South Africa Books

This extraordinary collection of essays brings vividly to life the process of crafting the first constitution of post-apartheid South Africa. Writers include many participants in that careful process, as well as legal and constitutional scholars. What is described is a profoundly democratic process intended to capture the genuine will of a people who had been entirely disenfranchised, and now found their aspirations were to be reflected in a founding document. Strikingly, womens rights, economic security, and the protection of the environment receive the explicit protections missing in our own constitution. This book is essential reading for students of democracy, law, rights, and race.

Dr. Bilchitz offers a deep and ethical perpective on the greatest of world issues.

Like the Kite Runner, this is a great come "full circle" book. Hard to put down. You will not be disappointed.

This novel, set more than a century ago in backwater South Africa, is the great grandfather of today's thrillers. Buchan, who perfected the form in "The 39 Steps" some years later, gives his young hero plenty to do in sussing out and confronting a massive uprising by tribesmen who wish to slaughter all the white settlers for a hundred miles around. The writing is smooth and the situations are generally believable, though modern readers will have to forgive Buchan for some racist sentiments completely common at the time. Both black and white characters are compellingly and sympathetically drawn, though, so there's no reason to apologize for the book. Read it and be taken back to another time and another place, and imagine how Hollywood would produce this today-- it feels totally contemporary in terms of its "Indiana Jones" adventure plot. Enjoy! (Note: This book is available in its entirety online.)

The most complete single volume account of an air force I've seen. At roughly 1, 000 pages, A Pride of Eagles fully documents the complete history of this small, but very resourceful air force from their beginning in 1920, through the "liberation War" of the 1970s and formation of the Zimbabwean Air Force. The author began work on this volume in 1969, and was given full access. The results show that the years were put to good use. The book provides very detailed aircraft, squadron and personnel histories covering Rhodesia's involvement in World War II, and the myriad "bush wars" in which they fought. Although never large, the Air Force of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) fought in almost every significant air action in which the United Kingdom fought from 1920 through the early 1960s; and further regional conflicts after Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the British Commonwealth. A Pride of Eagles fully documents the air force's role in the "liberation War" of the 1970s with details on both large and small actions, and how the air force evolved to the current Zimbabwean Air Force. The maps and photos are clear and plentiful. This book includes far too much to be covered in a brief review. A Pride of Eagles is a must for any World War II aviation enthusiast or those with an interest in Southern African history. The author - Beryl Salt, and Covos-Day publishers should be commended on this obvious labor of love.

The Prisoners of a Dream---The South African Mirage by Leo Raditsa spelled out accurately the South African situation long before the end of apartheid in the mid 90s. Americans to this day have not been told the actual situation in South Africa, now or in the past.

If Americans don't understand the influence of African tribalism they can't possibly know about South Africa. If Americans do not know the influence and the takeover of communism/socialism, the role of the South African Communist Party, the African National Congress, in South Africa, they can't understand the political events in South Africa. If Americans don't know about Mandela's writings found in Madela's hand extolling the virtues of communism, detailing plans for terrorism, explosives, and sabotage (p. 144)they can never understand what Mandela really represents. He represents government terror, comnfiscation of wealth, loss of freedom for all, and the usual murderous history of 20th century communism. Its now called freedom!!!

Raditsa documented it all in crushing detail in a regrettably tedious writing style. Short of a confirmatory trip to South Africa (which I have taken) this is an excellent, thorough, essential, and heavily referenced source of the true situation there.

Even better, Raditsa documented in Chapter 5 most of the Jeremiah Denton Senate Hearings in 1982 describing "The Role of the Soviet Union, Cuba, and East Germany in Fomenting Terrorism in Southern Africa".

Neither Raditsa's book nor the Denton Hearings have been covered to any degree since the hearings in 1982 or when Raditsa's book was published in 1989. The South African debate was a onesided debate supporting the communist takeover of South Africa.

"Quarter Tones" is the story of Ana who returns from London to the village of Noordhoek near Cape Town when her father, a luthier, dies. In the coastal village, she gets to know her architect neighbour Franz van der Veer and his uncommunicative brother, Daniel, as the present and past intermingle in her mind. This is a remarkably beautiful and compelling novel. The characters, places and descriptions soar off the page. It works like word music, pulsing with repeating patterns, refrains, leitmotivs. The catalyst is the father's house, cluttered with memorabilia - a motorbike with sidecar, a wooden moulding plane named "Finbar O'Neill" - that bring the past surging back, intensifying Ana's sense of tension between her vaguely unsatisfactory life in Europe and her old deep life with her father "Sam". Much of the strength of the novel is in the richness and subtlety of this relationship, now laid to rest, and the sense of final loss. The physical descriptions - landscapes, weather, interiors - are absolutely gorgeous, as if the English language had been freshly minted to serve them. And there is great delicacy and finesse in the way in which relationships, present and past, are limned. Incisive, unsentimental, lyrical, colourful, moving - just a few words that come to mind when trying to describe this book. Above all, Ana is someone who lives life with eyes wide open. In doing so, she opens our eyes to the splendour and violence of the new and old South Africa, and to her own sense of herself in relation to the world. "Even in crowds she moved like the wind, like a secret, between people, buildings. Often she had to exhale consciously. Even when a shopkeeper overcharged her, or someone was rude to her, it was she who would apologise. Not because she thought she was in the wrong, but to avoid the smallest threat of being noticed or seen. To avoid the threat, the embarrassment, of leaving a stain on the universe." Like a bright new bell, this is writing that rings clear and true. A fresh, poignant voice in contemporary South African fiction. Strongly recommended.

A QUILT OF DREAMS is set in South Africa during the final days of apartheid and succeeds in bringing the nation's political and social concerns to light in vivid color. Here two very different strangers find their lives entwined by the events shaking their nation: one an alcoholic white man, the other the young daughter of a black activist. Violence and change permeates their lives and affects their dreams, and while it seems unlikely their very different pasts and perspectives - and griefs -will prompt an encounter much less healing, it's the sweeping changes affecting their country which will lead them to each other and some surprising revelations. A QUILT OF DREAMS is a passionate novel of change and a top pick for public libraries seeking something compellingly different.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Zolani Mkiva is a practitioner of the oral tradition of South Africa called "praise poet" (imbongi) -- the oldest literary tradition in the nation. Railway Poetry is a splendid little volume that showcases both his talent and this remarkable oral tradition. 'Tis Hard To Bear: 'Tis hard to bear unmerited reproof/To live a life misjudged, misunderstood;/To see our once warm friends now stand aloof,/More credulous of whisper'd ill than good./'Tis hard when fate environs us with wrong,/And slander spreads, untouche'd by sense of truth;/And those who blame us know but half the truth./This we must bear, dissembling with the fear/That holds the soul subdued in patient thrall;/And trusting Time to make the darkness clear,/We'll dream of sunshine though the shadows fall/The Light must shine at last! Be of good cheer,/Our wrongs shall righted be, for God is over all.

I bought this book in South Africa more or less for the pretty pictures, but it has become my favorite and most used cookbook. As most cookbooks are, this cookbook is broken into sections for different parts of the meal: Soups and Salads, Side dishes, Poultry, Fish, Meat, Sambals and Preserves, Breads and homebakes. It also includes a section on making your own spice mixtures (like garam masala and roasted masala) and basic condiments (like mayonnaise). Favorite recipes among my friends and family include the Cape Brandy Pudding and Chicken biryani. In between each section are descriptions of the different regions of South Africa, replete with crisp and glittering photographs of flora, fauna, and scenery. Rainbow Cuisine it ultimately true to its name: it has a wide variety of recipes, reflecting the wide variety of cultures of South Africa, from Cape Malay to English and from Afrikaner to Ndebele. Although some of the dishes are pretty much impossible to make in the US (Roast loin of kudu, for example), those dishes are in the minority and, other than meats, it uses ingredients that are widely available (though some translation might need to be involved: like naartje = tangerine and sodium bicarbonate = baking soda). The only semi-inconvenient issue the book has is that all of the measurements in the recipes are given in metric units and temperatures are given in Celsius. There is a very useful conversion table in the back of the book, and if you're less forgetful than I am, you should have no problem, but I inevitably forget to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit and then wonder why it takes so long for everything to cook. That said, I love this book. It's perfect as a gift - I take any excuse to buy it for my friends and family (birthdays, holidays, or just because I found it on sale), and everyone who uses it loves it.