Foreign Native - An African Journey (Paperback)

In Foreign Native, RW Johnson looks back with affection and humour on his life in Africa. From schooldays in Durban – fresh off the aeroplane from Merseyside – to later years as an academic, director of the Helen Suzman Foundation and formidable political commentator, he has produced an entertaining and occasionally eye-popping memoir brimming with history, anecdote and insight.

Johnson charts his evolution from enthusiastic, left-leaning Africanist to political realist, relating the episodes that influenced his intellectual worldview, including time spent among the exiled liberation movements in London during the 1960s, a sojourn in newly independent Guinea and more recent forays into Zimbabwe. There are wonderful stories, some hilarious, others filled with pathos, about the multitude of characters – Harold Strachan, Tom Sharpe, Ronnie Kasrils, Helen Suzman, Frederik van zyl Slabbert, among many others – that he met along the way.

Perceptive, critical and full of verve, Foreign Native is leavened with a deep humanity that makes it a pleasure to read.

General

Imprint:	Jonathan Ball Publishers SA
Country of origin:	South Africa
Release date:	July 2020
Authors:	R.W. Johnson
Dimensions:	233 x 152 x 27mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Trade
Pages:	292
ISBN-13:	978-1-86842-771-0
Categories:
LSN:	1-86842-771-4
Barcode:	9781868427710

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Another great read

Sat, 8 Aug 2020 | Review by: Errol M.

An amusing but serious personal journey from Northlands School and the University of Natal, Durban, in the early 60's through Oxford and Guinea to SA as it is today. Johnson tells it like it was back then, He tells it like it is today. No varnish, no paint, just the way he sees it through his very focused lens. Great insights.

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