Memoirs of a Born Free

Memoirs of a Born Free
Author: Malaika Wa Azania
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2018-11-20
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1609806832

Apartheid isn't over—so Malaika Wa Azania boldly argues in Memoirs of a Born Free, her account of growing up black in modern-day South Africa. Malaika was born in late 1991, as the white minority government was on its way out, making her a "Born Free"—the name given to the generation born after the end of apartheid. But Malaika's experience with institutionalized racism offers a view of South Africa that contradicts the implied racial liberation of the so-called Rainbow Nation. Recounting her upbringing in a black township racked by poverty and disease, the death of a beloved uncle at the hands of white police, and her alienation at multiracial schools, she evokes a country still held in thrall by de facto apartheid. She takes us through her anger and disillusionment with the myth of black liberation to the birth and development of her dedication to the black consciousness movement, which continues to be a guiding force in her life. A trenchant, audacious, and ultimately hopeful narrative, Memoirs of a Born Free introduces an important new voice in South African—and, indeed, global—activism.

The Threat of Race

The Threat of Race
Author: David Theo Goldberg
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2011-09-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 144435664X

Written by a renowned scholar of critical race theory, The Threat of Race explores how the concept of race has been historically produced and how it continues to be articulated, if often denied, in today’s world. A major new study of race and racism by a renowned scholar of critical race theory Explores how the concept of race has been historically produced and how it continues to be articulated - if often denied - in today’s world Argues that it is the neoliberal society that fuels new forms of racism Surveys race dynamics throughout various regions of the world - from Western and Northern Europe, South Africa and Latin America, and from Israel and Palestine to the United States

We Are Not Such Things

We Are Not Such Things
Author: Justine van der Leun
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 546
Release: 2016-06-28
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 0812994515

Justine van der Leun reopens the murder of a young American woman in South Africa, an iconic case that calls into question our understanding of truth and reconciliation, loyalty, justice, race, and class—a gripping investigation in the vein of the podcast Serial “Timely . . . gripping, explosive . . . the kind of obsessive forensic investigation—of the clues, and into the soul of society—that is the legacy of highbrow sleuths from Truman Capote to Janet Malcolm.”—The New York Times Book Review The story of Amy Biehl is well known in South Africa: The twenty-six-year-old white American Fulbright scholar was brutally murdered on August 25, 1993, during the final, fiery days of apartheid by a mob of young black men in a township outside Cape Town. Her parents’ forgiveness of two of her killers became a symbol of the Truth and Reconciliation process in South Africa. Justine van der Leun decided to introduce the story to an American audience. But as she delved into the case, the prevailing narrative started to unravel. Why didn’t the eyewitness reports agree on who killed Amy Biehl? Were the men convicted of the murder actually responsible for her death? And then van der Leun stumbled upon another brutal crime committed on the same day, in the very same area. The true story of Amy Biehl’s death, it turned out, was not only a story of forgiveness but a reflection of the complicated history of a troubled country. We Are Not Such Things is the result of van der Leun’s four-year investigation into this strange, knotted tale of injustice, violence, and compassion. The bizarre twists and turns of this case and its aftermath—and the story that emerges of what happened on that fateful day in 1993 and in the decades that followed—come together in an unsparing account of life in South Africa today. Van der Leun immerses herself in the lives of her subjects and paints a stark, moving portrait of a township and its residents. We come to understand that the issues at the heart of her investigation are universal in scope and powerful in resonance. We Are Not Such Things reveals how reconciliation is impossible without an acknowledgment of the past, a lesson as relevant to America today as to a South Africa still struggling with the long shadow of its history. “A masterpiece of reported nonfiction . . . Justine van der Leun’s account of a South African murder is destined to be a classic.”—Newsday

An Ordinary Country

An Ordinary Country
Author: Neville Alexander
Publisher: University of Kwazulu Natal Press
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2002
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

An Ordinary Country: Issues in the Transition from Apartheid to Democracy in South Africa disputes the notion of a "miracle" transition in this country. It argues that the new South Africa had to happen in the way it did because of the specific history of the country and the players involved. While it identifies some of the turning points at which critical choices were made by local and international forces, it shows why, in retrospect, the known decisions were made rather than other possible ones. Alexander explores a range of issues in post-apartheid South Africa including national identity and the rainbow nation, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the role and status of language, showing the volatility, the tentativeness, and the fluidity of the situation that is evolving. In looking ahead at probable developments, An Ordinary Country predicts that South Africa will develop, or stagnate, as a "normal" bourgeois democratic social formation for the next generation, at least until the inevitable alternatives to the prevailing system of political economy regain their credibility.

Azanian Bridges

Azanian Bridges
Author: Nick Wood
Publisher:
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2016-04-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781910935125

A tense SF thriller set in an alternative South Africa where apartheid still holds sway and the struggle for equality continues. Sibisuso, an AmaZulu unwittingly caught up in the conflict, and Martin, a white psychologist, find their fates entwined via a machine that might just change the world...

Unfinished Business

Unfinished Business
Author: Terry Bell
Publisher: Verso
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2003
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781859845455

This book pulls back the curtain on the 'political miracle' of the new South Africa.