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Know Your Nation: South African History, Culture and Geography in an easy-to-read format; vol 1

Know Your Nation, is the first of several volumes that explore South Africa’s history, culture and geography, in an easy-to-read format. Know Your Nation is the brainchild of Tim Mostert, the Speedy cartoonist from the Daily Sun newspaper. Know Your Nation approaches learning from a different paradigm, from the mind of a cartoonist. That means it’s short and to the point, with a bit of levity and comic strips thrown in, and it never gets boring. Each article is one page long with strong visuals.

Mostert, Tim

Lie on your Wounds: The prison correspondence of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe

This book of approximately 300 letters provide access to the voice of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe via the single most poignant resource that exists: his prison letters. Not only do the lettera evince Sobukwe's storytelling abilities, they convey the complexity of a man who defied easy categorisation. More than this: they are testimony to both the desolate conditions of his imprisonment and to Sobukwe's unbending commitment to the cause of African liberation.

Hook, Derek

A Plan for the People: Nelson Mandela's Hope for his Nation

As Nelson Mandela lived and worked under the unjust system of apartheid, his desire for freedom grew. South Africa separated people by races, oppressing the country's non-white citizens with abusive laws and cruel restrictions. Every day filled Mandela with grief and anger. But he also had hope--hope for a nation that belonged to everyone who lived in it.

From his work with the African National Congress, to his imprisonment on Robben Island, to his extraordinary rise to the presidency, Nelson Mandela was a rallying force against injustice. This stirring biography explores Mandela's long fight for equality and the courage that propelled him through decades of struggle. Illustrated in the bold, bright colors of South Africa, A Plan for the People captures the spirit of a leader beloved around the world.

McDivitt, Lindsey

I know this to be true about Nelson Mandela

In this book, two former colleagues of Nelson Mandela, Sello Hatang and Verne Harris, share little-known stories from his life as they explore the qualities and disciplines that enable him to lead a country through seemingly insurmountable challenges. With excerpts from Mandela's own reflections, this book is a moving reminder of his legacy and encourages every reader to find and nurture the leader within.

Hatang, Sello Koos

Reassessing Mandela

The book reconsiders aspects of Mandela's life and makes an important contribution to the historiography of the anti-apartheid political struggle.
This book provides a scholarly counter weight both to uncritical celebration of Mandela and also to a simplistic attribution of post-apartheid shortcoming to the person of Mandela.

Bundy, Colin

Robben Island Rainbow Dreams: The making of Democratic South Africa's First National Heritage Institution

The book offers the first intimate, behind-the-scenes account of the ongoing saga of the making of democratic South Africa's first national heritage institution. In doing so, it draws on the perspectives of historians, architects, visiting artists, ex-political prisoners, residents of the island and a host of heritage professionals, including debates on Mandelarisation and commemorating Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe.

Lekgotla laga Ramoupi, Neo

Breakthrough: The Struggles and Secret Talks that Brought Apartheid South Africa to the Negotiating Table

Breakthrough sheds new light on the process that led to the formal negotiations. Focusing on the years before 1990, the book reveals the skirmishes that took place away from the public glare, as the principal adversaries engaged in a battle of positions that carved a pathway to the negotiating table. Drawing from material in the prison files of Nelson Mandela, minutes of the meetings of the ANC Constitutional Committee, the NWC and the NEC, notes about the Mells Park talks led by Professor Willie Esterhuyse and Thabo Mbeki, communications between Oliver Tambo and Operation Vula, the Kobie Coetsee Papers, the Broederbond archives and numerous other sources, the authors have pieced together a definitive account of these historic developments. While most accounts of South Africa's transition deal with what happened during the formal negotiations, Breakthrough demonstrates that an account of how the opposing parties reached the negotiating table in the first place is indispensable for an understanding of how South Africa broke free from a spiralling war and began the journey to democracy.

Maharaj, Mac

Diplomacy of Change from Apartheid to Democracy

The author's memoir reflects the journey of a fellow traveller through a certain period of time - it is not about an individual but about the journey. Jacobs Dawie's journey will resonate with some, and perhaps not with others. The memoir connects with the fields of history that he ended up traversing. There is both humour and pain, two vital ingredients of life. An honest memoir should draw a smile as well as a tear.

Jacobs, Dawie

Nelson Mandela Memorial Amsterdam: Gedenkteken

The Nelson Mandela Memorial Amsterdamm was unveiled on Sunday the 5th September 2021. The bronze statue was created by South African Artist Mohau Modisakeng. The process of realizing the Nelson Mandela Memorial Amsterdam is explained in this book through photographs and texts.

CBK Zuidoost

Poli Poli

Poli Poli is a remarkable history that speaks to African identity, close family bonds, belonging, struggle and sacrifice, women's rights and femininity, and is written with the lyricism and transporting detail of one of the country's greatest wordsmiths.
Barbara Masekela powerfully conveys the realities of life under apartheid and illustrates the features and characteristics of life in a coal mining community like KwaGuqa in the 1940s, Alexandra township in the 1950s, and one of the oldest girls-only schools in KwaZulu-Natal, Inanda Seminary. The memoir follows her grandmother, a beer brewer and seller who lived through the aftermath of the South African War; her professional parents' determination to secure opportunities and safety for their children at a time when the state was shutting doors on the black people; and her university stint in Lesotho and departure into exile to Ghana in 1963.

Masekela, Barbara