International Year of South Africa, 2015-2016, A WKU Libraries Bibliography
By Ryan Dowell with Brian Coutts
Anthropology
Carton, Benedict, Laband, John, & Sithole, Jabulani, eds. Zulu Identities: Being Zulu, Past and Present.
New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.
(DT1768 .Z95 Z85 2009)
Considers the identity of contemporary Zulus and how it differs from the past. This work is a collection
and anthology of Zulu scholarship over a wide range of topics like history, politics, health, gender,
society, arts, economics, sports – how the Zulu nation was created and uncreated during British
colonialism, U.S.-Zulu relations, generational struggles and how it is culturally expressed today.
James, Alan. First Bushman’s Path, The: Stories, Songs, and Testimonies of the /Xam of the Northern
Cape. Pietermaritzburg, South Africa: University of Natal Press, 2001.
(DT1768 .S36 J36 2001)
A collection of poems and tales from the now extinct /Xam language, one of the languages spoken by
the San (better known as Bushmen) tribes in the northern Cape region. Translated into English from
research done in the late 19th century, this book offers insight into the language and folk traditions of
one of South Africa’s oldest cultures.
1
McNeill, Fraser G. AIDS, Politics, and Music in South Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
(RA643.86 .S6 M386 2014)
Original anthropological approach to the AIDS epidemic in South Africa through ethnographic
encounters from kings to condoms showing why intervention has failed or even been
counterproductive. Looking at tradition through song gives light to understanding the AIDS epidemic, in
which educators and condoms have been rejected or blamed for causing the virus, the author notes that
local African worldviews need to be considered seriously in order to make AIDS intervention successful.
Olsen, Kathryn. Music and Social Change in South Africa: Maskanda Past and Present. Philadelphia:
Temple University Press, 2014.
(ML3760 .O44 2014)
About the South African genre of music ‘maskanda’, Zulu folk music that makes prevalent use of the
guitar but now also incorporates bass, the Western drum kit, concertina, and the violin. This study looks
at not only the Zulu traditions of the genre but also its transformations as South African society and the
music undergoes changes in contemporary times.
Scheub, Harold. Uncoiling Python, The: South African Storytellers and Resistance. Athens: Ohio
University Press, 2010.
(GR359 .S343 2010)
One of the most carefully organized collections of African oral tradition and folklore, a study of how the
oral tradition among the African peoples served as a resistance against colonialism and Apartheid. While
indigenous storytelling is one of the least apparent forms of subversion, it is one of the most effective
ways Africans resisted white rule and the oral tradition was a means for survival. A collection of stories
and poetry in Xhosa, Zulu, Swati, and Ndebele illustrates the theme of this book.
2
Art
Bieber, Jodi. Soweto. Auckland Park, South Africa: Jacana Media, 2010.
(DT2405 .S68 B53x 2010)
Soweto, now part of Johannesburg, was created as a working class shanty in the age of mining and
industrialization and became famous as a center for resistance to Apartheid. Here the city is depicted
through photography showing the buildings, the people, and their lives, with personal recollections from
the author and an introduction by South African author Niq Mhlongo.
Carman, Jillian, van Robbroeck, Lize, Pissarra, Mario, Goniwe, Thembinkosi, Majavu, Mandisi, eds. Visual
Century – South African Art in Context, 1907-2007. 4 vols. Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2011.
(In Process)
A four volume collection that offers a post-Apartheid reappraisal of a century of South African art.
Included are reproduction of works and essays from leading art historians on topics such as the effect of
the Cold War’s end, democracy, and globalization on South African art, post-Apartheid trends, finding
collective identity, representation of human bodies and animals, the effect of new technology on art,
etc.
Hobbs, Philippa, & Rankin, Elizabeth. Listening to Distant Thunder: The Art of Peter Clarke. Cape Town:
Fernwood Press, 2014.
(N7396 .C53 H63 2014)
Honors the life and six decade career of South African artist Peter Clarke in over 200 reproductions and
photographs and with analysis from art historians who have collaborated with the artist. From Cape
Peninsula seascapes in the 1940s to 1960s social disruptions at Cape Flats, Simon’s Town, and Ocean
View, to exile in America and Europe, this book recounts his work with a social context and presents an
artist’s view marked with scrutiny without bitterness and celebration of life.
3
Economics
Bond, Patrick. Elite Transition: From Apartheid to Neoliberalism in South Africa. London: Pluto Press,
2014.
(HN801 .Z9 E427 2014)
A former policy draft writer for the African National Congress (ANC) government writes how the ANC
transitioned from a liberation force to serving the economic interests of the elite leading to income
inequality, rising corruption, and ecological destruction. With the break between the ANC and a national
trade union, the political situation of South Africa may change.
Lawrence, Andrew G. Employer and Worker Collective Action: A Comparative Study of Germany, South
Africa, and the United States. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
(HD8451 .L39 2014)
Studies the theoretical power and realities of labor politics by comparing the relationships of capital,
labor, and government in Germany, South Africa, and the U.S.
Film
Boy Called Twist. Directed by Tim Greene. 2004.
(VR 6538)
A contemporary South African take on Charles Dickens’ classic novel Oliver Twist, featuring a young boy
escaping a rural orphanage to fall into a gang of street kids in Cape Town.
4
Cape of Good Hope. Directed by Mark Bamford. 2004.
(VR 4540)
A movie interweaving the stories of three people at a Cape Town animal rescue shelter, this romantic
comedy “is a colorful and vibrant mosaic of love and hope”.
Cry Freedom. Directed by Richard Attenborough. 1987.
(VR 2496)
Based on the true story of black activist Stephen Biko and liberal white newspaper editor Donald Woods.
When Woods learns that the police have silenced Biko, he learns of the horrors of the apartheid and
risks his life to escape South Africa to bring Biko’s message to the world.
District 9. Directed by Neill Blomkamp. 2009.
(VR 8152)
Science fiction thriller set in near future Johannesburg where aliens have landed over the city only to be
exiled in a slum known as “District 9”. When a government agent becomes exposed to their
biotechnology and begins transforming into an alien, he must evade former colleagues hoping to use
him for alien weapons research by hiding in District 9.
5
Have You Heard from Johannesburg?. Directed by Connie Field. 2010.
(DT1970 .H394 2010, 7 discs., Cravens 2nd Floor, VPAL)
Seven documentary stories chronicling the history of the global anti-Apartheid movement, a battle not
just of politics but economics, culture, morals, and faith waged in sports, cathedrals, embassies, and
corporate boardrooms.
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. Justin Chadwick. 2013.
(VR 11756)
Popular film conveying the work of Nelson Mandela from his early life, education, political and human
rights activism, marriage to Winnie Mandela, 27 year prison sentence, and election as president.
Mandela: Son of Africa, Father of a Nation. Directed by Jo Menell & Angus Gibson. 1996.
(DT 1974 .M36 2007, DVD, Cravens 2nd Floor, VPAL)
Documentary about Nelson Mandela from his early days and tribal education, through his political
activism and prison sentence, to his freedom and election as president.
6
Proteus. Directed by Jack Lewis & John Greyson. 2003.
(VR 6269)
Set in the 18th century colonial prison of Robben island, this movie follows the love story of two
prisoners, Claas Blank, an indigenous subject of colonial rule, and a mysterious and withdrawn
Dutchman Rijkhaart Jacobsz, imprisoned for homosexuality.
Skin. Directed by Anthony Fabian. 2008.
(In Process)
Based on a true story of a dark-skinned girl born to two white Afrikaner parents during the Apartheid
era. Film follows the protagonist, Sandra, overcoming racial intolerance and being torn between her
family and the man she loves.
Tsotsi. Directed by Gavin Hood. 2005.
(In Process)
Based on the South African novel by Athol Fugard, small time Johannesburg criminal Tsotsi has been
emotionally hardened by his tough life. When he hijacks a car one night, he discovers a baby in the
backseat and is forced to take the infant back to his house where his life dramatically changes over the
course of the next six days.
7
History
Crais, Clifton. Poverty, War, and Violence in South Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
(DT1787 .C727 2011)
A historiography that examines the income inequality and rural poverty in South Africa. Going beyond
the Apartheid and the “mineral revolution”, the rapid 19th century industrialization in South Africa over
natural resources, this work cites the violence of colonialism as the main cause.
Cruise, Adam. Louis Botha’s War: The Campaign in German South-West Africa, 1914-1915. Cape Town:
Zebra Press, 2015.
(DT1851 .B684 C785 2015)
General Louis Botha fought for the Afrikaners in the Boer War and twelve years later during the Great
War had to convince his people, now citizens of the Union of South Africa, to ally with the British to fight
the Germans in South-West Africa. An adventurous depiction of Louis Botha’s WWI campaign yet also
explores the military and political effects of Botha’s leadership and South Africa’s role in the war.
Cruywagen, Dennis. Brothers in War and Peace: Constand and Abraham Viljoen and the Birth of the New
South Africa. Cape Town: Zebra press, 2014.
(DT1927 .V55 C78 2014)
Identical twins Abraham and Constand Viljoen take opposing paths, the former becoming an antiApartheid activist and the latter a leader of the South African Defense Force and later Afrikaner
Volksfront leader opposing talks with the African National Congress (ANC). As post-Apartheid South
Africa ran the risk of civil war, the two brothers came together to work out talks with the ANC thus
finding an alternative to war.
8
De Vries, Roland. Eye of the Firestorm: The Namibian-Angolan-South African Border War: Memoirs of a
Military Commander. Solihull, U.K.: Helion & Company, 2015.
(In Process)
Follows the 37 year military career of Roland de Vries, a soldier living through the South African border
war. This work not only puts African warfare into perspective but also gives readers personal insight into
the life of a man once dubbed the “Rommel of the SADF”.
Dubow, Saul. Apartheid, 1948-1994. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
(DT1757 .D83 2014)
Analyzes Apartheid from 1948-1994 in both a local and global context and studying the role of power
and resistance in politics, ultimately asking not how Apartheid ended but how it managed to last so long.
Eldredge, Elizabeth A. Creation of the Zulu Kingdom, 1815-1828, The: War, Shaka, and the Consolidation
of Power. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
(DT1831 .C53 E43 2014)
Traces the emergence of the Zulu kingdom in South Africa in the early 19th century under King Shaka.
New scholarly analysis is given based on Zulu oral tradition and written sources, depicting Shaka as
rewarding courage and punishing failure by killing his own subjects, while showing kindness to the poor
and mentally disabled. Sources also give readers insight about life within the Zulu kingdom.
9
Etherington, Norman. Great Treks, The: The Transformation of Southern Africa, 1815-1854. Harlow:
Longman, 2001.
(DT1837 .E84 2001)
Examines the dual migration and nation building of both Afrikaners escaping British dominance from the
Cape Colony and the Mfecane, black Africans emerging from the interior as the new Zulu kingdom. This
book reexamines the movements of all peoples in 19th century South Africa rather than treating the two
events as separate events in the two peoples’ nationalist history.
Giliomee, Hermann. Afrikaners, The: Biography of a People. Charlottesville, University of Virginia Press,
2009.
(DT1768 .A57 G55 2009)
The first comprehensive history of the Afrikaners people, Dutch settlers who colonized present-day
South Africa around Cape Town, in their role as both colonizers and colonized, white supremacy of the
Apartheid yet also a minority, giving readers a fuller understanding of the people.
Gormley, Beatrice. Nelson Mandela: South African Revolutionary. New York: Aladdin, 2015.
(DT1974 .G67 2015)
A new publication of the life story of Nelson Mandela, from his youth as a village herd-boy, through his
political activities during Apartheid and imprisonment, to his continued fight for equality after prison,
during his presidency, up until his death in 2013.
10
Guha, Ramachandra. Gandhi Before India. New York: Vintage, 2015.
(DS481 .G3 G824 2015)
After leaving India for London, Gandhi then spent two decades as a lawyer and community organizer in
South Africa. Using newly uncovered material this biography strips away myths about his South African
years and gives a portrait of his life and work there within a historical context.
Hamilton, Carolyn, Mbenga, Bernard K., & Ross, Robert, eds. Cambridge History of South Africa, The:
Volume 1, From Early Times to 1885. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
(DT1787 .C36 2010 & Electronic Access)
First volume of a two volume set, this post-Apartheid work includes studies of the early history of South
Africa up to 1885 incorporating new written, oral, and archaeological sources as well as methods and
concepts.
Lodge, Tom. Mandela: A Critical Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
(DT1974 .L63 2006)
A biography of Nelson Mandela from his childhood and upbringing, to his growing political activism, to
his trial and imprisonment. This biography also features his role in transforming South Africa into a
republic and his presidency.
11
Meredith, Martin. Nelson Mandela: A Biography. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
(DT1949 .M35 M47 1998)
Covers the life and work of Nelson Mandela from birth to the early years of his presidency. Particular
attention is paid to his early political work, life in prison and the political situation outside, and the
transition from Apartheid to the Republic.
Odendaal, André. Founders, The: The Origins of the ANC and the Struggle for Democracy in South Africa.
Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2013.
(DT1848 .O346 2013)
Founded in 1912, the African National Congress (ANC) was the political organization fighting for the
rights of black Africans in South Africa. Set between the 1860s to 1912, this work examines the
intellectual beliefs and activism of the men who would go on to form the ANC.
Redding, Sean. Sorcery and Sovereignty: Taxation, Power, and Rebellion in South Africa, 1880-1963.
Athens: Ohio University Press, 2006.
(DT1798 .R44 2006)
Studies the role of supernatural beliefs in South African politics in the 19th and 20th centuries during a
time of rebellions against colonial taxation policies. For example, rebels often looked to supernatural
powers for assistance while claiming colonial officials used witchcraft to enrich themselves.
12
Ross, Robert, Mager, Anne Kelk, & Nasson, Bill, eds. Cambridge History of South Africa, The: Volume 2,
1885-1994. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
(Electronic Access, Print edition in process)
Second volume of a two volume set, this post-Apartheid work discusses the modern history of South
Africa from 1885 to the Republic in 1994. The first part of this volume covers the historical periods
chronologically and the second part discusses socioeconomic trends such as population, economics and
poverty, modernity, culture, nationalism, health, environment, and historiographical directions.
Tweddell, C. H. Charlie’s First War: South Africa, 1899-1900. Edited by Carmen Miller. Montreal &
Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014.
(DT1916 .T93 2014)
The diary of Charles Henry Tweddell (1869-1921), a Canadian veteran in the Second Anglo-Boer War
(1899-1902). Tweddell writes about his experiences during the war, and offers readers insight into the
19th century’s allure of warfare that led many veterans to volunteer for the Great War in 1914.
Willoughby-Herard, Tiffany. Waste of a White Skin: The Carnegie Corporation and the Racial Logic of
White Vulnerability. Oakland: University of California Press, 2015.
(DT1756 .W55 2015)
Studies scientific racism, white nationalism, and segregationist philanthropy in the U.S. and South Africa
in the early 20th-century with the American Carnegie Corporation’s Poor White Study, and its influence
on Afrikaner nationalism and Apartheid. Out of the Carnegie study this work touches upon the nature of
poverty and labor, global whiteness, racial regimes, black feminism, black internationalism, and black
radical tradition.
13
Literature
Attwell, David, & Attridge, Derek, eds. Cambridge History of South African Literature, The. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2012.
(Electronic Access)
Post-Apartheid project that utilizes previously inaccessible material, this work covers literature in South
Africa’s eleven official languages and divides literary criticism and history into six chronological eras from
oral histories in /Xam and Xhosa languages, through Dutch settlement history and detailed analysis of
Afrikaner, black African, and British writing during the colonial and Apartheid eras, to post-Apartheid
literature and continuities and contrasts in the contemporary period.
Brink, André. Devil’s Valley. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1998.
(PR9369.3 .B7 D48 1999)
André Brink (1935-2015) was a South African writer and educator in both English and Afrikaans, and was
also part of a group known as “Die Sestigers”, authors who used the Afrikaans language in literature to
write about moral and sexual topics and criticize Apartheid. Devil’s Valley is about a middle-aged
journalist who goes in search of a legendary lost colony of Afrikaner travelers from the Great Trek of the
1830s, unraveling facts from superstition at his life’s own risk.
14
Coetzee, J. M. Disgrace. New York: Viking, 1999.
(PR9369.3 .C58 D5 1999)
J. M. Coetzee was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1940 and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in
2003. He is an active translator of Dutch and Afrikaans literature and is a celebrated English novelist and
non-fiction writer “who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider”
(Nobel Prize). Disgrace depicts the downfall of a South African professor during the chaotic postApartheid period. Other Coetzee novels include 1983 Life & Times of Michael K (PR9369.3 .C58 L5 1984)
about a man journeying from Cape Town to his mother’s rural birthplace during an imaginary civil war
during the Apartheid, and 1990 Age of Iron (PR9369.3 .C58 A7 1990) about a woman, dying of cancer,
realizing the brutal realities of racism and violence in South Africa.
Dangor, Achmat. Bitter Fruit. Toronto: HarperCollins, 2003.
(PR9369.3 .D26 B58 2004x)
Previously an anti-Apartheid activist and afterward a government official, Achmat Dangor is also a South
African writer. Set in Johannesburg near the end of the Mandela presidential administration, Bitter Fruit
follows Silas Ali, a former ANC underground activist and government liaison on the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission (TRC) where people admit their crimes during the Apartheid in return for
amnesty. But when an Afrikaans policeman who assaulted his wife twenty years ago asks for
forgiveness, old wounds are reopened.
15
Fugard, Athol. Blood Knot: A Play in Seven Scenes. New York: Samuel French, Inc., 1989.
(PR9369.3 .F8 B55 1989)
Athol Fugard is a South African playwright, novelist, actor and filmmaker who wrote political plays
opposing Apartheid and used both white and black actors, at a time when this was illegal. Written in
1961, Blood Knot was his first hit work featuring two brothers, one black and the other light-skinned
enough to have privileges reserved for whites. Other popular Fugard plays include the 1972 work Sizwe
Bansi is Dead (PR9369.3 .F8 S5 1976) about a black man faking his death to overcome oppressive work
regulations under Apartheid, particularly the “passbook” required for blacks in order to move and work.
His career continued after Apartheid with more self-reflective works like his 1997 memoir Cousins: A
Memoir (PR9369.3 .F8 Z464 1997) which reveals his childhood during South Africa’s turmoil and his
relationships with his two older cousins who encouraged his career as a playwright.
Galgut, Damon. In A Strange Room: Three Journeys. New York: Europa Editions, 2010.
(PR9369.3 .G28 I5 2010bx)
Damon Galgut was born in Pretoria in 1963, currently lives in Cape Town, and has been a finalist for the
Booker Prize and Commonwealth prize. In A Strange Room follows a lone South African traveler moving
across eastern Africa, Switzerland, Greece, and India meeting a variety of characters along the way.
Though he is unsure of his destination, he is reluctant to return home to South Africa and his travels lead
him closer to confronting his own identity in this autobiographical novel.
16
Gordimer, Nadine. No Time Like the Present. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2012.
(PR9369.3 .G6 N6 2012, in Leisure Reading Collection, 4th Floor Cravens)
Nadine Gordimer (1923-2014) was a South African writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991.
Her novels and short stories depicted Apartheid and racism, often through complicated personal and
social relationships between people and their community. No Time Like the Present is about a “mixed”
couple, clandestine lovers during the Apartheid and now living in contemporary South Africa marked by
racial tension and vast gaps between the affluent and impoverished. Other notable novels by her
include her 1974 novel The Conservationist (PR9369 .G6 C6x) about a rich man who loses his family to
his politics and his farm to flood and worker tensions, and 1981 July’s People (PR9369.3 .G6 J8 1981)
about a liberal white family fleeing Johannesburg with the help of July, their black servant, amidst a
fictitious civil war that overthrows the Apartheid regime.
Lehman, Barbara A. , Heale, Jay, Hill, Anne, van der Walt, Thomas, & Vorster, Magdel. Creating Books for
the Young in the New South Africa: Essays on Authors and Illustrators of Children’s and Young Adult
Literature. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2014.
(PR9363.9 .C74 2014)
A collection of essays that analyze the work of 29 authors and illustrators of South African children’s and
youth literature, covering topics ranging from African diaspora in the U.S. to South African literature’s
roots in African myths and archetypes in oral traditions. This book also includes the diversification of
South African children’s literature beyond the traditionally white, female writers in the era before the
transformation in 1994.
17
Mda, Zakes. Whale Caller, The. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.
(PR9369.3 .M4 W47 2005)
Zakes Mda is a South African novelist, playwright, painter, composer, filmmaker and professor with
literary awards in over seven novels set in South Africa. An exile for over thirty years, he currently
teaches creative writing at Ohio University. In 2005 The Whale Caller an old whale caller from the
Western Cape resort town Hermanus calls fruitlessly for the whale named “Sharisha”, while a
developing love interest with red stilettoed Saluni, the village drunk, ultimately creating a triangle of
seduction, love, and jealousy. 2002 Fools, Bells, and the Habit of Eating: Three Satires (PR9369.3 .M4
F66x 2002) is another Mda work in the collection, three plays that all deal with government, revolution,
corruption, materialism, the isolation of exile, and also healing of one’s soul and of the land.
Mgqwetho, Nontsizi. Nation’s Bounty, The: The Xhosa Poetry of Nontsizi Mgqwetho. Edited and
translated by Jeff Opland. Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2007.
(PL8795.9 .M45 A2 2007)
Nontsizi Mgqwetho was a Xhosa-speaking woman writing in the 1920s for the Johannesburg newspaper
Umteteli wa Bantu and is “the first and only female poet to produce a substantial body of work in
Xhosa.” Leading Xhosan scholar Jess Opland collected over 100 of her poems, many of which touch on
themes of African unity, African renaissance, colonial oppression, leadership against colonialism and
criticizing its lack of direction, greed and materialism, gender, and theology. In each poem she gives a
female Xhosan perspective in her native Xhosan, with Opland’s translations on the opposite page.
18
Moolman, Kobus, ed. Tilling the Hard Soil: Poetry, Prose and Art by South African Writers with
Disabilities. Scottsville, South Africa: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2010.
(PR9364.92 .T55 2010)
This book is a sample of material from South Africans with a disability, physical, psychological, or
otherwise. In trying to convey the experiences of disabled people, the works included are meant to open
“a sensory window onto human experience...used humour, irony, outrage, or even empathy” and also
discuss pressing issues and their personal lives in South Africa. It is organized first by onset of the
disability or early childhood with it, hospitalization and treatment, biography, sociopolitical issues like
injustice, AIDS, poverty, and then writing about ubiquitous human experiences like love.
Mphahlele, Ezekiel. Down Second Avenue. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1971.
(CT1929 .M66 A3 1971)
Es’kia (Ezekiel) Mphahlele (1919-2008) was a South African intellectual and writer, who won many
awards including France’s Les Palmes Academiques, South Africa’s Order of the Southern Cross by
Mandela, and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1968. Born in a ghetto in Pretoria he attended the
University of Natal and later University of South Africa. His 1959 classic autobiography Down Second
Avenue describes “the struggle for human dignity in the quagmire of poverty, violence, and apartheid”
and offered social criticism of the political and economic oppression on black Africans through his story
during these years. Mphahlele went into self-imposed exile in 1957 to other African nations but never
felt at home and criticized African politics in his 1971 novel The Wanderers (PR6063 .P5 W3x). He lived
around the world lecturing internationally about black writing and racism in his criticisms 1962 The
African Image (GN645 .M7 1974) and 1972 Voices in the Whirlwind (PR9369.3 .M67 V65 1972). He
changed his name from Ezekiel to Es’kia and returned to South Africa in 1977 after the Soweto revolt a
year earlier, hoping to be part of South Africa’s renaissance and future.
19
Mpe, Phaswane. Welcome to Our Hillbrow: A Novel of Postapartheid South Africa. Athens: Ohio
University Press, 2011.
(PR9369.4 .M68 W45 2011)
Phaswane Mpe (1970-2004) was a South African intellectual who began his studies at the University of
Witwatersrand in African literature as soon as the institution was open to black students in 1989.He
later began his doctorate in sexuality studies, studying traditional African beliefs in regards to HIV/AIDS,
in addition to teaching African literature at Witwatersrand. Welcome to Our Hillbrow (2001) was his
debut and only novel, based in the Johannesburg inner city of Hillbrow, a “chaotic and hyperreal zone”
of many nationalities, Mpe’s novel depicts the struggle of black South Africans in creating a postapartheid identity in light of AIDS, xenophobia, shatter dreams of youth, suicide, and violence.
Paton, Alan. Cry, the Beloved Country. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948.
(PR9369.3 .P37 C7 1948)
Alan Paton (1903-1988) was from Natal, South Africa, an educator, writer, and political activist, he was a
leading member of the Liberal Party in the South African government until it was disbanded in 1968 for
its anti-Apartheid views. Cry, The Beloved Country is about a black priest, Stephen Kumalo, who leaves
his village for Johannesburg in the 1940s to find his son Absalom arrested for murder. This classic novel
is noted for its lyricism and depicting the injustice of racial prejudice in mid-century South Africa.
20
Schreiner, Olive. Story of an African Farm, The: A Novel. Boston: Little Brown & Company, 1883.
(PR5299 .S4 S7x 1883 & Electronic Access)
Olive Schreiner (1855-1920) was a South African writer and political activist noted for her militant
feminism and radically liberal politics and social views. Writing under the pseudonym Ralph Iron, The
Story of an African Farm is one of South Africa’s first great novels, published in 1883, set in an isolated
farm in Karoo about a girl fighting for independence against rigid social conventions amongst the Boers.
While it was a great success internationally, Victorian readers were shocked to learn a woman wrote an
intellectual piece that was strongly feminist and “anti-Christian in its treatment of social class, religion
and marriage.
Van Niekerk, Marlene. Agaat: A Novel. Translated by Michiel Heyns. Portland, OR: Tin House Books,
2010.
(PT6592.32 .A545 A6513 2010)
Marlene Van Niekerk is an award winning Afrikaans writer and professor from South Africa. The novel
follows Milla, a 67 year old white woman suffering from creeping paralysis on her deathbed near the
end of Apartheid who relies on her black maidservant Agaat. The tale traces Milla’s life from 1947 as a
newly married wife of a promising farmer to her decrepit state in 1996 in which she realizes her life has
been wasted. It focuses on the complicated history and recent shift in the balance of power between
the two women as a metaphor for the political climate around them.
21
Wicomb, Zoë. David’s Story. New York: The Feminist Press at The City University of New York, 2001.
(PR9369.3 .W53 D38 2001)
Zoë Wicomb is a South African writer born in Namaqualand, who now teaches in Scotland. Cited by
reviewers as a “postapartheid and postmodern...dense, scholarly novel for those who know South
African history” and “a huge step in the remaking of the South African novel”, David’s Story begins with
the legalization of the ANC and release of Nelson Mandela. Featuring David Dirkse, an ANC activist of
mixed-race origins, David leaves Cape Town after the Apartheid to discover his ancestry and identity in a
tale that weaves love, suffering, adventure and history.
Music
(Die) Antwoord. Donker mag. 2014.
(CD06002)
In 2008/9 Watkin Tudor Jones and Anri Du Toit, under the names Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er, came
together to form the South African rap duo “Die Antwoord”. The group revives “zef ” or a South African
fringe white culture from 1970s Cape Town and Pretoria depicting “rednecks...mullets, old puttering
cars, cheap clothes, hard liquor, and a lifestyle only a few tiers above the country’s slums”. Today the
band promotes more of a vulgar “ghetto fabulous hipster lifestyle amidst suburban decay” or an image
of the “modern and trashy”. Their third album Donker mag follows this, incorporating disjointed beats,
profanity, dupstep, and ‘quick-fire Xhosa chants’.
22
Clegg, Johnny & Savuka. Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World. 1989. (CD02324)
British-born Johnny Clegg was born in 1953, raised by his Zimbabwean mother and South African father,
and spent most of his youth in South Africa. An anthropologist by education, his music career began at
the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in the mid-1980s blending English lyrics, western
melodies, and Zulu musical structure. Savuka (“we have risen”) was formed in 1987 as a crossover band
that took African music and fused it with international rock styles. Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World was
released in 1989 after international record sales and successful North American and European tours – all
while Apartheid laws banned mixed race groups from playing in public venues.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Ladysmith Black Mambazo 2000. (CD0926)
Induku Zethu. 1983. (CD01651)
Shaka Zulu. 1987. (CD0307)
Assembled in the early 1960s by Joseph Shabalala, this a cappella group takes its name from Joseph’s
hometown “Ladysmith” three hours east of Johannesburg, “Black” as a reference to oxen – the
strongest of the farm animals, and “Mambazo”, the Zulu word for “axe” because they could “chop
down” any musical rivals. Living up to their name, Ladysmith Black Mambazo set out to preserve their
musical heritage such as “isicathamiya”, from the songs sung by black South African miners, and singing
in the Zulu language – both of which are heard in Induku Zethu. Paul Simon introduced the world to this
group in his 1986 album Graceland and immediately helped the group produce their international
breakthrough album Shaka Zulu. With a career of over fifty years, the group continues to perform today.
23
Makeba, Miriam, & Hall, James. Makeba: My Story. New York: Nal Books, 1987.
(ML420 .M16 A3 1988)
The autobiography of South African singer Miriam Makeba (1932-2008), who became notable for her
exile from South Africa and anti-Apartheid political activism. Written during Apartheid, her
autobiography covers her fame and music career, her relationships and marriages including her agent
Harry Belafonte and Black Power leader Stokely Carmichael, her political activism and work with the
U.N., and her exile in Guinea.
For those interested in her music the library has:
1988 Sangoma (CD01532)
Dedicated to her mother and inspired by the traditional songs from her childhood, many in Xhosan,
Zulu, and other languages, conveying her spiritual life and South African roots.
2001. Mama Africa: The Very Best of Miriam Makeba. (CD01851)
Miriam Makeba is referred to as “Mama Africa” for being one of the most famous female African
singers. This album is a 25 track compilation of songs that defined her career.
Masekela, Hugh, & Cheers, D. Michael. Still Grazing: The Musical Journey of Hugh Masekela. New York:
Crown Publishers, 2004.
(ML419 .M325 A3 2004)
South African jazz artist Hugh Masekela grew up with family, music, and adventure despite the violence
of South Africa. Like many jazz artists he was driven into exile because of Apartheid but it allowed him to
tour internationally, collaborating with iconic musical legends like Miles Davis and Paul Simon and fellow
South African Miriam Makeba. This book covers his revolutionary musical career, personal life of “love
and loss, sex and drugs, exile and revolution”, his political activism and spearheading the Graceland tour
with Paul Simon, and his ultimate return to South Africa.
24
Mrubata, McCoy. Firebird. 1989. (CD05045)
Born near Cape Town, McCoy Mrubata’s first album expresses his “maverick approach to music”
including playing the penny whistle, incorporating radio, flute, and alto, tenor, and soprano saxophones.
This album is an incorporation of the various styles of South African jazz, with beginnings as a variation
of American ragtime in the 1920s, Marabi or barrel organ music, and polished Zulu chorales, and later
bebop, swing, and the South African pop form ‘mbaqanga’. Produced in 1989 after South African jazz’s
30 year isolation due to Apartheid, Firebird is a great introduction to this award winning jazz artist.
Political Science
Atuahene, Bernadette. We Want What’s Ours: Learning from South Africa’s Land Restitution Program.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
(KTL3056 .A95 2014)
Detailed study of South Africa’s policy of providing reparations, not only for the physical losses of land,
home, and belongings but also for the loss of dignity or the dehumanization of colonialism and
Apartheid. South Africa’s land restitution coupled with restorative social justice is unique but a relevant
example for policymakers and scholars in other areas such as post-Nazi Europe, Rwanda, Iraq, etc..
Bundy, Colin. Short-changed?: South Africa since Apartheid. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2014.
(JQ1998 .A4 B78 2014)
A study of the South African democracy after twenty years, questioning the amount of change since
Apartheid and the ANC’s struggles once in power with factionalism and corruption. Provides a balanced
account of the ANC’s rule, recognizing advantages as well as short-comings, and discusses how history
and the political constraints has limited South Africa’s transition.
25
Foster, Douglas. After Mandela: The Struggle for Freedom in Post-Apartheid South Africa. New York:
Liveright, 2012.
(DT1971 .F67 2012)
Looks at the state of South Africa’s democracy in the post-Mandela era including the tumultuous
presidency of Thabo Mbeki and battle between Mbeki and Jacob Zumba. This work studies key political
figures like Mbeki and Zuma, as well as looking at South Africa’s ‘young’ population (half under the age
of 25), homeless teens in Cape Town, the role of the media in shaping democracy, and white
suburbanites imprisoning themselves in gated compounds.
Gumede, William Mervin. Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC. London: Zed Books, 2007.
(DT1975 .G86 2007bx)
Covers the second president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, who followed Nelson Mandela’s footsteps
having to lead a party and country from liberation to divided government. This book also covers Mbeki’s
attempts at economic modernization and creating an African Renaissance, as well as his controversial
stance on AIDS and Zimbabwe.
Johnston, Alexander. South Africa: Inventing the Nation. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.
(DT1945 .J64 2014)
Studies the concept of nationalism in South Africa in the post-Apartheid era. The book considers nationbuilding and the construction of a new South African nationalism, reconciliation and social cohesion,
whether South Africans as a whole are coming together as a single identity or pulling apart.
26
Kets de Vries, Manfred F. R. Lessons on Leadership by Terror: Finding Shaka Zulu in the Attic.
Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar, 2005.
(DT1768 .Z95 S53 2005)
A multidisciplinary study in despotism and the lessons in leadership that arise from it using the Zulu king
Shaka as an example. This work offers historical description for context, psychological exploration of
Shaka Zulu, the relationship between the leader and the people, and moves beyond Shaka and the Zulu
to analyze the very nature of any totalitarian government.
Mwakikagile, Godfrey. South Africa in Contemporary Times. Pretoria: New Africa Press, 2008.
(DT1787 .M82x 2008)
A general introduction to contemporary South Africa with a historical perspective. The work gives
readers a survey of South Africa’s history over three centuries but focuses on the last fifty years in
showing how the South Africa of today has been shaped by Apartheid and resistance to it.
Shapiro, Ian & Tebeau, Kahreen, eds. After Apartheid: Reinventing South Africa?. Charlottesville:
University of Virginia Press, 2011.
(DT1971 .A34 2011)
Chronicles the achievements and challenges of South Africa twenty years after the Apartheid from its
notable peaceful transition into a Republic and the success of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, to the rife
corruption, HIV/AIDS epidemic, xenophobia, economic struggles, and inadequate infrastructure and
government services.
27
Vale, Peter, & Prinsloo, Estelle H., eds. New South Africa at Twenty, The: Critical Perspectives.
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2014.
(DT1971 .N48 2014)
Analyzes the political situation of South Africa after twenty years of democracy on issues such as how
much progress has been made on race issues, gender discrimination, the threat to free expression,
revolts among the poor, unionization, what became of African Marxism, and more in a critical yet nonpartisan fashion.
Whitman, Daniel, & Jaksa, Kari, eds. Outsmarting Apartheid: An Oral History of South Africa’s Cultural
and Educational Exchange with the United States, 1960-1999. Albany: SUNY Press, 2014.
(DT1757 .O87 2014)
Over three thousand South Africans participated in exchange programs with the United States under
observation of the South African Apartheid government. Many went on to participate in the 1994
elections and to occupy key positions in academia, the media, and government. This work studies the
administration of these exchanges and the effect it had on South African participants and the role it had
in easing the transition to democracy.
28
Williams, Elizabeth M. Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, The: Black British Solidarity and the
Anti-Apartheid Struggle. London: I. B. Taurus, 2015.
(DA125 .N4 W55 2015)
Study of the United Kingdom’s ambiguous stance towards Apartheid-era South Africa, including British
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s support for South Africa despite international calls for sanctions
while black South Africans fled the country for the UK and began British domestic anti-racism protests.
This work analyzes the link between anti-Apartheid activism in South Africa and the African Diaspora’s
solidarity in the UK.
Sociology
Adam, Heribert, & Moodley, Kogila. Imagined Liberation: Xenophobia, Citizenship, and Identity in South
Africa, Germany, and Canada. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2015.
(DT1756 .A33 2015)
A comparative study on migration and xenophobia between South Africa, Germany, and Canada,
weighing similarities and differences and offering contextual analysis of these three multicultural
societies. The study aims to determine causes of xenophobia in South Africa, often impoverished black
South Africans against foreign Africans, and ways to combat backlash against multiculturalism.
29
Asante, Molefi Kete. Facing South to Africa: Toward an Afrocentric Critical Orientation. Lanham, M.D.:
Lexington Books, 2014.
(DT14 .A79 2014)
Raising fundamental questions about Africa and how Africans view themselves, this work is a synthesis
of Afrocentric theory studying the philosophical and political debates over culture, education, social
sciences, university, politics, and prospects of peace and unity in Africa.
Conway, Daniel, & Leonard, Pauline. Migration, Space and Transnational Identities: The British in South
Africa. Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
(DT1768 .W55 C66 2014)
A sociological, geographical, political, and anthropological study of the lives, history, and identities of
British-born immigrants in post-Apartheid South Africa. Covers transnational migration, issue of
whiteness, Britishness and lifestyle, tourism, and labor migration.
Evans, Martha. Broadcasting the End of Apartheid: Live Television and the Birth of a New South Africa.
London: I. B. Taurus, 2014.
(PN1992.6 .E93 2014)
A socio-political analysis of the effects of television broadcast media on South Africa during and after the
Apartheid. Afrikaner nationalism was developed in the age of print media, but the ‘liveliness’ of
television eroded the power of the Apartheid state as South Africa was excluded from globally televised
events like the Olympics or Miss World until the release of Nelson Mandela, and television plays a role in
creating the new South African identity.
30
Gevisser, Mark. Lost and Found in Johannesburg: A Memoir. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014.
(PR9369.3 .G48 Z46 2014)
An exploration of place, boundaries, and identity in Johannesburg covering the divisions in the city
including erasing of black townships and legal requirements for white suburban homes to have separate
quarters for black servants. Using a variety of city and personal documents, the author creates a guide
to this complex city and its identity ‘within, and across, and against’ boundaries.
Kruger, Loren. Imagining the Edgy City: Writing, Performing, and Building Johannesburg. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2013.
(DT2405 .J6557 K78 2013)
Explores the city of Johannesburg through historic archival material, fiction, film and television, art,
performance, and urban practices to give readers a temporal and spatial navigation of the city and its
place in culture and history.
Travel
Backhouse, James. Narrative of a Visit to the Mauritius and South Africa, A. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2014.
(DT756 .B12 2014)
A Victorian travel account of James Backhouse first published in 1844 as he was returning to England
from his missionary and humanitarian work via Mauritius and South Africa. This work contains rich and
personal accounts of the people he encountered, indigenous communities and the slave trade, and his
horticulture interests as well as his original sketches and map of South Africa.
31
Central Intelligence Agency. The World Factbook: Africa: South Africa.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sf.html
The C.I.A. offers up-to-date summaries and statistics over every country in the world and here it
provides users with an introduction to South Africa and information about its geography, people,
government, economy, military and foreign relations, and service capabilities. Further links give users
information about references, maps, world leaders, etc.
Insight Guides South Africa. 6th ed. Singapore: APA Publications, 2015.
(REF DT1717 .S68 [6th][2015], located in Reference, 1st floor Helm Library)
Gives travelers an introduction to the history and culture of South Africa, features the country’s top
attractions and editorial recommendations. This guide assists readers with obtaining transportation,
finding accommodation, selecting places to eat, activities throughout the year, and other information
necessary to traveling to South Africa.
U.S. Department of State. South Africa. http://www.state.gov/p/af/ci/sf/
Webpage from the State department for South Africa, includes information about the U.S. Embassy in
Pretoria, press releases pertaining to South Africa, factsheets about U.S. relations, etc. The State
Department also has travel information for Americans interested in going to South Africa, as well as
helpful information about international travel in general at:
http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/country/south-africa.html
July, 2015
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