South Africa Books

see time-europe issue dated june 12 for a review i've written already

"War of Words" is the story of a courageous reporter and a brave newspaper in apartheid-era South Africa. After joining the Rand Daily Mail in 1958, author Benjamin Pogrund broadened the newspaper's coverage of "African affairs," reporting on facets of black South African life given short shrift by most "mainstream" newspapers.

It was no easy task to report the news while constrained by numerous, ever-expanding, secrecy laws. While the South Africa portrayed in this book was no Soviet Union - English-language newspapers, the Rand Daily Mail in particular, were able to criticize apartheid in the strongest terms - the expanding web of press restrictions prevented journalists from fully informing the public of what it needed to know. Perhaps the most interesting section of the book is the description of the Mail's attempt to report on horrifying conditions in South Africa's prisons, reportage which caused Pogrund to face criminal charges for violation of the Prisons Act. This type of reporting (and editing, by Laurence Gandar) took guts.

Although the book does not emphasize the personal life of the author, one nugget seemed to encapsulate what it must have been like to live in the South Africa of that time: Pogrund refers to having had to overcome "the nervous habit of glancing over our shoulders - the hallmark of South Africans . . ." Other books have also alluded to the strange atmosphere of a society where no one knows who is working for which security agency - and the Mail was apparently infiltrated with various spies. On that note, one of the most fascinating characters to make an appearance here is Hendrik van den Bergh, head of the Bureau for State Security (BOSS), which apparently had microphones in the Mail's offices. (van den Bergh also appears in "Rivonia's Children," the outstanding book about the sabotage trial in which Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison, and is the star of "Inside BOSS, South Africa's Secret Service." Both are also worth reading and will give different perspectives on the same era.)

I have only two minor criticism of this book. First, Pogrund's evident shock at the "Muldergate" information scandal jars. Was it really such a surprise that a government which controlled the radio network would also seek surreptitiously to own a newspaper? To this American reader, Muldergate comes across as minor league. To be fair, however, the scandal was significant enough at the time to take down the Vorster government.

Second, Pogrund sometimes tells us more than we needed to know about feuds between Saan (South African Associated Newspapers) management and the Mail editorial staff. Yet, because this is a history of the Mail as much as the memoirs of Pogrund, some of that "inside baseball" was necessary - and the background did help to explain the machinations behind Saan's decision to close the Mail in 1985. The closure of the Mail, possibly as the result of a television channel deal by Saan with then-President P.W. Botha, left Pogrund "drained of energy and spirit."

This book is an unfailingly honest story of a brave journalist. Despite the criticisms above, I believe the book has earned 5 stars as a comprehensive, readable account of journalism under and against apartheid. I highly recommend it.

When the author began his career as a young reporter in the 1950s, the Rand Daily Mail was emerging as South Africa's leading newspaper. As the "African affairs reporter" he brought the words of black leaders like Robert Sobukwe & Nelson Mandela to the country & to the world.

If you've ever wondered about the history of South Africa & how apartheid grew; who were its villains & who its heroes you must pick up a copy of War of Words for it is also about the life & death of a newspaper, of freedom of speech as well as a memoir of minute increments of courage & endless years of determined resignation.

If you've ever wondered what living under unbridled racism was like read this book. It is strong stuff, rather like watching a sandstorm heading toward you, smothering out the light, turning everyone crazy until it too passes & there's a chance at a better tomorrow.

A fascinating, well-written & informative memoir from inside the belly of the beast as seen by one reporter who kept himself close to the fire.

The Afrikaner nation in South Africa is the most often maligned, least studied people on Earth. Most Westerners hear the name and go into thought free reaction mode. "They're bad, I want to know nothing." This is a great disservice to the Afrikaners and the various other nations who live with them. To hear Peter Jenninngs, Tom Brokaw, et al talk it would seem that the Afrikaners sprung fully formed as haters from the bare ground one day and have been a blight ever since. Nothing is further from the truth. If any people had known the oppression and hardship that the Afrikaners endured under the British and then became magnanimous and nice afterward, I would like to see them. This book gives one an understanding of the formative events that make up the Boer character, without excusing the many evils of Apartheid. Without a thorough understanding of these many tragic events, there is no understanding of South Africa.

wonderful little book that tells the long tale of the white man in south africa and his endurance and his legacy as well as his barbarism, but mostly his culture. A very insightful book that gives a whirlwind tour through the history of the Afrikaners and their settlement as a Dutch colony to thier persectution by the English, and their war with the Zulus as they fled the British on the Great Trek. An honest portrayel that shows these people to be neither villian nor heroes but products of their circumstance of being threatened from both sides, by the imperial English and the numerious Black Africans, they became hardened and in western eyes, cruel. The book is outdated but worth the read if you can find it.

Today White farmers are being murdered in the thousands by Black Africans. White Afrikaners are being persecuted and massacred and the Black government does nothing. Not so different then what has happaned in Zimbabwe. This book tells the history of the white tribe of Africa. These people were not colonists but natives having migrated to Africa hundreds and hundreds of years ago(before the Zulu migrated to SOuth Africa). These people were forced into undue suffering under the British and suffered in the first concentration camps. THis book tells the story of Aparthied. And it helps to preserve the heritage of a unique people, living in a unique land. When we are older the whites of SOuth Africa will only be a memory, long since butchered and raped by their Black neighboors, they will suffer the fates of whites who have lived in ANgola and Zimbabwe and Uganda. The truth about the situation is that the current Black government has done little to protect the nations minority populations(Indian and White and Chinese) and they are just as intolerant, if not more so, then the whites who were in power previously.
This book is dated but it is an essential read for anyone who has been fed up with the view of S. Africa that all Whites are bad and all Blacks are noble. The truth lies in the middle and this book tells the other hald of the story.

As a graduate of a South African university in the late 50ies, but cocooned in the relative calm of University of Cape Town Medical School and now long since an emigrant to USA, Dr. Shears book was to me a fascinating historical eye-opener.

The volatile sequence of events with the tightrope walking faculty at Wits University, Dr. Shear in the forefront, acting as mediators between agitating and rioting students and the reigning apartheid regime, makes for exciting reading between carefully documented historical facts.

In addition to aficionados of racial political history, alumni(ae) of S. African Universities in particular, will find this book very interesting reading

A remarkable, authoritative and very personal insight into some aspects of the apartheid era. As one reads one feels increasingly 'involved' - and filled with admiration for those who (like the author) had to cope with the situation.

All young people should read this book to better understand the climate of opinion which all political change must challenge. Whether the civil rights struggle in the U.S., the anti-Vietnam war movement, or the apartheid battles at WITS, the important development from the initial gentle questioning of the issue to the later struggle against the most bigoted opposition has been delineated in exciting and encompassing terms. A worthy read.

"The World is a Ghetto: Race and Democracy since World War II" attempts to explore why and how racial discrimination is not only present today, but one of the world's leading problems. The author, Howard Winant (professor of sociology at Temple University), is a powerful social activist and who's family were Holocaust refugees. Winant fills his book with both his determination and extensive research to support his cases of why racial injustice is still a major issue today and how it came to be. Race is placed into a context that must be examined through labor processes, democracy, and economic influences. Through this, Winant is able to describe we view ourselves and how residents the world views each other.

The book breaks up into two main parts. The first is created to help the reader understand the comings of race and how it has been molded to the form it exists today. This part of the book is more sociology then history. The second part focuses on four main case studies; the United States, South Africa, Brazil, and Europe. These case studies have a strong focus on post World War II history, but does make reference to earlier times were needed. In each of the case studies, Winant sets the stage for each country/region, explores the major "break's" how, what, when, and why, and finally attempts to understand where these stories may lead.

There is a strong trend through the book for Winant to tell the reader what he is going to do, do it, then tell the reader what he did. This writing also quotes as well as references to a lot of previous author's works. The book can be extremely thick at time, philosophical and language wise. You may want to read a dictionary along with this.

This book is for anyone bothered by the hard questions about race: Why is race both invisible and so evident in the large and small details of our lives? How did racism become, in only several recent decades, morally and culturally repugnant, but at the same time we seem unable to deal with or recognize its obvious effects? How have we come to entrust leaders with the decision whether equality has gone "too far" who opposed it from it's beginnings (such as the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who opposed the Brown v. Board of Education decision integrating the schools)? Why do we look at racial issues and history so provincially, rather than taking a much more revealing global focus?

Winant explains all this and more. It's a must read for anyone who cares about race, equality or democracy.

I bought this book because I was having trouble with the current race scene in the U.S. Too many black people locked up, too much racial inequality, too many cops killing blacks. Winant puts racism in a historical and international context I had not thought of before. This book shows why the world is in a new stage of racial (and racist) history now, both in America and elsewhere. Destined to be a classic!

In the nineteenth century, Britain had established a massive empire upon which the sun was said to never set. On a January day in 1879, a South African people called the Zulus were to establish a nearly mythic reputation by killing hundreds of British soldiers and their tribal allies at Isandlwana (ironically a lot of the slaughter took place under a partial solar eclipse). Ian Knight, a noted expert on South Africa's military past writes a short but very useful book on this famous people from the bloody rise of Shaka through the conflicts with Boers to the twilight under British guns. The late Angus Mcbride provides plates to illustrate the appearance of Zulus at various times in their history. Overall, very interesting for those who want an overview of the subject. I would also recommend Knight's Osprey Campaign series book on Isandlwana.

This book covers an amazing people, the Zulus, who defeated a British Army at a time when the Empire was all-powerful. The Zulus did so with superior tactics, though their weapons had not changed and remained primitive. Nevertheless the stabbing spear of the Zulus accounted for the lives of many British soldiers. There are also good accounts of battles such as Isdhlawana and of Rorke's Drift.The author obviously has written a sympathetic account of the Zulus and their are shown as a militarly organized people, not a band of savages as Africans were often portrayed in the West. The illustrations are beautiful and the Zulus come out as a majestic people. It is clear that this book is written by someone who knows a lot about the subject.

Prior to reading this book, my knowledge of the Zulus was restricted to what I had seen in movies like, "Shaka" and "Zulu Dawn." This book provided an excellent overview of the Zulu Empire, it's key players, it's army and it's wars from the dawn to the twilight of the Zulu empire. The book focused mainly on martial matters and spent little time with subjects other than war. Of course, the reader must remember that the Zulus were a warrior culture. The description of the Zulu army, training, equipment and tactics were superb. There were plenty of photographs and the color plates were amazing. If you're looking for a detailed work on the Zulu culture, this book would not be enough. However, if you want a solid introduction to the Zulu war machine, than this book is for you.

Michael Mullin has done an impressive, one of most serious jobs on Slave Acculturation and Resistance 1736-1831 periode. Anyone doing serious work in this field cannot miss this reference

In Africa in America, Michael Mullin attempts to link the level of assimilation among American slaves with the forms of resistance they displayed. While he does not believe that assimilation into white culture actually made slaves more or less likely to rebel, Mullin argues that the nature of their resistance to slavery was heavily influenced by how much of their native African culture they retained. To prove his theory, Mullin contrasts Caribbean slave culture, which was much less influenced by European practices, with slave societies in the American South, where African traditions were minimalized.
To do so, he relies primarily on sources such as plantation records, travelers' accounts, and contemporary newspapers, as well as a variety of secondary sources. Unfortunately, while these sources are perhaps well suited for understanding black culture in the Caribbean, they do not provide much information on slave culture in the Chesapeake and Carolinas, which leads Mullin to make incorrect assumptions that undermine the validity of his comparison.

Because Caribbean planters were so outnumbered by their slaves, they were much more likely than Southern masters to become intimately acquainted with their slaves, and include their observations of black culture in chronicles of plantation life. This results in the impression that African traditions were actually more prevalent among slaves in that region, whereas in actuality the practices of Southern slaves were simply less likely to be recorded in the writings of their masters. Subsequent studies by Robert Olwell and Phillip Morgan show that African traditions were retained by Carolina slaves, and to a lesser degree by Virginians. While Mullin may ultimately be correct in his assertion that Caribbean slaves were less assimilated, this characterization cannot be proven with his limited sources. For example, Mullin assumes that because Southern planters did not write lengthily about independent slave production and marketing, slaves did not enjoy a large role in local markets. A study of Charleston newspapers and legal proceedings would have shown otherwise.

Africa in America is therefore not of much use as a comparative study, but Mullin's observations on Caribbean slave culture and resistance may be treated independently. Here Mullin finds that slaves retained much more of their African heritage than previously thought by historians who believed that the traumas of the middle passage had a debilitating affect on native culture. Rather, newly arrived Africans immediately sought assistance in running away from seasoned tribal kinsman, often joining maroon communities. Those who did not immediately flee established societies similar to those they had left in Africa within the plantation community, and were likely to resist by wandering off for short periods, rather than in any organized rebellion. Only when slaves began to organize through Christian churches did they begin to plot the large-scale rebellions that would eventually win them freedom. Even in making this argument, however, Mullin is undermined by his lack of organization and tendency to jump around between time periods and places, making causality difficult to determine. Ultimately then, Africa in America is useful for its information on black Caribbean cultural and religious traditions, but little more.

Written in the twilight years of apartheid, this book conveys some of the spirit of black South Africans as they struggled against a cruel dictatorship. Erlmann surveys the field from 1890 to 1990.

In going through his descriptions of the people, one has to wonder. In a different and better period, some of the musicians and actors might have become world famous. The comparison to African-American singers is inevitable. Yet for most of the performers that Erlmann mentions, only fragments of memory and aging photos and LPs remain.

African Stars, if you are interested in the development of twentieth century Zulu performance practice, is an excellent starting point. Additionally, it stands out as the most accessible book by Veit Erlmann that I've read to date (Music Modernity and the Global Imagination, and Nightsong are both great, but very dense works).

Erlmann in this book focuses on the development of Zulu popular styles in Natal (that is to say, minstrelsey, ragtime, isicathamiya) in the late nineteenth century to early twentieth century. Erlmann is particularly successful in bringing to light the remarkably blurred distinctions between the social classes and also the rural/urban dichotomy within Natal. This blurring helps to give rise to these styles, Erlmann argues.

Additionally, the depth of research present in this book is phenominal. Erlmann really is able to bring these various figures to life with exceedingly well-documented points on their lives.

My only complaint is minor, and it involves the timeframe. I simply would have liked the book's scope to add ten years to the end date of its range. But again, minor.

All in all, it's a great book to read, and a pretty accessible one at that.

I liked this book and Abdias had a lot of great ideas on improving conditions for people of African descent. I would say that he is a mix of Malcom-X and DuBois in his thinking. Many Brazilian say that his big error was pushing for too many changes too fast! Abdias actually taught at several universities in the US while in exile. I think that it may come as a surprise to many that he never learned how to speak English and his wife had to translate his lectures as he spoke. Also surprising is that his wife is a white American woman.

Imagine if Amiri Baraka or Nathan Mccall were Brazilian: you'd have Abdias do Nascimento. Do Nascimento argues that the portrayal of Brazil as this race-mixing paradise is a racist myth meant to deny how much the country owes to African people and influences. It's a strong tail about African pride. Many people that argue for integration and miscegenation will be turned off by this book, but hopefully they will find it a provocative read as well. This book really gave me an idea of how pan-Africanism is global. If you're an angry Black person like myself, then you are really going to like this book.

I just wanted to say that apartheid began as an official form of government in the late 40 when the Afrikaner National Party won the national elections. I agree with what you said but maybe you should finish the books that you put down by the first chapter, and then you would delve into the world of Stephen biko, Nelson Mandela, and know the long struggle against apartheid that lasted 50 years.

Apartheid and Racism in South African Children's Literature, 1985-1995 went far beyond my expectations, in many ways that I could not explain. In the past, books have never been really interesting to me; I usually put them down by the end of the first chapter. This one caught me by surprise because it is related to my background, as well as being interesting. I learned a great deal of history about South Africa that I could have never imagined. Example one, the way Blacks were treated and how whites took power because they feared the Black population. A leader should stay in power by meeting the people's needs not by subjecting them to inhumane conditions and ideas. It should not matter what color one is, but what type of character one has. analytical
Apartheid and Racism in South African Children's Literature, 1985-199 goes into critical detail about what people of color had to face on an everyday basis. It was torture; nobody, no matter what, should be given that sort of treatment. The authors do an excellent job of recreating the past by explaining everything so clearly that anyone would want to go to South Africa and help out as much as possible. The main message of this book was to inform people about the apartheid government and how people of color were treated because of its merciless acts. Apartheid is a horrible form of government that started in 1985 and ended in1995. It not only took away the freedom of Blacks, it broke down a community that was never given a chance. Just imagine a time where you were being judged and ridiculed on an everyday basis without having the freedom to defend either yourself or your family. It broke my heart the way people let their prejudice destroy a country.

A real book if you wanna know how is war from a conscript's view...and it covers both emotional and statistic matters of all the battles...some parts of it are from a soldier's diary and the other parts are written by that same soldier after 10,15 years...

I read this book, as part of my own research project into the South African Border War. It follows the author from home to basic to war. Pretty simple. Well written, and captures the fear of someone so young thrust into circumstances beyond their control. If you want to know what combat is like, The feelings anyway, buy and read this great book. It captures the stark unreality of combat very well. I know. But thats a different story. Highly recommended.