An account of the author's grueling, but ultimately successful, journey in 1957, through Africa's remote, primitive Kalahari Desert, in search of the legendary Bushmen, the hunters who pray to the great hunters in the sky.

From the bestselling author of Destiny of the Republic, this thrilling biographical account of the life and legacy of Wintson Churchill is a nail-biter and top-notch character study rolled into one (The New York Times).

At the age of twenty-four, Winston Churchill was utterly convinced it was his destiny to become prime minister of England. He arrived in South Africa in 1899, valet and crates of vintage wine in tow, to cover the brutal colonial war the British were fighting with Boer rebels and jumpstart his political career. But just two weeks later, Churchill was taken prisoner. Remarkably, he pulled off a daring escape--traversing hundreds of miles of enemy territory, alone, with nothing but a crumpled wad of cash, four slabs of chocolate, and his wits to guide him.

Bestselling author Candice Millard spins an epic story of bravery, savagery, and chance encounters with a cast of historical characters--including Rudyard Kipling, Lord Kitchener, and Mohandas Gandhi--with whom Churchill would later share the world stage. But Hero of the Empire is more than an extraordinary adventure story, for the lessons Churchill took from the Boer War would profoundly affect twentieth century history.

Look for Candice Millard's latest book, River of the Gods.

A fresh and penetrating exploration of South Africa's history, from the earliest known human inhabitation of the region to the present

I did not think it was possible for a white person to write a history of South Africa which a black South African would find to be a fair and accurate account of a beautiful land and its people. Leonard Thompson has disabused me of that notion. His is a history that is both accurate and authentic, written in a delightful literary style.--Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The Fourth Edition of this classic text brings South Africa's history up to date with a new chapter chronicling the first presidential term of Mbeki and ending with the funeral of Nelson Mandela.

An admirably objective history of South Africa . . . [that] will be most useful in contemplating the country's future.--Lorna Hahn, New York Times Book Review

This is a work of insight and durability that is certain to assist South Africa's coming generation of nation-builders to reach a more objective understanding of their past.--Foreign Affairs

Concentrating on southern Africa's black inhabitants, rather than on its white minority, this work has received universal praise from scholars and activists alike.--Washington Post Book World

The text is basic for any reader who wishes to comprehend the historical patterns that preface the struggles that seethe and boil in this country. A careful, reliable book for student research.--School Library Journal

A bold and innovative social history, The Seed is Mine concerns disenfranchised black people who did so much to shape the destiny of South Africa. After years of interviews with Kas Maine and his neighbours, employers, friends, and family - a rare triumph of collaborative courage and dedication - Charles van Onselen has recreated the entire life of a man who struggled to maintain his family in a world dedicated to enriching whites and impoverishing blacks, while South Africa was tearing them apart.

The Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) remains unique in the annals of modern history. For the first time in the modern era, war was deliberately waged by a supposedly civilized nation on innocent women and children. Not only were Dutch settler (Boer) homes destroyed by the British forces by means of a scorched earth policy, but the Boer women and wee ones were then herded into deplorable concentration camps. Women and children whose menfolk were still in the battlefield were subjected to starvation rations, which resulted in widespread disease and death. At the heart of the conflict was the desire of the Rothschild banking dynasty to control the mineral wealth of regions inhabited by the Dutch pioneers who had tamed the wild lands of southern Africa. To fund the unending British atrocities, the Rothschilds dug deep.

Southern Africa was once regarded as a worthless jumble of British colonies, Boer republics, and African chiefdoms, a troublesome region of little interest to the outside world. But then prospectors chanced upon the world's richest deposits of diamonds and gold, setting off a titanic struggle between the British and the Boers for control of the land. The result was the costliest, bloodiest, and most humiliating war that Britain had waged in nearly a century, and the devastation of the Boer republics. The New Yorker calls this magisterial account of those years an] astute history.... Meredith expertly shows how the exigencies of the diamond (and then gold) rush laid the foundation for apartheid.

A gripping and important (The Guardian) account of nine tumultuous days, as the assassination of Nelson Mandela's protégé by a white supremacist threatens to derail South Africa's democratic transition and plunge the nation into civil war.

Johannesburg, Easter weekend, 1993. Nelson Mandela had been released after twenty-seven years in prison and was in power sharing talks with President F.W. de Klerk. After decades of resistance, the apartheid regime seemed poised to fall...until a white supremacist shot and killed Mandela's popular heir apparent, Chris Hani, in a last desperate attempt to provoke civil war.

Twenty-two-year-old rookie journalist Justice Malala was one of the first people at the crime scene. And as he covered the growing chaos of the next nine days--the protests and police brutality, reprisal killings and calls for paramilitary units to get combat-ready--he was terrified the assassin's plot might succeed.

In The Plot to Save South Africa, Malala masterfully (Foreign Affairs) unspools this political history in the style of a thriller, alternating between the perspectives of participants across the political spectrum in a riveting, kaleidoscopic account of a country on the brink. Through vivid archival research and shocking original interviews, he digs into questions that were never fully answered in all the tumult at the time: How involved were far-right elements within the South African government in inciting--or even planning--the assassination? And as the time bomb ticked on, how did these political rivals work together with opponents whose ideology they'd long abhorred--despite provocation and their own failures, doubts, and fears--to keep their country from descending into civil war?

The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. Like all of Steve Biko's writings, those words testify to the passion, courage, and keen insight that made him one of the most powerful figures in South Africa's struggle against apartheid. They also reflect his conviction that black people in South Africa could not be liberated until they united to break their chains of servitude, a key tenet of the Black Consciousness movement that he helped found.

I Write What I Like contains a selection of Biko's writings from 1969, when he became the president of the South African Students' Organization, to 1972, when he was prohibited from publishing. The collection also includes a preface by Archbishop Desmond Tutu; an introduction by Malusi and Thoko Mpumlwana, who were both involved with Biko in the Black Consciousness movement; a memoir of Biko by Father Aelred Stubbs, his longtime pastor and friend; and a new foreword by Professor Lewis Gordon.

Biko's writings will inspire and educate anyone concerned with issues of racism, postcolonialism, and black nationalism.

. . . remarkable . . . --Foreign Affairs

. . . illuminates the workings of institutionalized racism through the correspondence of three South African women in the 1940s and '50s. --Feminist Bookstore News

The history of a place and time is made vivid by the combination of the rich personal record of the letters and the theoretically framed analytic discussion. The result is new insight into the history of black education in South Africa, and a revealing study of the dynamics of women's relations under colonialism across the lines of race, age and power. --Susan Greenstein, The Women's Review of Books

A riveting and revealing book--one in which few of the characters wear hats that are spotlessly white. --Third World Resources

This rich collection of letters deserves its own reading, as do Shula Marks's bracketing essays. They are invaluable for clarifying the myriad ramifications that the letters raise for African women. --International Journal of African Historical Studies

. . . powerful and perceptive. . . .speak[s] eloquently to a Western audience that is poised to deal with the political and personal lives of South African women in an intimate holistic fashion. --Belles Lettres

The roots of modern Apartheid are exposed through the painful and revealing correspondence of three very different South African women--two black and one liberal white--from 1949 to 1951. Although the letters speak for themselves, the editor has written an introduction and epilogue which tell of the tragic ending to this riveting story.

After six years of economic development work in Africa, Ernesto Sirolli witnessed how little most foreign aid programs were actually doing for the people they hoped to help -- from creating a communal tomato field on the banks of the Zambezi river (only to be demolished by the river's hippos at harvest time) to donating snow-ploughs to African nations! However well intentioned, Sirolli points out, inappropriate development often creates more problems than it solves. Thus was the genesis of this exciting and unique alternative to traditional economic development termed 'Enterprise Facilitation' -- where depressed communities can build hope and prosperity by first helping individuals to recognise their talents and business passion, and then providing the skills to transform their dreams into meaningful and rewarding work.

A study of primitive people which, for beauty of . . . style and concept, would be hard to match. --The New York Times Book Review

In the 1950s Elizabeth Marshall Thomas became one of the first Westerners to live with the Bushmen of the Kalahari desert in Botswana and South-West Africa. Her account of these nomadic hunter-gatherers, whose way of life had remained unchanged for thousands of years, is a ground-breaking work of anthropology, remarkable not only for its scholarship but for its novelistic grasp of character. On the basis of field trips in the 1980s, Thomas has now updated her book to show what happened to the Bushmen as the tide of industrial civilization--with its flotsam of property rights, wage labor, and alcohol--swept over them. The result is a powerful, elegiac look at an endangered culture as well as a provocative critique of our own.

The charm of this book is that the author can so truly convey the strangeness of the desert life in which we perceive human traits as familiar as our own. . . . The Harmless People is a model of exposition: the style very simple and precise, perfectly suited to the neat, even fastidious activities of a people who must make their world out of next to nothing. --The Atlantic

What has gold done to people? What has it made them do? The Witwatersrand in South Africa, once home to the world's richest goldfields, is today scattered with abandoned mines into which informal miners known as zama zamas venture in an illicit--often deadly--search for ore. Based on field research conducted across more than twenty-five years around these mines, Unstable Ground reveals the worlds that gold made possible--and gold's profound costs for those who have lived in its shadow and dreamt of its transformative power.

From the vantage point of the closure of South Africa's gold mines, Rosalind C. Morris reconsiders their histories, beginning in the present and descending into the pasts that shaped them. Anchored in evocative descriptions of mining in the ruins, this book explores the social worlds built on gold and the lives that were remade and sometimes undone by the industry over a century and a half. Viewing this industry from its margins, against the backdrop of the cyanide revolution, the gold standard's demise, and recurrent sinkholes, as well as the insurrectionary protests and violence that continue to this day, it recasts the history of South Africa and the incomplete effort to overcome apartheid amid the transformations of the global economy. In writing that is by turns immersive, incisive, and poetic, Morris unearths a history that was born of imperial aspiration and that persists as a speculative mirage. Interweaving ethnography, history, personal testimony, and political thought with striking readings of South African literary texts, Unstable Ground is a work of extraordinary ambition and depth.

*Includes pictures
*Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading
The Boer War was the defining conflict of South African history and one of the most important conflicts in the history of the British Empire. Naturally, complicated geopolitics underscored it, going back centuries. In fact, the European history of South Africa began with the 1652 arrival of a small Dutch flotilla in Table Bay, at the southern extremity of the African continent, which made landfall with a view to establishing a victualing station to service passing Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) ships. The Dutch at that point largely dominated the East Indian Trade, and it was their establishment of the settlement of Kaapstad, or Cape Town, that set in motion the lengthy and often turbulent history of South Africa.
For over a century, the Cape remained a Dutch East India Company settlement, and in the interests of limiting expenses, strict parameters were established to avoid the development of a colony. As religious intolerance in Europe drove a steady trickle of outward emigration, however, Dutch settlers began to informally expand beyond the Cape, settling the sparsely inhabited hinterland to the north and east of Cape Town. In doing so, they fell increasingly outside the administrative scope of the Company, and they developed an individualistic worldview, characterized by self-dependence and self-reliance. They were also bonded as a society by a rigorous and literal interpretation of the Old Testament. In their wake, towards the end of the 17th century, followed a wave of French Huguenot immigrants, fleeing a renewal of anti-Protestantism in Europe. They were integrated over the succeeding generations, creating a hybridized language and culture that emerged in due course as the Cape Dutch, The Afrikaner or the Boer.
The Napoleonic Wars radically altered the old, established European power dynamics, and in 1795, the British, now emerging as the globe's naval superpower, assumed control of the Cape as part of the spoils of war. Possession passed back and forth once or twice, but more or less from that point onwards, the British established their presence at the Cape, which they held until the unification of South Africa in 1910. However, it would only come after several rounds of conflicts.
On June 1, 1948, Daniel Malan arrived in Pretoria by train to take office, and there he was met by a huge crowd of cheering whites. He told the audience, In the past, we felt like strangers in our own country, but today, South Africa belongs to us once more. For the first time since Union, South Africa is our own. May God grant that it always remain our own. Back in Johannesburg, the leadership of the ANC, including the young attorney Nelson Mandela, listened to these celebratory prognostications in a grim mood. As strangers in their own country, they all understood that the South African liberation struggle would not be won overnight. In fact, the era of apartheid was only just about to formally start.
Although apartheid is typically dated from the late 1940s until its dismantling decades later, segregationist policies had been the norm in South Africa from nearly the moment European explorers sailed to the region and began settling there. Whether it was displacing and fighting indigenous groups like the Khoi and San, or fighting other whites like the Boer, separation between ethnicities was the norm in South Africa for centuries before the election of Malan signaled the true rise of the Afrikaner far right.
South Africa: The History and Legacy of the Nation from European Colonization to the End of the Apartheid Era looks at the controversial history of the country, from the initial European explorers to the successful struggle to dismantle apartheid.

Breytenbach's first visit to South Africa, after thirteen years in exile, is more than just a dazzling travelogue. He is searching for a paradise that coincides with the geography, mysticism, and mythologies of Africa, but in reality his homeland is an often hellish region of racial discrimination and bigotry. Introduction by André Brink. Translated by Rike Vaughan.

South Africa was born in war, has been cursed by crises and ruptures, and today stands on a precipice once again. This book explores the country's tumultuous journey from the Second Anglo-Boer War to 2021. Drawing on diaries, letters, oral testimony and diplomatic reports, Thula Simpson follows the South African people through the battles, elections, repression, resistance, strikes, insurrections, massacres, crashes and epidemics that have shaped the nation.

Tracking South Africa's path from colony to Union and from apartheid to democracy, Simpson documents the influence of key figures including Jan Smuts, Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, P.W. Botha, Thabo Mbeki and Cyril Ramaphosa. He offers detailed accounts of watershed events like the 1922 Rand Revolt, the Defiance Campaign, Sharpeville, the Soweto uprising and the Marikana massacre. He sheds light on the roles of Gandhi, Churchill, Castro and Thatcher, and explores the impact of the World Wars, the armed struggle and the Border War. Simpson's history charts the post-apartheid transition and the phases of ANC rule, from Rainbow Nation to transformation; state capture to 'New Dawn'. Along the way, it reveals the divisions and solidarities of sport; the nation's economic travails; and painful pandemics, from the Spanish flu to AIDS and Covid-19.

Dive into the heart of conflict with The Boer War.
This riveting narrative unfolds a tumultuous chapter in history where ambition, resilience, and tragedy collide on the sun-scorched plains of South Africa. Embark on a journey through time where the indomitable spirit of the Boer farmers clashed with the might of the British Empire, driven by dreams of expansion and the glittering allure of gold and diamonds.

Discover the roots of a conflict that reshaped the landscape of a nation and foreshadowed the brutal warfare of the 20th century. Here are just some of the things you will accomplish by reading this book:

• Unearth the origins of a fierce community determined to preserve their land against an empire's reach.
• Witness the spark of the conflict, fueled by imperial demands that provoked a nation to war.
• Explore the tactical evolution on the battlefield, where guerrilla warfare and modern tactics foretold the future of combat.
• Experience the dramatic sieges and the resilience of besieged towns, embodying the unyielding human spirit amidst adversity.
• Follow the adventurous saga of Winston Churchill, from captivity to daring escapes.
• Marvel at the tactical ingenuity of the Boers, whose mastery of the land and hit-and-run tactics bewildered a traditional military power.
• Confront the dark legacy of the conflict, including the creation of concentration camps and the heavy toll on civilian lives.

The Boer War not only offers a window into the past but also presents timeless lessons on resilience, strategy, and the human cost of ambition. This is not merely a book; it's an expedition into the heart of human conflict, resilience, and the quest for freedom.

Step into history to understand the present and, perhaps, to foresee the future. Do not miss the chance to immerse yourself in this pivotal moment in history. Click the add to cart button and witness the epic saga of the Boer War.

A great writer's take on the war of his time

Several famous British novelists at the turn of nineteenth and twentieth centuries departed from the kinds of books that had brought them fame to write factual accounts of the momentous events of their own times. Most were writers of historical fiction and some were enthusiastic collectors of military history and staunch supporters of British imperialism, so it was perhaps inevitable that they would write of the unfolding events of empire. Notable among these authors were Rudyard Kipling, John Buchan and the author of this Boer War history, the famous creator of Sherlock Holmes and Brigadier Gerard, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. One might expect that Doyle would show a jingoistic bias towards all matters British and there certainly is an element of that within these pages, but in the main he took his role as historian seriously and produced a comparatively well balanced work on the Boer political position and their abilities as a military force. However, irrespective of perspective, Conan Doyle's book displays a reliable skill in penmanship that is both distinctive and entertaining. He began this substantial book while the war was being fought, but this edition represents its fourth and final edition completed in 1904 some time after the last shot had been fired. It comprehensively covers the entire conflict and the text includes five useful campaign maps. This is an essential addition to the library of the history of the Boer War as well as for those who simply enjoy Conan Doyle's craft. Available in softcover and hardcover with dust jacket.

The history of the Boer identity is an epic saga. The Boer identity emerged in the isolation of an expansive landscape and evolved as a unique cultural entity deeply rooted in the principles of individualism, localism, independence, and freedom. The development of the Boer identity is an action-packed tale of sacrifice, suffering, loss, victory, and resilience that shaped the Boer identity.

What sets 'The Creation of the Boer Identity' apart is that it challenges the traditional perspective, which has never focused on the creation and development of the Boer identity.

It is a comprehensive exploration of the formation of the Boer identity.

The book has been extensively researched, and includes information and insights not previously published in history books.

The book describes correspondence and public statements by key figures discussing specific events of that time, adding a personal and historical dimension to the story. It not only narrates the events but also provides factual insights behind them.

This work presents a fresh perspective on the history of the Boers from the viewpoint of the Boer identity.

DISCOVER THIS ASTOUNDING CHRONICLE AND WITNESS THE BIRTH OF A NATION THROUGH THE LENS OF ITS TRUE IDENTITY

This field guide, a companion to Anglo-Boer War Blockhouses - A Military Engineer's Perspective, reviews key blockhouses left standing in South Africa. A first-of-its-kind guide, it can be used for virtual visits to learn more about these military structures, or better still to get 'boots on the ground'. Its main aim is to put the blockhouse sites on the battlefield tour map and to encourage professional guides and amateurs alike to explore them in detail or make them a stop-off on a longer trip.

Built 120 years ago, these temporary structures occupied for years by the lonely and bored 'Tommy Atkins' have a story to tell, of military industrial proportions. The author visited virtually every site, excepting only a few whose isolation and inaccessibility speak volumes about the challenges offered by the South African veld to the combatants. The guide also acts as a record of the current condition of the sites, all sadly having been ravaged by human destruction and the inexorable effects of weather and the passage of time. Thirty of them are protected by government legislation which has proved ineffective. One day, indeed, this guide may be all that remains of an aspect of our national heritage that we are in danger of failing to preserve.