South Africa Books

Running Towards Us presents new writings from South Africa from both established and new writers, revealing new subjects and concerns from writers who are now beyond the focus on apartheid. How does one define history and plan for the future? This turns to accepted masters of South African literature and new voices to consider changed themes and perceptions.

This book is based on a mini-series produced for South African subscription based television and contains many photographs. It details the British policy during the Anglo-Boer war (1899-1902), to send all Boer women and children to concentration camps in order. It is estimated that approximately 10% of the Boer population died in these camps, but this is a little known fact outside of South Africa. The British govenrment had recognized both Boer republics until after the discovery of Gold in the South African Republic, known after the war as the Transvaal province. When the British realized that they could not win the war, it was decided to break the spirit of the Boers by imprisoning their women and children.

It is unfortunate that no distributors in the U.S. were interested in this film, as I certainly would have liked to see it.

Scouting on Two Continents is the autobiography of one of the greatest scouts who ever lived, and is packed with his incredible adventures. The stories that Burnham tells are simply amazing--hiding in plain sight and yet avoiding capture, floating on a river past an enemy camp, and knifing through unknown terrain crawling with bad guys and somehow managing to get back home in one piece.

Burnham's stories are riveting, but his presentation is humble. His writing style is detailed and to the point, making his adventures all the more believable. While generally exuding the confidence that he must have felt while on most of his missions, Burnham doesn't neglect writing about his fears and failures. Through them we see the side of a man who absolutely hated returning from a mission without success, but at times knew that that was all he could do. He also presents himself as a man who was at times too brash, taking unnecessary risks to perform feats that served his ego but not his mission.

Burnham's book also provides a glimpse at the history of the Old West and of the wars in Africa around the turn of the 20th century. His insights are valuable, but racism creeps into many of his judgments about the enemies he fights.

Overall, this book reads well and is full of fantastic adventures, but it will only be appreciated by the reader who takes the time to carefully read and understand the man and the societies in which he lived and fought. It is not riveting like a modern thriller, but rather because its stories are true, personal, and well-told.

I bought Shack Chic as a "souvenier" after spending a summer working in the Cape Town townships with the youth there - I cannot think of a better object to take home and represent to my friends and family Cape Town's townships and South Africa as a nation. This photo-essay book, with brilliant colors and spectacular images, is a testament to the strength of South Africans and their innovation and resourcefulness even in the most destitute of living conditions. Portrays poverty in the post-Apartheid era not as the romanticized victimization of people but the hopeful and perservering will of humankind to live with digity.

This is a vitally important book for understanding the transition to democracy in South Africa. O'Malley leaves no stones unturned and while much has been written about South Africa's transformation too few authors have asked the really hard questions and dug up the hard to find facts of what went on behind the scenes. O'Malley does this hard work. In this book readers will find never before published underground communications, look into secret missions, but most importantly understand the physical and emotional pain involved in being a true rebel. No film could equal the real life drama that unfolds in this story. Some of the early pages are a bit slow, but give this book time and you will be rewarded with a unique story of intrigue, violence, revolution, love, change, rise and fall-- and rise again. This is a beautiful and necessary work that should not be missed.

The authors of "AIDS Doctors" (also published by Oxford University Press), have written another equally moving, well balanced, and critical account of what it is like working on the frontlines of the AIDS epidemic, this time from the perspective of doctors and nurses in South Africa which has the largest number of HIV/AIDS cases in the world. There are a number of books that have been published in recent years about the AIDS epidemic in South Africa but this book stands out because it allows the reader to get inside the hearts and minds of those who have devoted their lives to helping AIDS patients despite numerous, often overwhelming odds thrown at them, many stemming from the innane policies of the South African government. This book is a great read and it will give you another view of AIDS in other parts of the world and it will give you a greater appreciation of how far we have come in the US in confronting AIDS. The voices in this book are real and what you get are a range of emotions and experiences but in the end you will have a greater appreciation of how hard the work is for doctors and nurses in South Africa and how little support they get in helping the most vulnerable members of society. A truly wonderful, inspiring book!

A fast-paced, fascinating story of an often-overlooked period in modern history, told as a moving personal tale.

Gordimer tells simple, strong stories that are timed perfectly for a conclusion that leaves the reader sadened or concerned. SHe beautifully and subtlely shines a light into life in S. Africa by using white main characters, but showing black fears and consequences. Each story describes a different part of life in the country: urban, rural, in a cheiftanship, through the eyes of a black man, through the eyes of a white woman...

There is no doubt that the Skeleton Coast of Namibia is bleak and inhospitable. There was a time when Mariners would fear this particular stretch of coastline - and with good reason. Those who's ships ran aground here had little chance of surviving the savage shoreline and those who were fortunate enough to come ashore had little chance of rescue. All they would find on the landward side was a bleached desert waste with few examples of the African wildlife they might otherwise expect to encounter.

Today, of course, we have a wider appreciation of such unspoilt areas and the entire region is now a designated and protected National Park where none may enter without a permit.

Such is the tranquillity of this forbidding region that even something as generally accepted as tyre tracks across the hardened sands are regarded as pollution. Such tracks may take over 100 years to disappear altogether.

In this book, the author produces an excellent insight into what appears to be every aspect of the Skeleton Coast. Geology, climate, rivers, flora and fauna, early explorers, shipwrecks, lost aircraft, fortune hunters and much more besides - they are all explained here. It is an excellent book, easy to read and supported by some first rate photography.

Of course, it is the shipwrecks which are my own main interest but I should also like to visit such a bleak and unspoilt place. Were I to do so, however, it would not remain so unspoilt. It is, therefore, one of those places I shall continue to put off visiting. In the meantime, I shall console myself by reading this book again.

NM

There is no doubt that the Skeleton Coast of Namibia is bleak and inhospitable. There was a time when Mariners would fear this particular stretch of coastline - and with good reason. Those who's ships ran aground here had little chance of surviving the savage shoreline and those who were fortunate enough to come ashore had little chance of rescue. All they would find on the landward side was a bleached desert waste with few examples of the African wildlife they might otherwise expect to encounter.

Today, of course, we have a wider appreciation of such unspoilt areas and the entire region is now a designated and protected National Park where none may enter without a permit.

Such is the tranquillity of this forbidding region that even something as generally accepted as tyre tracks across the hardened sands are regarded as pollution. Such tracks may take over 100 years to disappear altogether.

In this book, the author produces an excellent insight into what appears to be every aspect of the Skeleton Coast. Geology, climate, rivers, flora and fauna, early explorers, shipwrecks, lost aircraft, fortune hunters and much more besides - they are all explained here. It is an excellent book, easy to read and supported by some first rate photography.

Of course, it is the shipwrecks which are my own main interest but I should also like to visit such a bleak and unspoilt place. Were I to do so, however, it would not remain so unspoilt. It is, therefore, one of those places I shall continue to put off visiting. In the meantime, I shall console myself by reading this book again.

NM