lives on today.

While African National Congress narratives dominate much of the scholarship on South Africa’s freedom struggle, Josie Mpama/Palmer’s political life offers a different perspective. Highly critical of the patriarchal attitudes that hindered black women from actively participating in politics, Mpama/Palmer was an outspoken advocate for women’s social equality and encouraged black women to become more involved in national conversations.

The first black woman to join the Communist Party of South Africa and an antiapartheid activist, Josie Mpama/Palmer remained involved in critical issues all her life, especially protests against Bantu Education and other forms of racial and sexist discrimination. She was an integral figure in establishing the Federation of South African Women, an organization open to women of all races.

Mpama/Palmer’s activism and political legacy would become an inspiring example for women in South Africa and around the world to get up and get moving.

Future Tense analyses the squandered and corrupted years since Leon’s first award-winning biography.

Leon, with unique access and penetrating insight, presents a portrait of today’s South Africa and prospective future, based on his vast political involvement with key power players. His intimate view of these presidents and their history-making, and his many worldly encounters, reflects on a country and planet in upheaval. Leon also provides an insider view for the first time of the power struggles within the official opposition party, which saw the exit of its first black leader in 2019.

Written during the coronavirus lockdown, Future Tense also examines the surge of both the disease and the response, which has crashed the economy and its future prospects, as well as the rise of a dangerous Julius Malema-led populism, and how this echoes global discontent elsewhere. There is every reason to fear for the future of South Africa, but Leon advocates hope.

Some of South Africa’s finest academic minds look back at twenty years of democratic rule.

How far have we really come? Is race still an entrenched issue in our country? Why does gender discrimination continue? Why are the poor in revolt? Is free expression under threat? What happened to South African Marxism? What drives Julius Malema? How have the unions experienced the post-apartheid years?

These (and many other) questions run through pages that, amongst other things, bring back the voices of both Neville Alexander and Jakes Gerwel. Analytical and accessable, this book continues a long tradition of engaging South Africa’s politics and society in a non-partisan, but critical, fashion.

It opens the way for innate explanations and provides insights that lie beyond the workaday accounts on offer by pundits.

The intimate and personal story behind the man who tried to kill Verwoerd but didn’t succeed.

“The raucous wail of sirens pierced the quiet Saturday afternoon, making me drop my book and rush outside to see what drama was taking place. A fleet of cars, their sirens screaming, roared along Oxford Road two hundred yards from our house. I stood on the lawn wondering what on earth it was because sirens were rarely heard near our home. I went back inside; the commotion was over. But within half an hour our telephone started ringing non-stop . . .”

9 April 1960 was the day that changed Susie Cazenove’s life – the day her father, David Pratt, shot the Prime Minister of South Africa, Dr Hendrik Verwoerd. Verwoerd, commonly known as the architect of apartheid, didn’t die, but Pratt’s family lived with the legacy of his action.

A chance encounter with the late David Rattray of Fugitive’s Drift led Cazenove to revisit the memories of that terrible day. With Rattray’s encouragement she put pen to paper to describe the extraordinary events of that day and its consequences. Part family memoir, part ode to the settlement of Johannesburg, Cazenove skilfully weaves her family history and the mood in South Africa in the 1950s and 60s as a background to what may have led her father, a farmer and gentle man, to commit a treasonous act.

This book investigates the ways in which soft power is used by African countries to help drive global influence.

Selecting four of the countries most associated with soft power across the continent, this book delves into the currencies of soft power across the region: from South Africa’s progressive constitution and expanding multinational corporations, to Nigeria’s Nollywood film industry and Technical Aid Corps (TAC) scheme, Kenya’s sport diplomacy, fashion and tourism industries, and finally Egypt’s Pan-Arabism and its reputation as the cradle of civilisation. The book asks how soft power is wielded by these countries and what constraints and contradictions they encounter. Understandings of soft power have typically been driven by Western scholars, but throughout this book, Oluwaseun Tella aims to Africanise our understanding of soft power, drawing on prominent African philosophies, including Nigeria’s Omolúwàbí, South Africa’s Ubuntu, Kenya’s Harambee, and Egypt’s Pharaonism.

This book will be of interest to researchers from across political science, international relations, cultural studies, foreign policy and African Studies.

The idea that the period of social turbulence in the nineteenth century was a consequence of the emergence of the powerful Zulu kingdom under Shaka has been written about extensively as a central episode of southern African history. Considerable dynamic debate has focused on the idea that this period – the ‘mfecane’- left much of the interior depopulated, thereby justifying white occupation. One view is that ‘the time of troubles’ owed more to the Delagoa Bay Slave trade and the demands of the labour-hungry Cape colonists than to Shaka’s empire building. But is there sufficient evidence to support the argument? The Mfecane Aftermath investigates the very nature of historical debate and examines the uncertain foundations of much of the previous historiography.

The richly anecdotal story of an extraordinary life – when baby Mamphela was born to teacher parents in the rural village of Kranspoort, few would have predicted that she would become not only a medical doctor, but an international leader and the founder of not one but two new political movements. As a young woman, Mamphela was instrumental in creating the ideology of Black Consciousness with her partner, Steve Biko. As an accomplished and well-off businesswoman who had reached the pinnacle of success, this year she felt compelled to start Agang SA , to provide South African voters with an alternative to the inept and increasingly corrupt ANC.

In this very readable autobiography, Mamphela Ramphele vividly describes her rural childhood, her extended family, her first loves and losses – after the death of her firstborn, she nearly lost her and Steve’s baby after his death by torture – and her subsequent successes in both politics and business.

She exposes what went on behind the scenes in the run-up to the launch of Agang SA, discusses her relationship with a number of prominent South Africans, including Helen Zille, and she shares her vision for a future South Africa of which we can all be proud.

’n Asteroïde so groot soos Tafelberg tref meer as twee miljard jaar gelede die plek wat uiteindelik Suid-Afrika sou word. Ná dié slag volg ’n onstuimige geskiedenis.

Die storie begin in die tyd toe die aarde se rykste goudneerslae gevorm is. Van hier strek die verhaal tot verby die geboorte van demokrasie in 1994 – ’n ander gebeurtenis wat die wêreld se asem weggeslaan het. Langs die weg kom ’n mens die oudste dinosourusse wat ooit gelewe het teë, asook die planeet se heel eerste mense en vroegste kulture. Inkomelinge het die geskiedenis gevorm – jagterversamelaars, landbouers en kuddewagters, ystersmede vanuit die noorde, en immigrante vanuit Europa en Asië.

Suid-Afrika se mense het oorlog gemaak en vrede gesluit, goud en diamante ontdek, glorieryke hoogtes bereik en in die dieptes van onderdrukking verval – totdat almal op ’n dag as gelykes in ’n ry ingeval het om vir ’n regering te stem wat hulle as demokratiese volk die een-en-twintigste eeu sou binnelei. Dit is die verhaal van dinosourusse, diamante en demokrasie.

In die plaaslike verkiesing van 2016 is die ANC bloedneus geslaan toe hy drie metrorade aan die opposisie moes afstaan. Gaan die verdeelde regerende party onder Cyril Ramaphosa kan verenig en in 2019 ’n meerderheid by die stembus behaal? Of gaan die DA en die EFF hul groot ideologiese verskille kan oorkom om die ANC uit die kussings te lig?

Sedert Jacob Zuma as president bedank het, het Suid-Afrika se politieke landskap dramaties verander. Die gesoute politieke joernalis Jan-Jan Joubert kyk na alle moontlike scenario’s en neem die leser agter die skerms na waar die geheime politieke smouswerk plaasvind. Hy oorweeg al die beskikbare opsies vir politieke partye in die aanloop tot die volgende verkiesing. Sal die ANC ’n koalisie vorm om in beheer te bly? En wat is die kans dat dié party na die EFF sal draai om meer steun te werf?

Een ding is seker - ooreenkomste sal aangegaan word. Die uitslae van plaaslike en tusenverkiesings wys vir Joubert dat die volgende verkiesing die eerste in 25 jaar kan wees waarin geen party ’n volstrekte meerderheid behaal nie.

In eksklusiewe onderhoude deel politieke leiers ook hul standpunte oor die belangrikste kwessies wat burgers en partye verdeel – of dalk kan verenig.

South Africa’s Suspended Revolution engages with the country’s transition into democracy and its prospects for inclusive development. It is an antidote to many descriptive and voluntarist explanations in which leaders and other actors are treated as unfettered agents whose choices and behaviour are merely the result of their own abilities or follies. In contrast, Adam Habib explains the story of how South Africa arrived at this point by locating these actors in context. He tries to understand the institutional constraints within which they operated, why they made the choices they did, and what the consequences are. The book also explores what other policy options and behavioural choices may have been available, and why these were forsaken for the ones that were eventually adopted.

In essence, the book is about how South Africa got to its present state of affairs, what the country’s current challenges are, and how these could be transcended. It is deeply historical in the sense of understanding what possibilities may have existed in one moment, but not another. The narrative recognises that societies evolve and as a result the potential for political and socioeconomic advances themselves change.

This then is a story of the dynamic interplay between actors and context, how the latter can constrain and condition the former, but also how individuals and institutions can, with imagination, act against the grain of their location and historical moment, thereby transforming the possibilities and, through them, society itself.

Adam Habib is Vice-chancellor and Principal of the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He has held academic appointments at the University of Durban-Westville, the University of KwaZulu-Natal (where he was founding director of the Centre for Civil Society), the University of Johannesburg and the Human Sciences Research Council. Habib is widely recognised as one of the more authoritative commentators on South Africa’s democracy and its prospects for inclusive development.

‘Wathint’ Abafazi, Wathint’ Imbokodo’ – You strike the women, you strike the rock.

From the construction of gender under apartheid South Africa, to the impact of the pass laws, this book examines how history has shaped the conditions of women today. The book contributes to and extends the narrative of gender issues beyond the women’s march of 1956, and highlights and celebrates the important ways in which women have organised and continue to work around these socio-economic issues.

What kind of president will Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma be if she is chosen at the ANC’s December 2017 congress? She has been fairly media-averse and hasn’t granted many interviews in the past few years, but taking a closer look at her history does provide some clues about the kind of leader she is.

In this book, journalist Carien du Plessis looks at Dlamini-Zuma’s early years, education and involvement in the struggle; her role as a cabinet minister under all four presidents of democratic South Africa; and her achievements as African Union Commission chairperson.

The book considers her feminism and political philosophy; tracks her presidential ambitions and campaigning; and explores how her personal relationship with one of her most important backers, President Jacob Zuma, will influence her leadership.

Few countries in transition have managed to get a grip on public finances as well as SA after 1994. Now the nation’s credibility and democratic project lies in tatters as we teeter on the brink of a political and fiscal cliff.

Business confidence has evaporated, causing SA to be downgraded to junk status, crushing growth potential and pushing us towards a debt trap. How did we land in this mess, and can we pull back from the brink?

Award-winning journalist Claire Bisseker unpacks the crisis.

This collection brims with the imaginative, informative and comic personal narratives of Hedley Twidle. Twidle brings a sense of lightness, play and comedy to subjects that are often dealt with in predictable or self-righteous ways.

It chronicles South Africa during the ‘second transition’ – one in which the foundations of the post-apartheid settlement are being shaken and questioned in all kinds of ways.

What are the real roots of the student protests of 2015 and 2016? Is it actually about fees? Why did so many protests turn violent? Where is the government while the buildings burn, and do the students know how to end the protests?

Former Free State University Vice-Chancellor Jonathan Jansen delves into the unprecedented disruption of universities that caught South Africa by surprise. In frank interviews with eleven of the VCs most affected, he examines the forces at work, why the protests escalate into chaos, and what is driving – and exasperating – our youth.

This urgent and necessary book gives us an insider view of the crisis, tells us why the conflict will not go away and what it means for the future of our universities.

In 1889 a gold rush broke out on the Witwatersrand, changing South Africa’s history forever. More than 130 years later the mining industry is still one of the biggest drivers of the economy but this was at the expense of those who worked underground. Broke & Broken is the story of the thousands of men from South Africa and beyond its borders who paid with their lives for generations. These are men who left their homes as healthy, ambitious youngsters and returned broke, broken and bitter; victims of the shameful legacy of gold mining. The book seeks to say the names of the mineworkers who, through their sweat, blood and tears, have built this country’s economy, because their own stories and their own spirits need to be magnified. The precious stone they spent most of their lives digging brought no shine to their lives – only pain, tears and death. #SayTheirNames, remembering some of the men eaten, chewed and spat out by the gold mines: Mokete Bokako has a speech defect which was allegedly caused by complications from silicosis. He worked on South Africa’s gold mines for many years before he was retrenched. He now lives alone in poverty in Roma, Lesotho; Alloys Mncedi Msuthu of Ramafole in the Eastern Cape suffers from silicosis. He was paid R76 000 after he was declared medically incapacitated, but that money was too little to sustain him and his family and to cover medical costs. He now struggles to survive; Mthobeli Gangatha was told to ‘go home and die’ in 2001, when he was 37 years. He now owns a small grocery store in Nkunzimbini village where he comes from; Zwelendaba Mgidi was 23 years old when he left his village of Kwabhala near Flagstaff. He returned home in 2011, aged 52. He was diagnosed with silicosis in 2008, aged 48.

Lionel `Rusty' Bernstein was arrested at Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia, on 11 July 1963 and tried for sabotage, alongside Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and other leaders of the African National Congress and Umkhonto we Sizwe in what came to be known as the Rivonia Trial.

He was acquitted in June 1964, but was immediately rearrested. After being released on bail, he fled with his wife Hilda into exile, followed soon afterwards by their family. This classic text, first published in 1999, is a remarkable man's personal memoir of a life in South African resistance politics from the late 1930s to the 1960s.

In recalling the events in which he participated, and the way in which the apartheid regime affected the lives of those involved in the opposition movements, Rusty Bernstein provides valuable insights into the social and political history of the era.

Is South Africa going to make it? Are we going to become a shining example of a modern society, a proud member of the world's leading countries? Are we going to be OK? Are we already OK? Or are our worst fears going to become reality? That despite being geographically and culturally one of the most amazing countries in the world, we're going one way, straight down, all the way? Are we becoming a failed state?

That's the question South Africans ask themselves now and then. And that's the question J.P. Landman would like to answer in this book. He wants to answer the question simply but compellingly. He doesn't want his answer to be a thumb-suck or a knee-jerk reaction. Nor does he want to be an optimist or a pessimist. He wants to be a realist. As an economist, that's what he am. He lets the facts speak. He would like to give you long-term, good, solid facts. An informed view. He calls it the Long view.

He bases it on the stuff that transcends the daily drama we see on TV and in the newspapers. It's information that you can hold on to. Something that gives you a proper understanding of the realities of South Africa. Next time you're standing around a braai or sitting around a dinner table and some okie starts gaaning aan about the latest drama, you don't need to go into a tailspin yourself. Give him five facts. Then carry on making the most of your meal. And this country.

When Jacob Zuma retires to Nkandla, what will be left behind?

South Africa has been in the grip of the “Zunami” since May 2009: Scandal, corruption and allegations of state capture have become synonymous with the Zuma era, leaving the country and its people disheartened. But Jacob Zuma’s time is running out. Whether he leaves the presidency after the ANC’s national conference in 2017, stays on until 2019, or is forced to retire much sooner, the question is: what impact will his departure have on South Africa, its people and on the ruling party? Can we fix the damage, and how?

Ralph Mathekga answers these questions and more as he puts Zumaʼs leadership, and what will come after, in the spotlight.

Daar is reeds baie navorsing gedoen en ‘n groot aantal publikasies het verskyn oor die geskiedenis van die Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) se tyd aan die Kaap. Nogtans het baie kundiges ‘n behoefte aan ‘n gesaghebbende publikasie wat die VOC se bewindstyd aan die Kaap volledig sou behandel, geidentifiseer. 'n Motivering was 'n nuwe belangstelling in die Kompanjiesgeskiedenis en heelwat aspekte van die VOC se verbintenis met Suid-Afrika wat nog nie in die historiografie neerslag gevind het nie. Sewentien medewerkers, wat elkeen ‘n deskundige op sy of haar besondere terrein is, is gewerf. Aspekte wat bespreek word, is die ontdekking van die seeroetes na die Ooste en die Amerikas teen die einde van die 16de eeu en die interafhanklikheid wat daardeur tussen Europa, die Ooste en die Amerikas ontstaan het. Dit het ook in Nederland neerslag gevind met die ontstaan van die VOC in 1602 en die groei van sy Oosterse handelsryk in die 17de eeu, wat dit die eerste groot internasionale handelsmaatskappy gemaak het. Daarna word die maatskappy se geleidelike agteruitgang en sy uiteindelike ondergang aan die einde van die 18de eeu geskets. Daar word gefokus op die rol wat die Kaapse diensstasie in die VOC se Oosterse handel gespeel het, die Kaapse bestuursinstellings en owerheidsdienste word bespreek en aandag word gegee aan die verdediging van die Kaap – die strategiese waarde van die Kaap en die verdedigingstelsel om dit te beskerm, die verdediging teen ‘n buitelandse bedreiging en die bekamping van binnelandse bedreigings. Laastens word die regspraak, gesondheidsdienste en onderwys volledig behandel. Daar is ook 'n fokus op die verskillende bevolkings-, kulturele of beroepsgroepe aan die Kaap, te wete die Khoisan, die Kompanjiesamptenare, die vryburgers, die slawe en die gemengde of “bruin” bevolkingsgroep. Ten slotte is daar 'n samevattende oorsig op die geskiedkundige nalatenskap van die VOC se teenwoordigheid aan die Kaap op die ontstaan en ontwikkeling van Suid-Afrika soos ons dit vandag ken.

Brick by Brick is essential reading for anyone interested in discovering more about the history of South Africa.

The title gives an overview of important political and social events in this country's turbulent history. South Africans and foreigners alike will find this an invaluable introduction.

This is the story of the world’s biggest unprosecuted fraud. A fraud that in today’s terms amounts to R26 billion.

The cast is stellar: top financial institutions, leading bankers, a world where every other player is a lawyer, a world where Brett Kebble was king. This is a world of outright denial and selective amnesia, of complex financial transactions designed to confuse, obfuscate and hide the spoils. This is a world of dirty dealings across the upper strata of the socio-political system.

Barry Sergeant, hard-hitting, bestselling author of Brett Kebble: The Inside Story, now tackles the murky world of shady financial dealings, post the Kebble murder. A frightening world, where whistle-blowers have to watch their backs. A world where so many major players are involved to such an extent that none of them can afford the cost of the truth. This is a major work that relies on painstaking details and many years of preparation. It is ultimately about unravelling one of the world’s biggest cover-ups.