South Africa Books


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South Africa Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

South Africa
Breaking the Chains of the Ancient Warrior: Tests of Wisdom for Young Martial Artists (Webster-Doyle, Terrence, Martial Arts for Peace Series, 5.)
Published in Paperback by Atrium Society (1996-07)
Authors: Terrence Webster-Doyle and Linda Lee Cadwell
List price: $14.95
New price: $48.46
Used price: $2.32

Average review score:

Let these international awards and acclaims speak for themselves
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-08-11
In response to what two individuals are saying about myself and my books I would like to share with you what many others have said to balance out their unsubstantiated claims.

* Endorsed by:
* National PTA
* Scouting Magazine - Boy and Girl Scouts or America
* NEA - National Education Association
* Sports Illustrated for Kids
* Mothering Magazine - to name only a few

*"The books of Dr. Webster-Doyle are the first attempt I have seen to explain to young people and adults the concept of martial arts as a peaceful, nonviolent 'way of life' and to give students the tools to accomplish this goal." - Linda Lee Cadwell

*Winner of the Martial Arts Industry Association Distinguished Service Award

* Awarded the Robert Burns Medal for literature by Austria's Albert Schweitzer Society, for "outstanding merits in the field of peace-promotion"

* Selected by the International Association of Educators for World Peace for their Central American peace education project in Panama and El Salvador

* Acclaimed at the Soviet Peace Fund Conference in Moscow and published in Russia by Moscow's Library of Foreign Literature and Magistr Publications

* On permanent display at the International Museum of Peace and Solidarity in Samarkind, Uzbekistan, the Commonwealth of Independent States.

* "Why is Everybody Always Picking on Us? explores the roots of prejudice. I don't think I've seen another book like it. How wonderful if this book could be used in social studies classrooms! I have learned where prejudice begins, how it is created, how it is perpetuated, and how it can be resolved. This book looks at stereotypes, bigotry, discrimination, scapegoating, racism, and more. It is a wonderfully comprehensive manual for young people and adults alike on understanding our conditioning and the root of prejudice."
American Pride Through Education

*"Webster-Doyle's insight is that by recognizing, understanding, and accepting our violent tendencies, we can avoid acting them out. These new books . . . are good for teachers and parents of elementary school children who need appropriate language and activities to help children deal with their feelings and the violence-provoking parts of the environment. To this reviewer, they are realistic and practical." --Young Children - Magazine of the National Association for the Education of Young Children

* "The book excels at impelling children to understand how conflict works within themselves. Tug of War offers engaging exercises that enhance a child's ability to understand the world. These exercises inspire self-observation, and the drawings of award-winning illustrator Rod Cameron enliven the book." Forum ¬- Newsletter of Educators for Social Responsibility

* Fighting the Invisible Enemy and Tug of War recommended by the Elementary School Library Collection as "fine contributions to materials for children"; both books also chosen by the British Commonwealth Collection - A Selection of Books and Journals on Nonviolence and Social Change

*"Every publication from the pen of this author should make a significant contribution to peace within and without. Highly recommended!" -- New Age Publishers and Retailers Alliance Trade Journal

*Why Is Everybody Always Picking On Me? -- cited by the Omega New Age Directory as one of the Ten Best Books, for its "atmosphere of universal benevolence and practical application"

* Dr. Lawrence Shapiro of the Center for Applied Psychology described Dr. Webster-Doyle as an "eloquent leader of the movement to combine principles of education, psychology, and the martial arts to teach young people to resolve conflict peacefully."

* Selected by the National PTA as a recommended resource for parents.

*"We use his books and thoroughly endorse the usefulness of his methods which have high potential in schools." - Stewart W. Twemlow, M.D. Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis, Menninger Clinic

* Endorsed by Scouting Magazine and Sports Illustrated for Kids

* Endorsed by Mothering Magazine

* Nine time Winner of the Benjamin Franklin Awards for Excellence in Independent Publishing - in six consecutive years

*Selected by the American Booksellers Association for its resource listing of "Children's Books About Peace"

*"These topics are excellent and highly relevant."
--Dr. Charles Mercieca, Executive Vice President
International Association of Educators for World Peace
NGO, United Nations (ECOSOC), UNICEF & UNESCO

*"Helps young people deal with conflict and violence by describing practical skills for peace." --Holistic Education Review

*"I realize Why Is Everybody Always Picking On Me? urgency for every child and adult . . . My daughter couldn't stop reading it!"
--Marina Dubrovskaya, Assistant Director
Dept. of Sociology, Lenin Library, Moscow, Russia

* "Your book (Why Is Everybody Always Picking On Me?) has really helped me ignore the bullies and in a way stop bullying others." - 4th grader

* Presented the National Conference on Peacemaking & Conflict Resolution

*"The materials were very helpful to the facilitators who conducted the workshop on bullying strategies." - New Jersey State Bar Foundation

* Endorsed by the New York City Board of Education

...To name only a few

Excellent book for children involved in a Martial Arts.
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 1999-04-14
I love the stories, which I found very important in praticing the Martial Arts. Young Martial Artists should learn mental self defense as a highest priority.

Excellent book for children involved in a Martial Arts.
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 1999-04-14
I love the stories, which I found very important in praticing the Martial Arts. Young Martial Artists should learn mental self defense as a highest priority.

Really misleads the kids.
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2006-01-03
We used these books for a while in our Nevada Schools becaue the business consulting company we had recommended them. They sold pretty well. Then, we actually read them. They are total junk. They teach the kids to flat out lie, over and over again. They teach that you should never stand-up to a bully because you may get beat up. WHAT?! If these are sold to anyone, they shouldn't be sold in martial arts schools. Mayeb dance studios, but not Martial Arts schools.
Absolute crapola!

South Africa
The Coming Revolution in South Africa (New International)
Published in Paperback by Pathfinder Press (NY) (1985-06)
Author: Jack Barnes
List price: $14.00
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Average review score:

Erroneous predictions, bland rhetoric
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-26
I'm not sure what planet these other reviewers inhabit - and I'm also surprised that anyone would try to keep this embarrassing booklet in print. (Hello: the ANC buried the "Freedom Charter" - and embraced international capitalism - a long time ago!) Check out Terry Bell, Patrick Bond, John Pilger, or any of a number of authors if you'd like to know more about developments in South Africa over the last 15 years.

culminación de la revolución democrática
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2002-10-09
Fue necesario unir los campesinos y trabajadores -los víctimas del capitalismo- para llevar a cabo la revolución democrática en el país de Sudáfrica, en contra de los mismos capitalistas. Y no sólo fue una clase capitalista en su país, sino un imperialismo que extraía ganancias de muchos países del sur y centro de su continente.

Parece irónico, pero así es el dilema del capitalismo en su fase imperialista actual. Sudáfrica era uno de los últimos ejemplos de lo que Lenín explicaba a principios del siglo XX en relación de los países sometidos al capitalismo (Imperialismo: la fase superior del capitalismo). Habiendo consumido su período revolucionario con la Guerra Civil de los Estados Unidos, de 1865 en adelante la burguesía ya no es capaz de ofrecer el liderazgo para ninguna revolución democrática en ningún rincón del mundo. Únicamente los campesinos y trabajadores pueden instalar las leyes de igualdad, con la burguesía esperando impaciente de regresar del margen para tomar el poder una vez consumidas las necesidades democráticas.

Con Nelson Mandela de frente, el Congreso Nacional Africano impuso los mínimos de igualdad, y así acabó con un imperio pequeño pero tan brutal como el de Israel hoy en día. Sudáfrica sigue capitalista, pero ya no tiene segregación para extraer súper-ganancias.

What was apartheid? How was it defeated? What next?
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2002-10-07
The main article in this collection, "The Coming Revolution in South Africa," by Jack Barnes, came out in the mid-1980s. The analysis presented was important as a guide to action for all those involved in the struggle to rid the world of the hated apartheid system in South Africa.

Apartheid was a system that strangled normal capitalist development. A regime that resembled fascism, it treated the mass of the workers and farmers almost as slaves. Instead of a ruling capitalist class pitted against a working class (which is to be expected as a result of normal capitalist development), the apartheid system divided society into a white caste and a non-white caste, with Blacks, the majority of the population, stripped of nearly all democratic rights. The wealthy white elite fought to preserve apartheid because it secured their control over the Black majority, and thus magnified profit rates. But this form of control created explosive social pressures.

In order to advance toward socialism, the working people in South Africa first had to destroy the apartheid structure and allow the pressures of capitalist development to emerge into the open. With the chains of apartheid broken, the masses of working people could then come to grips with a real capitalist system as such.

The 1994 election which brought the African National Congress to power culminated a process of revolutionary change that was critical to all further development in South Africa and its neighboring countries. It opened the door to a new period of class struggle, preparing the workers in South Africa to participate, on an equal footing with workers in all countries, to build a new world free of capitalist war and depression.

Revolution to come
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2002-08-24
Though published in 1985, nine years before the victory of the African National Congress against Apartheid, the main article in this book-length magazine Jack Barnes's "The Coming Revolution in South Africa," forecasts the way forward for the democratic revolution in South Africa and shows how the roots of a future socialist revolution in South Africa flow out of that struggle. Barnes, the national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, explains why the democratic tasks of national liberation and unification advanced by the ANC and its allies were the correct way forward for the peoples of South Africa. With examples from the policies of Lenin and the Russian Bolsheviks and the Cuba and Nicaraguan revolutions, Barnes takes on sectarians who attacked the ANC because it did not have an explicitly anticapitalist program. Along with Barnes' speech, this issue contains "The Freedom Charter"--the political program the ANC advanced in the antiapartheid struggle -- "The Future Belongs to US" a Speech by ANC leader Oliver Tambo, a speech by Fidel Castro explaining why and how Cuba supported the freedom struggle in Angola, and a summary of the then latest stages in the South African struggle by Ernest Harsch.

South Africa
Eyewitness Travel Guide to South Africa (revised)
Published in Paperback by DK Travel (1999-10-01)
Author:
List price: $24.95
New price: $12.05
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Average review score:

Beautiful Photographs - Small Type
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2005-01-10
This travel guide has many beautiful photos. However, the over 400 pages of information is in small type that is somewhat impractical. The travel guide is set up in 15 sections. The sections are:

1. Cape Town
2. Cape Winelands
3. Western Coastal Terrace
4. Southern Cape
5. Garden Route to Grahamstown
6. Wild Coast, Drakensberg and Midlands
7. Durban and Zululand
8. Gauteng and Sun City
9. Blyde River Canyon and Kruger
10. South of the Orange
11. North of the Orange
12. Where To Stay
13. Where To Eat
14. Practical Information
15. Travel Information

A land that I love....
Helpful Votes: 22 out of 29 total.
Review Date: 2001-05-06
It is amazing how you can live in a country and never see it all. This book made me quite homesick since South Africa was my home for 12 years. My parents moved there when I was just seven and I did not return to America until I was getting ready to attend college.

I can truly say, South Africa is perhaps one of the most beautiful countries in the world. The land seems to burst with color, the scent of the earth is intoxicating, the animal life is vibrant and the sunsets....are well...magnificent. This book brings South Africa to life in all her glory. Upon opening this book you will find a map of all the regions. I lived near Johannesburg for most of my life, but we also traveled to Durban and the Cape for vacations in the summer. December in South Africa is quite warm and is holiday season. Each year we would travel down to Durban on our annual pilgrimage to the beach. Oh, the beaches. What can I say? I cannot say enough about them. The sand is hot, the breezes are warm and the water can be dangerous to play in, yet the swimming there is the best I have ever experienced. You can feel the power of the earth so much more fully in Africa. The earth captures your heart.

The plant life is also displayed in this book. Namaqualand with its dwarf shrubs and daisy-like pink vygie blossoms are presented so beautifully. South African Architecture is so beautiful and I remember being mesmerized by the paintings on the walls as we would drive by the thatch covered houses. Cape Dutch, Georgian and Victorian Architecture is also shown. The History of South Africa and the story of the Apartheid years is interesting for those who would like to read up on the background of this country.

If you go to South Africa, you will not want to miss Table Mountain, The Garden Route, Namaqualand, the Cango Caves, Durban, Gold Reef City, Pretoria (where I used to buy great curry powder and now buy it online) and The National Parks (where we rolled down the window and scared my mom half out of her mind because lions were close by).

If you want to know where to stay, there is a whole list of places. The index is extensive. I would recommend a tour. With this book, you can find out which places you would most like to visit.

If you are heading to South Africa, I am very jealous and I must say...I was on lucky person to have been able to live there for 12 years! This book made me terribly homesick for my childhood home. When my father first went to Africa he fell in love with the country and returned years later with us tagging along. I thank him for giving us this amazing opportunity to experience a completely different culture. This book will also put to bed the myths that South Africa is a backwards country. It is very modern and is extremely beautiful.

Sigh.....I really miss living there. It is a good thing I found a company that sells all the great food products we used to buy there online called Protea Imports. It still doesn't make up for fresh fruit off the tree in your backyard, or a walk in the veld or a swim the warm ocean. You won't regret buying this book or visiting South Africa. I hope to one day show my husband this land that I love. I think he needs to take me on a vacation!

~The Rebecca Review

Eyewitness Travel Guide: South Africa
Helpful Votes: 40 out of 47 total.
Review Date: 2000-03-28
These series of books are nothing less than excellent. The combination of photos, maps and suggestions for sightseeing are top notich. They never steer you wrong - and help to make either a quick trip or extended stay worthwhile. The suggestions for sights are both the "tourist" places and some off the beaten paths. This book is a must for any traveler to South Africa, or any of the other locations you may be traveling.

Nice pictures, but where's the information
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2002-08-29
This book is great to look at, but that's as far as it goes. I know a picture says a thousand words, but not in this book. For a person travelling to a country for the first time, I want to know as much information as possible about each place that I may go. This book only briefly covers the big cities and main "tourist" places, which is a shame because there are many tourist places that are not even mentioned. There is no guide to the animals you could see when on safari or drive by on a tour. Kwa-Zulu Natal should not be referred to as Zululand due to the Theme Park feel it gives to the traditions of a culture. I found that I used other people's Lonely Planet and Let's Go! guides and after awhile I took this guide out of my day pack.

South Africa
An Instant in the Wind
Published in Paperback by Sourcebooks Landmark (2008-02-01)
Author: Andre Brink
List price: $14.95
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Average review score:

Pure purple pleasure
Helpful Votes: 11 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2000-11-06
What is it that makes South African authors incapable of happy endings?

Having read and enjoyed JM Coetzee's bleak "Disgrace" I found Brink's novel in a second hand shop and went to work. In subject matter it is a blending of two Patrick White novels - "Voss" about a doomed journey to the (Australian) interior, and "A Fringe of Leaves" about a white woman's life among Aborigines after a 19th Century shipwreck.

In Brink's hands, in 1750, a naive but spirited white woman from the Cape accompanies her Swedish explorer husband into the upmapped interior, only to find herself alone when the husband dies and the Hottentot retainers head for the hills.

She is found by a runaway slave, Adam, who for reasons of his own agrees to set off with her to the Cape.

Brink vividly describes the country through which they must travel. Against its physical presence, the couple become lovers. All of this is good fun. Brink was writing at a time when black/white relationships were forbidden under apartheid law. Indeed, the book for a while was banned. He delivers us a vintage love story, full of sex and spirit. (Funny how Coetzee, 25 years later when inter-racial sex is no longer verboten, sees the politics of such relationships in an entirely different way).

As Brink signals in the opening pages, however, there is no happy-ever-after. If there had been (the story purports to be based on truth), South Africa's history might have been different.

At times, the writing has less to do with black and white than purple, especially as Brink creates a seaside idyll for his pair, but for my money it's a grand read. It recalls a time when white South African liberals believed if only people could see their true nature everything would be all right.

Coetzee's darker - and more recent - version is that WHEN people are most true to their nature, South Africans have much to fear.

A black-and-white South African Romeo & Juliet novel
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 1999-06-05
Instant in the Wind is one of the most beautiful love stories I have read. After an exploring team is killed in the jungle, a slave on the run is forced to accompany a surviving white woman and together they travel across the desert. During their long walk throughout the country, their relationship evolves. As they learn about each other, we discover all the details of life in South Africa in the 18th century. Brink's writing is at its most powerful, poetic, so moving in describing this heartbreaking love story. A masterpiece of literature.

Poetic, lyrical
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 1999-09-17
A wonderful read. A powerfully written love story between a slave and a white woman in 18th century South Africa. The South African landscape is revealed in all it's harshness and beauty. The story of the two characters are based on fact which makes the story even more phenomenal. A masterpiece.

A disappointing novel
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2000-05-20
I expected this novel to be engaging not only because it was by Andre Brink, one of the most celebrated South African writers, but because it was also shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize. However, I was deeply disappointed with this chronicle of the relationship between a white woman and a runaway slave because it becomes, almost right from the beginning, cliched, repetitive, and affected.

'An instant in the wind' is a novel of exploration at two levels. On the one hand, it explores the beautifully cruel South African landscape between the Great Fish River and Table Mountain, passing through the Tsitsikama region and the Karoo Desert; on the other, it intends to explore the psychology between blacks and whites and men and women in the South Africa of the mid-1700s--and, by extension, of 'apartheid' South Africa. Brink's thesis appears (and I emphasize that word, appears) to be that only extreme situtations bring people together, making us forget our racial and sexual differences. However, nothing really illuminating is said, and the very ending is extremely ambiguous, causing one to wonder if Brink did't play a trick on the reader with respect to the intentions of the female character. If he did (and I'm inclined to believe that he did), then the ultimate message of the novel is extremely nihilistic.

Is there anything redeeming in this novel? I found the descriptions of nature superb. The Tsitsikama and Karoo truly come to life the way Brink describes them, and Table Mountain becomes truly magnificent. This background, perhaps, makes the novel worth reading.

South Africa
Islands
Published in Hardcover by Harcourt (2005-04-11)
Author: Dan Sleigh
List price: $28.00
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Average review score:

Stunning
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2004-04-17
A prize-winner in its native Afrikaans language, this edition has been translated by Andre Brink. Dense, rich prose (very hard to read but worth the effort) and detailed historical facts are crammed into this book (the author worked in the National Archives in Cape Town). Recommended.

An epic of human survival
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2006-09-07
This novel transcends the category of fiction (which tells a story) and deserves to be classified as literature (a story that yields profound insights into the human condition). Though told primarily from the Dutch viewpoint, there are a few key sympathetic indigenous characters here and Sleigh's contempt for the Dutch strategy of conquest by means of deliberately addicting native Africans to alcohol and tobacco (that they can only get by cooperating with the Europeans) is evident. The "Islands" of the title are both individual human beings and small outlying settlements of colonists struggling to survive and to gain economically. Looming over all these stories is the all-powerful Dutch East India Company a behemoth of unbending, beaucratic greed that grinds down employee and foe alike. Maps would have been very helpful. It's also true that the language of this book is at times demanding (there are too many untranslated terms), but even this adds a tang of authenticity and reminds us that this story could only have been told with such depth and understanding by a South African.

Compelling!
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2005-05-25
The epic novel Islands, by Dan Sleigh is an ambitious first novel covering the first fifty years of the Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. It is a fascinating novel thoroughly researched by Sleigh and constructed from factual accounts, official records and personal letters.

Islands is the life stories of seven men who are all connected in one way or another to the beautiful Pieternella, the daughter of a Dutch surgeon Peter Havgard and Eva, a Hottentot woman. Pieternella is the offspring of the first mixed marriage in the new colony.

Islands is a haunting drama filled with excitement, greed, power, intrigue, war and individual courage. At times the novel is absolutely spectacular and at other times the story seems to drag a bit. The book is well over 700 pages so it takes commitment to begin the story. But overall it is a mesmerizing saga; one that will keep you turning the pages and have you considering the story and history long after you've finished it. This is a novel that will be appreciated by those who particularly enjoy historical writings.

(3.5) Settling the South African continent
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 12 total.
Review Date: 2005-04-05

This is essentially a history of South Africa from the first Dutch outpost built to service their ships in post. It is a familiar story: civilization is rife with such tales, the indigenous lands overtaken by a superior force with the tools to outlast those who have depended on the land for their livelihood. When the Hollanders first arrive on the shores of South Africa in 1650, the natives are guided by their English-speaking Chief Harry (Herri), who interfaces with the Dutch for the benefit of the tribe, the Goringhaicona. The natives expecting the Dutch to sail away; instead they plant their flag, designating this place a Dutch port. The natives are expected to abide by the same law as the settlers, Haerlem's Law: work first, then eat.

The pivotal character in the novel is Pieternella, daughter of a Dutch surgeon and a Hottentot woman, Eva (Krotoa), who lost the allegiance of her tribe by working for the newcomers on what was formerly grazing land. The surgeon, Peter Havgard, was attracted to Eva, renamed by the Hollanders. When Eva becomes pregnant with their child, she loses her place in both worlds, belonging fully to neither. In an effort to supplement their income, Peter goes on a series of expeditions to explore the South African land the Dutch are determined to make their own. The Dutch overcome the more primitive Hottentots after a few cruel winters, gradually wearing away their opposition, reducing their numbers by attrition, the usual manner one civilization usurps the lands of another.

It falls to Pieternella to monitor the story of the following years, via her tangential relationship with various characters, contrasting the devastation of her own country with the success of the burghers, who continue to build upon the land, cultivate, breed cattle and establish a presence that overwhelms the few scattered tribes left to oppose the occupation.

In excess of 700 pages, what begins as an interesting turn of history's pages is flattened by detail, in the retelling of a history that is devoid of passion. Perhaps it is the weight of the Dutch personality. With stubborn obsession, the Dutch, once determined upon a course, simply flattens anything that stands in the way. With typical European hubris, it is assumed that the settlers are superior to the natives, that one way of life must dissolve under the onslaught of another. There is a kind of avid brutality in these pages, the determination by the Dutch immutable and unchallenged by an inferior scattering of natives who lived in a simple societal structure. Instead, God and the Company rule this land from the first.

As the various characters evolve in the novel, their voices are eerily similar, the Dutch determined, the natives bewildered and depressed, no one to challenge the might of God or Company. It is hardly shocking that this continent should suffer such violence and political upheaval in later years, finally raising up to challenge the first settlers who claimed the land, denying the rights of indigenous peoples. Luan Gaines/ 2005.

South Africa
Ladysmith
Published in Hardcover by Knopf (2000-03-28)
Author: Giles Foden
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Average review score:

A Muddled and Wooden Stew
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2003-09-02
I generally enjoy historical and military fiction, and really liked Foden's first book (The Last King of Scotland), however this novel of the Boer War (which, according to Foden, was rushed to publication in order to coincide with the centenary of the war) did little to either entertain, educate, or move me. To be sure, the war-which bridged the 19th and 20th centuries-served both as another signal that the empire was dying, and as a portent of the horrors of World War I, and is thus noteworthy. Unfortunately, Foden's meticulous recreation of the three month siege of the town of Ladysmith, in which about 14,000 British soldiers and 5,000 civilians (of which half were Africans and several hundred, Indian) were subject to daily artillery barrages from huge Boer guns, suffers from an overwhelming number of characters and points of view. There were countless memoirs and histories of the siege, and one gets the feeling that Foden felt the need to cram every perspective into his book, which was apparently inspired by letters written by his great-grandfather, who was a trooper in the war. Indeed, those who've read Thomas Packenham's massive history, The Boer War, will recognize where certain scenes in the novel spring from.

The story is very loosely arranged around Irish hotelier Leo Kiernan's daughter Bella, and her alternating affections amidst the siege But that's only a small slice of the pie, and is rather clumsily portrayed to boot. The real story is about life in the midst of a siege, with all its familiar aspects: rationing, boredom, terror, filth, martial law, blood and guts, and so on. Chronicling all this are a good fifteen different characters, including fictional creations such as Bella, her sister, her father, various soldiers, a Portuguese barber, a Boer doctor, an early motion picture recorder, a Zulu and his wife and son, and real-life figures such as a young Winston Churchill, British journalists Nevinson and George Stevens, and an Indian stretcher bearer by the name of Gandhi. The book runs back and forth amongst these different perspectives, skimming lightly on each before a heavy-handed transition takes the reader to the next scene. None is fully-fleshed out, and Foden's interest in displaying the siege as emblematic of a sea-change in British imperial history leads his characters to speechify. The pronouncements of Churchill and Gandhi are particularly leaden. The resulting stew is an altogether wooden and unsatisfying one, and unlikely to enrich anyone's understanding of the events-although it does convey the sense of an aging empire muddling into quicksand.

Pulsing with life, reeking of death.
Helpful Votes: 29 out of 29 total.
Review Date: 2000-07-10
Do not be misled by the jacket cover-a photograph of a beautiful young woman in Victorian dress gazing wide-eyed at an idyllic background scene and suggesting a romantic interlude. The jacket blurb itself refers to a "young woman who finds love and freedom in the midst of a devastating war" and goes on to suggest that this is her story.

Perhaps the publisher is being deliberately ironic here. Ladysmith, South Africa, was the site of one of the most horrific and bloody episodes in the whole sad story of the Boer War, a war that was waged between England and Holland for control of another country's riches and in which thousands of native, as well as foreign, people met unnecessary and unimaginably gory ends. And Foden describes this horror without reservation. I can assure you, "love story" is not what you will remember or care about here.

Foden's characters come from the British ruling class, British journalists (including Winston Churchill), British and Irish regiments, British settlers and expatriates, Indians (including Mahatma Gandhi), native families displaced by the war, and, of course, the Boers. The reader quickly becomes caught up in the lives of individuals from each of these groups, feeling genuine sympathy for many of them and mourning the tragedies which befall them all as the siege and the skirmishes continue unabated. Like the siege itself, there's a hopelessness to each of their stories, which Foden carries to their conclusions (in some cases at the end of World War II) by appending a final section aptly entitled "Monologues of the Dead." This is a beautifully wrought story of unimaginable carnage.

Another success for Foden
Helpful Votes: 9 out of 10 total.
Review Date: 2000-09-05
Foden's The Last King of Scotland was an unusual novel, and so well-written, that it was to be feared his second would fall short - such is not the case. He has produced a rip-roaring account of the seige of the town of Ladysmith during the Boer War of 1899, filled with memorable characters both fictional and real (Churchill, Ghandi, Buller, Kitchner). The harrowing account of the suffering of civilians and soldiers during the seige is unforgettably brought to life. Although described as a love story, the romance element plays a secondary role in this gripping historical novel. The writer's style may appear to be hit or miss at first --so many characters, so many differing viewpoints --but the reader comes to understand that the very uncertainity of the style is a mirror reflection of the uncertainty of the lives and times of the people involved. I thought that the last section, "Monologues of the Dead", was a most fitting end for a really good book.

ladysmith
Helpful Votes: 9 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2000-03-26
THIS IS AN INTERESTING READ, PARTICULARLY FOR SOMEONE INQUISITIVE ABOUT HISTORY AND AT TIMES SITUATIONS LEADING UP TO WORLD WAR II. THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND SEEMS ACCURATE AND THE CHARACTERS REAL. FOR AWHILE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BOOK THE PACE OF THE STORY SLOWS SOMEWHAT, BUT THAT IN ITSELF BLENDS WITH THE ACCOUNT OF THE LONG SIEGE OF THE SMALL SOUTH AFRICAN TOWN OF LADYSMITH BY THE BOER FORCES IN 1899. SOME HISTORICAL CHARACTERS ARE REFERRED TO INCLUDING LIEUTENANT WINSTON CHURCHILL, GENERAL BULLER AND OTHERS, BUT THE STORY FOCUSES MAINLY ON THE INTERACTION OF BIRTISH SOLDIERS AND LOCAL TOWNSPEOPLE AND THE WAY THEY DEAL WITH THE SIEGE OF THER TOWN AND WITH THEMSELVES. EACH SETTLER HAS A DIFFERENT STORY AND REASON FOR BEING IN THAT PLACE AT THAT TIME. ALL ARE WAITING FOR THE RELIEF OF LADYSMITH, IF IT COMES. THIS NOVEL IS A TYPE OF FORCAST FOR SOME ASPECTS OF MODERN WAR AND SIEGE SITUATIONS THAT ARE PLAYED OUT TO-DAY.

South Africa
Music, Modernity, and the Global Imagination: South Africa and the West
Published in Hardcover by Oxford University Press, USA (1999-06-03)
Author: Veit Erlmann
List price: $135.00
New price: $69.76
Used price: $69.99

Average review score:

Trendy jargon galore
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2001-08-02
This is a fascinating topic and some useful data is provided, but that is all. Surprisingly, this book was given quite an appropriate review in the journal, Ethnomusicology. Its style is an example of what is wrong with academic writing today. Unfortunately, the publishing establishment tends not to notice that such books are intentionally written so as to be inpenetrable to readers. Academics write this way to avoid criticism. Since nobody can tell what exactly they mean, nobody can challenge them or prove them wrong on any points. Some readers feign complete understanding of such books in order not to seem ignorant. Presses should not exascerbate the problem further by printing such things.

Give this book a chance!!!
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2003-10-28
Quite simply, I feel compelled to write a review of this book because of the rather harsh slandering it received from the previous critic. I agree that there are many academic books out there that are ultimately filled with nothing but trendy, pretentious jargon, a mere jumble of mixed and incoherent messages. To throw this book into that category means the reader simply hasn't taken the time to decipher or just doesn't understand the rather complex, and in my opinion, extremely well-thought out and important arguments made in this book. Sometimes books can be tough reading; this one deserves your patience!
I can sum up the main argument in a few sentences: globalization is typically seen as a rupture with the past, as a fundamentally new process. Authors like Arjun Appadurai tend to link this process with the rise of electronic media, which has the ability to create new kinds of communities. Erlmann, on the other hand, sees globalization as more of a continuation of the 19th-century than a fundamental break with the past. He thinks that to understand the complex layers of signification which occur in the 'global imagination' today (such as in world music), one must ultimately return to an examination of the colonial period, especially to Enlightenment thought and the constructions of identity within European culture at that time - constructions which ultimately depended on the colonizing experience itself. Thus, in my view, it is rather ingenious that the first half of the book focuses on the tours of two 19th-century African choirs, and the second half of the book on Paul Simon's Graceland - he demonstrates for us the continuity of ideas born in the modernist era (the concept of the panorama, the Great Exhibitions, biography, travel writing) with what the world music movement of the 1980s. But he does far more than just claim Paul Simon is resuscitating the same old, colonialist predicament - he examines in much detail the history of isicathamiya, and displays how the Graceland album both does and does not mark a change from its traditional performance practice (for example, isicathamiya is seen as a genre that thrives on throwing otherwise disparate messages and lyrical images together to create new meaning, and the song 'Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes' continues that tradition, when Ladysmith Black Mambazo's views of womanhood are juxtaposed next to Paul Simon's). The upshot: this book should be required reading for ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, and those interested in post-colonial studies and globalization.

Erlmann's Global Imagination develops valuable framework
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2000-06-30
In what he describes as a "topography of global culture," Erlmann attempts to discet the global fictions of modern statehood, national identity, history, subjectivity, the arts etc. showing how they are not representations of fixed realities, or one sided determinations but rather processes that take form and develop through what he calls the global imagination, "the means by which people shift the contexts of their knowledge and endow phenomena with significance beyond their immediate realm of personal experience." The book examines how cross cultural interaction between different senses of modernity over the past 100 years have shaped the constitutive categories of race, class and gender. The book ultimately argues that the cultural topography of a "world that is now truly one" is based on the interdependency of people the world over. Erlmann explores the workings of this global imagination through two examples of interaction between South Africa, England, and the United States. The first of these is a tour of two African chiors in the 1890s, and the second is the work of Ladysmith Black Mambazo after 1986. Erlmann does not attempt a historical or narrative continuity between or within the two examples, but rather examines aspects of each as texts within their specific political and historical context. The author gets at the complexities of each example from many angles, examining the significance of biography, dance, composition, politics, religion etc. The diversity of focus makes the book read somewhat like a collection of articles, but Earlmann speaks authoritatively on every page. The value I find in the book is how assumptions of race, identity and authenticity (among others) are examined in context of global interaction and change with a result that is much more vialbe than many essentialist ideas of the colonial encounter and African/ African American music. Erlmann also gives emphasis to agency, a focus that is denied in too many other works in contemporary theory. The book is written for the academic audience, but should find wide interest outside of Antropology and Ethnomusicology.

Very, very dense
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2004-04-06
I see the earlier reviewer's point about the book's being impenetrable. However, this leads me to believe that the reader read the first 80 pages and gave up. This is a tragedy, as the first 80 pages, while incredibly complex and filled with references to numerous thinkers, is resolved and made clear throughout the rest of the book.

To better explain, Erlmann views the 20th Century's globalization as more a continuation of trends in the 19th Century. Additionally, he discusses the communication and mutual dependence that Europe and its Others had with one another - indeed their very identities were defined through one another.

The first part of his book uses the tours of two African choirs to England and the US respectively to illustrate his views on 19th century colonialism, and then turns to Ladysmith Black Mambazo's involvement in Paul Simon's Graceland and beyond for Part II to illustrate the continuities. When he reaches Part II, a number of the complex, seemingly imprenetrable thoughts of Part I come into focus; it is brilliant scholarship, but requires patience.

That said, I would only suggest this book to people who are studying South African music - it's probably a bit too dense for anyone thinking of reading it for interest or pleasure.

South Africa
Quest for the Promised Land: Oppressed by British Rule, the Van Der Kemps Cross a Hostile Wilderness to Find a Home (The African Covenant Series , No 2)
Published in Paperback by Moody Press (1997-05)
Author: Jack Cavanaugh
List price: $10.99
New price: $14.99
Used price: $0.84
Collectible price: $10.99

Average review score:

Not highly reccommended
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2005-05-15
I have to say that the first book in this series was better than this one because the characters blended well together, and in this one, the main girl character annoyed me, she was bratty and seemed like today's teenager. It did have some good qualities, like action & adventure.

Good read from Cavanaugh
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2000-05-30
I must say I was looking forward to this book by Jack Cavanaugh, after I had read the first book, The Pride and the Passion, which I highly recommend. I was a bit disappointed though, with the sequel, because it starts out slow, and is slow through half of the book. Then it picks up and is a good read, a page-turner, with more character development, and growing. I like the time period of the Afrikaaners, since this was one of the first series to cover the era in South Africa. Don't get me wrong, I liked this book, but gave it four stars for its slow start! By the end of the book, I was looking forward (again) to the next one.

Another great read! I almost liked it better than #1
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2002-06-29
The descendants of the van der Kemps struggle against British control and warring tribes. Christiaan van der Kemp is a peacemaker, but few others share his views.
His daughter, Sina, has a big crush on the neighbor boy, Henry Klyn. Sina's good friend, Karel, advises her against pursuing the relationship with Henry. . . . And Sina advises Karel against the relationship he is pursuing with Deborah van Aardt. Karel and Sina, despite their differing opinions, have been friends for most of their lives.
Jama, a descendant of Ding (the van der Kemp's slave in the first book), is struggling to find his place among the Dutch Afrikaner, or Boers as they were commonly called. He doesn't feel accepted by anyone but the van der Kemps, and he longs to marry, but finds no one he can relate with. So, at the urgings of the Xhosa tribe king, Jama joins with their ranks.
After the Xhosas attack the Boers and leave the houses decimated, the van der Kemps, along with others, decide to leave South Africa and seek land by a peaceable arrangement with the Zulus. Through hardship and heartache, the van der Kemps are victorious only by the Lord.

It did start slowly, but I still found it interesting. Besides, the rest of the book more than makes up for it! There was one part I especially liked--the imagery was so gripping and vivid (and scary, particularly if you're reading it at night like I was), but I won't give it away. =)

Good read from Cavanaugh
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2000-05-30
I must say I was looking forward to this book by Jack Cavanaugh, after I had read the first book, The Pride and the Passion, which I highly recommend. I was a bit disappointed though, with the sequel, because it starts out slow, and is slow through half of the book. Then it picks up and is a good read, a page-turner, with more character development, and growing. Don't get me wrong, I liked this book, but gave it four stars for its slow start! By the end of the book, I was looking forward (again) to the next one.

South Africa
South from the Limpopo
Published in Paperback by Flamingo (1998-09-07)
Author: Dervla Murphy
List price: $18.60
Used price: $1.49

Average review score:

Great read
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-11-04
As a South African living abroad for an extensive time now, it was a lovely homesick journey with Dervla Murphy!

Murphy describes one of the greatest events of the 20th cent
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 1999-06-02
I was lucky enough to pick up a copy of this book while in South Africa last summer. I've read Murphy's books before, but this is my favorite.

In her own nonjudgemental, trusting, and humorous style, Murphy travels to South Africa twice in the book. I will never forget the section of the book where she describes the first all-race elections in the history of the country. Since I was traveling in South Africa at the time, the book took on even greater significance. Ms. Murphy, as always, traveled places where no one expected her to go, and her description of her experience is priceless. Want to read two books about South Africa? Read "A Long Walk To Freedom," by Nelson Mandela, and this book. What a fantastic trip you'll take, whether you visit South Africa or not.

South African Journeys (1993-1995) on Bicycle.
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 1999-09-25
Dervla bikes down and up South Africa before, during and after the 1994 vote for majority rule. Her physical perseverance energized me, and her observations were fascinating. As in most of her other works, Dervla has the courage to be inconsistent in her views, and reveals her own positive and negative aspects with refreshing honesty. -- Dervla Addict.

A flawed insight
Helpful Votes: 8 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 1999-06-03
South Africa is a wonderful country and I had the great fortune to live and work there for two years. During this time I travelled thousands of miles, saw much of the country, and met a great many people from all backgrounds. It is a complex country full of contradictions that can assault one's sensibilities. There can be few other countries in the world where the destiny of its citizens is so intricately linked to its immediate history.

The author of this book recognises that the only way to understand a country is to see it for oneself. Bravely she set out to find the answers to some of the questions that South Africa poses by travelling around it on a bicycle. To some extent she succeeds, her reportage surrounding the assassination of Chris Hani has some merit, but overall I was left with a sense of great unease. She establishes her credentials as an admirer of the ANC early on and is named Comrade Noxolo (which means peace in Khosa) by her `minders'; a gesture which she describes as marking her `acceptance as a reliable friend, a person with the right attitude'. At no time, however, does she question the role of her minders as her journey continues and how she may have been manipulated in crucial sections of this book.

Her views about the redistribution of clothes from a hijacked laundry van are disappointing (failing `to see it as either criminal or immoral') and her Robin Hood like attitude to this incident is not extended to the theft of her own property later in the book in the form of her beloved bicycle. Her trip to prison to visit those on remand awaiting trial for the possession of automatic weapons is disturbing. The closest she comes to condemning the possession of these unlawful weapons is to inform us that she has another view that is `beside the present point' from agreeing with her minders that they should be retained for future possible use.

Later in the book her attitude begins to change. She becomes more cynical about her associates' intentions, but by then her personal opinions have long ago clouded the objectivity of her observations. Maybe a travelogue is allowed to be subjective but I can't help thinking that if it is then it should avoid dubious political observations and concentrate on describing the journey itself. It is this which seriously detracts from the overall value of the book. `South From The Limpopo' goes some way to describing this most interesting of countries but fails to find the real South Africa.

South Africa
Spectrum Guide to Uganda (Spectrum Guides)
Published in Paperback by Interlink Publishing Group (1998-03)
Author:
List price: $19.95
New price: $9.00
Used price: $6.28

Average review score:

Wonderful Pictures to help guide your trip!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2004-01-04
I preferred this book over some of the others that I bought because it had photos to associate with the places. The Bradt book might give more detail, but I am the type of person who finds specific places to travel to by the pictures. And, even though the pictures are great, they dont even compare to the views of the places in reality.
Great Book!

history, people
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 14 total.
Review Date: 2000-02-08
i want to review the history of uganda, take note on the people, traditions, various places.

one of the worst guidebooks I've ever bought
Helpful Votes: 9 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2001-12-16
I wouldn't normally be so harsh on a book, but this one was really bad in almost every respect. First, there is no indication at all in this book of how expensive Kampala has become over the last decade, so I ended up taking not enough money and had to have my parents wire me cash over Western Union. Not that the book would have helped in that regard, of course, because there is no information in the guidebook about Western Union or how to get cash to Uganda.

In a section at the back of the book there is a list of hotels with, of course, no prices listed, and, while the authors list theatres, tour operators and even libraries, they conveniently leave out restaurants. There is also an extensive list of wildlife species although, without any pictures to help you identify the animals, I don't know how this is supposed to help anyone. In the language section there is a helpful English-Kiswahili section, which is nice except for the fact that Luganda is much more widely spoken in Kampala, Entebbe and central Uganda than Kiswahili.

Additionally, there is a massive lack of good maps here: the map of Kampala is so small it doesn't even cover the centrally located Rubaga cathedral and the map of Uganda lacks so much detail that it is almost impossible to use it for driving. (This in a country where street signs are almost non-existent.) These bad maps are inexcusable in any guidebook but even more so here where the authors have inserted large numbers of full-page color photographs.

Finally, the binding on the book started falling apart only weeks after I purchased it. All in all, a really bad guidebook.

It's the only book that would make the cut next time.
Helpful Votes: 9 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2000-01-12
Seriously. If I could have left the other 4 books - including Museveni's Sowing the Mustard Seed - behind, I surely would have. Well organized and researched, this title kept me informed and entertained far beyond my expectations. Though I'm not often one for juicy four-color photos in my guide books, even those were welcome. Enjoy this great guide and enjoy your trip!


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