South Africa category: 561 books

Thoughts on the New South Africa is a collection of essays which Alexander brought together just before his death. It reflects on the main issues that preoccupied him throughout his life and sheds light on South African society today. The three main issues included the fundamental necessity for South...

General Jan Smuts ironically described the amaMpondo in 1936 as "a native tribe considered somewhat backward in comparison to other tribes of the Union of South Africa" yet “unusually conservative and tenacious” resisting “the disintegration of native life.” In the democratic era their struggle...

Lost in the Stars is a biographical study of Alexander William Roberts, a Free Church of Scotland missionary educator who in 1883 was posted to the Lovedale Institution at Alice, South Africa. Inspired by the night sky of the southern hemisphere, Roberts became a leading observer of variable stars...

Globally media is in a state of flux with digital technologies disrupting traditional ways of doing business, current ownership patterns being challenged, and questions being raised about the degree of diversity within media industries.Media Landscape 2014: Celebrating 20 Years of South Africa’s...

The inspiration for the film INVICTUS, starring Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman. Beginning in a jail cell and ending in a rugby tournament- the true story of how the most inspiring charm offensive in history brought South Africa together. After being released from prison and winning South Africa's...

A “stunning blend of reportage, travelogue, history and meditation” by the New York Times–bestselling author of King Leopold’s Ghost (Publishers Weekly). National Book Award finalist Adam Hochschild brings a lifetime’s familiarity with South Africa to bear in this eye-opening examination...

“This book is not so much a political autobiography as an account from a personal point of view of a momentous series of events in the life of South Africa’s second democratic Parliament, and my role in them as a public representative, when the executive and legislature faced each other in a standoff...

Nelson Mandela led a long and remarkable life. From his earliest days herding cows in a South African village, he became a child of privilege, a rebellious runaway, an impoverished student, a father, a successful lawyer, a political dissident, a rising star in the African nationalist movement, an...

Es’kia Mphahlele’s seminal memoir of life in apartheid South Africa—available for the first time in Penguin Classics Nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1969, Es’kia Mphahlele is considered the Dean of African Letters and the father of black South African writing. Down Second Avenue is...

In this eloquent memoir, already widely read and praised in the author’s native South Africa, Hermann Giliomee weaves together the story of his own life with that of his country--a nation that continues to absorb and inspire him, both despite and because of its tortuous history.   An...

When Mary Llewellyn’s husband is killed in a battle between Welsh and English miners in poverty-stricken Wales, she resolves to forge a new life in the South African sun with her children. However, after overcoming a dangerous journey beset by snakes, crocodiles and hostile warriors, all...

Truth is stranger than fiction. This moving story of Frederick Cope, an unusual and well-travelled global citizen, reads like the stories of three different characters. It may seem too far-fetched yet it is true. This well illustrated book is a colourful biography of a Yorkshireman who overcame...

South African Battles describes 36 battles spread over five centuries. These are not the well-trodden battlefields of standard histories, but generally lesser-known ones. Some were of critical importance, while some were infinitely curious. Who, for instance, has heard of the battles of Nakob, Middelpos,...

History Matters is an eloquent selection of writings over four decades by Bill Nasson, one of South Africa’s most popular and highly respected historians. The pieces in this compendium are lively and entertaining, written with wit, humour and a finely tuned sense of irony. Chapters cover the South...