South Africa Books

A FAIR COUNTRY is the sort of play that you find yourself coming back to for repeated readings. I've never seen the play produced but I have read it numerous times. Each time I think to myself how the play isn't really exceptionally well written at all, but somehow incredibly moving and relevant. In other words, its content far surpasses its form. Worth reading though, as it is a major step in the career of a major dramatist.

This is the life journey of Felicia Mabuza-Suttle, South Africa's premier talk-show hostess. Dare to Dream is about the girl who grew up in "the dusty streets of Soweto" and how she achieved her dreams. Like most non-Americans growing up on American media and fantasizing about this "land of milk and honey", Felicia had dreams of coming to America and living the American dream. She moved back to South Africa (sans husband and children) after President Mandela called for exiles to come back home. Felicia relates the loneliness of a long-distance marriage. The pain of not being physically available for her kids. The frustrations of going back Americanized and having to prove her "cultural roots". For those who know of Felicia - the Oprah of South Africa and wanted to know what makes this woman tick, wondered where she gets her unfazed determination, her confidence, strength, intelligence and love for her community and country, get this book. It is an easy read, 155 pages with descriptive chapter titles. The book is full of motivational passages, photographs, quotes and praises.

This book showed how bad South Africa was, (especially in some ways the police) in 1976. You are distracted by a red colored creature, and then you get pretty good action. But satill it's notr the best. Usually in all kinds of books you get in those situations but break out. It could have had some more action, and Jay Leibold made some mistakes (I can't remember if it was spelling or grammar) but I could easily correct them. Even though this book may not be the best, I think you'll still want to read it.

He was a Chicago cop who was fired after he was shot by the husband of the woman he was sleeping with. He became a lawyer who was disbarred by the Illinois legal board when he attacked a judge and an opponent for calling him a liar. When he continued to womanize his wife finally left him. Mike Duncavan is trying to regain what his pride cost him starting with his professional life and he hopes one day his first spouse. He works as a legal investigator taking whatever crumbs lawyers sends his way.

Attorney Stanley Janda, a former cop who met Mike in night school, hires him to find evidence that will exonerate his client photographer Justin Ambertoe, accused of abducting five year old Reggie Brookin. Mike wonders why a gay white man would be in the ghetto even to take pictures of abandoned property. As he interviews the neighbors, he realizes that Stanley's client is hiding something and may be lying beyond the omission, but for some reason believes the man is innocent. When he learns about the African David Akiby, he begins finding loose strings that tie together including seeing a hyena in the park to the Mesquite Bend Ranch in Texas, but the min question remains unanswered: why the kidnapping and probable murder of a child?

If it was not for Mike's uncanny skills to recognize animals this sleuth tale would be a typical sub-genre tale of a rising superstar falling down to the lowest rung and trying to make it back. In Many ways Mike is a flawed Shakespearean tragic figure whose flaws lead to his downfall. The who-done-it is fun to follow though the ties between Chicago, Texas, and Africa seem nebulous at best but his ex explains his abilities so that the link seems plausible. Fans of interesting private investigative tale will want to learn WHAT THE HYENA KNOWS.

Harriet Klausner

I am not really a person of literature but this book I thought was really worth the time and money.

This GeoHoliday travel club idea sounds like a great membership to have. There are so many locations that Geo holidays can take you. Not sure what the investment would be, but it seems like it would be worth it. i found more info about geo holiday at www.geoholiday.com and saw even more destinations listed than are in the book. My wife and I love to travel to Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe. This club sounds like the ideal package for the consummate traveller. Thanks for a great read!

"Going For Gold" has drawn attention for its frank, insightful and fully-informed treatment of male miners' sexuality, including homosexual relations (known as "mine marriages"). But there is much more to commend Moodie and Ndatshe's exploration of what it means to be a man, and to act like one, in South Africa. Their intimate knowledge of the region combines well with participant-observer data, which must have been challenging to collect given the subject and circumstances. The result is one of the richest current studies of migrant life in Africa, encompassing changes in the labor process, ethnic identity, class formation, drinking and sociability, violence, and resistance to harsh work and living conditions. For example, the sections on faction fights between Sotho and Xhosa miners reveal that these are not merely age-old primordial hatreds. They reflect complex antagonisms rooted in struggles for employment, occupational status, class consciousness, political affiliation and situational identity, which all have discernible recent origins. While the book is pathbreaking, others have taken up these issues in various ways. In order of expanding regional scale, see C. Van Onselen, "Studies in the Social & Economic History of the Witwatersrand;" P. Harries, "Work, Culture & Identity;" R. Morrell ed, "Changing Men in Southern Africa;" J. Crush & C. Ambler eds, "Liquor & Labor in Southern Africa;" and L. Vail ed, "The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa." There is now a brand-new comparable study of migrant womens' hostels by G. Elder, "Hostels, Sexuality, & the Apartheid Legacy."

It is not often that a "nice" biography involving a world leader is written, but Goodbye Bafana is the exception to this rule and James Gregory only has praise for "his friend" Nelson Mandela.

Goodbye Bafana cronicals the life and experiences of James Gregory up, and until, he becomes Nelson Mandela's jailer in several South African prisions. Gregory writes a compelling and often blunt tale of how his hatred of blacks (he is an Afrikaner) and especially Nelson Mandela was turned around to a respectful and often sympathetic attitude by Mandela with whom he spent many close years as his personal jailer during Mandela's incarceration.

From this book one learns many things about South Africa's first black president and one thing that strikes the reader is his complete dedication to his cause (to end apartheid) and how much respect he has earned from both black and white people during his life. Onced finished one comes away feeling confident that there is not a man more deserving than Mandela running South Africa. I feel Goodbye Bafana is a masterpiece which shows how a friendship can florish despite political, racial and iron barriers.

This collection of short stories gives a view of one woman's observations of the people and culture of South Africa. The stories are cleverly written and very thought provoking. The first story I read, The Catch, was a little difficult to understand. After reading one more, The Bridegroom, I was hooked and enjoyed many more.

Between its founding in 1937 and its demise in 1963 upon being outlawed by South Africa's apartheid government, the South African newspaper "The Guardian" went by seven different names; others among these were the Clarion (early 1950s), People's World (also early 1950s), and New Age (1954-62). Though its name changed, its definition of its role remained the same. Opposed to all dictatorial, totalitarian governments, the newspaper opposed fascism in Africa, in neighboring Namibia in particular, as well as the entrenched apartheid government in South Africa. After World War II ended and decolonization was happening in places around the world, the Guardian focused its coverage and editorials on South Africa's system of apartheid. In so doing, it incurred the wrath of successive apartheid governments so that it was continually harassed by government agents and on occasion banned by the government.

In its early years, the Guardian's opposition to fascism and racism automatically aligned it with Communism. The first time it was banned outright was when the South African government passed the Suppression of Communist Act (SCA) in the early 1950s; which among other things, would make much of the regular content of the Guardian illegal, subjecting its writers to arrest and jail terms. Officially disassociating itself from the Communist Party, the Guardian still faced a crisis of survival in that it lost its core readership and major sources of funding. Nonetheless, as a staff writer Abbie Sachs remarked, "The [SCA] actually did us a big favor because it meant we couldn't use the jargon and ever-ready phrases [of communist ideology]...We were compelled to use more substantive ways of thinking and writing...." In this transformation, the Guardian not only sharpened its reporting on events in South Africa, but developed contacts with indigenous anti-apartheid forces, some of which were growing increasingly militant in the face of the apartheid government's intransigence and policies of imprisonment and torture. Along with these groups working politically and in some cases militarily, the Guardian became a catalyst for change in South Africa.

The story of the survival and role of the Guardian is written in conjunction with political events in South Africa leading to the overthrow of apartheid. Zug also writes about the work and influence of major and some secondary individuals connected with the paper. With a background as a historian as well as a journalist, author Zug writes an enduring history of this notable newspaper.