South Africa Politics

As the 1980s draw to a close, South Africa is a maelstrom of political violence with the apartheid regime in its death throes. Young Martin Helger is the struggling odd duck at an elite private boys school in Johannesburg, with his father, a rough-handed scrap dealer, and his brother, a mysterious legend. When a beautiful and manipulative American arrives at the family home, Martin soon finds himself wrenched out of his isolated bubble and thrust into the raw heart of the struggle.

Before the U.S. embarks on a dangerous political journey, it should consider the lessons—both positive and negative—of South Africa's experience. This book draws on President Donald Trump's infamous alleged quip about "sh!thole countries." Though he denied making the profane comment, it is a useful shorthand for what neither the U.S. nor South Africa would wish to become, but which "transformation" could condemn them to be.

The first genocide of the 20th century, though not well known, was committed by Germans between 1904-1907 in the country we know today as Namibia, where they exterminated thousands of Herero and Nama people and subjected the surviving indigenous men, women, and children to forced labor. The perception of Africans as subhuman - lacking any kind of civilization, history, or meaningful religion - and the resulting justification for the violence against them is what author Elizabeth R. Baer refers to as the "genocidal gaze", an attitude that was later perpetuated by the Nazis.

Give Us More Guns, based on hundreds of interviews with police, experts, and the gangsters themselves, tells the story of this callous crime for the first time. Mark Shaw explores how the guns get into the hands of South Africa’s crime bosses and describes the bloodshed that ensues. He also uncovers accounts of rampant corruption within the police and in the state’s gun-licensing system, probing the government failure that has been instrumental in arming the country’s gangsters.

After the Dance first appeared in 2004, 10 years after South Africa’s wildly enthusiastic embrace of freedom and democracy. Its value now, 15 years later, seems to be as a portrait of a new democracy that is losing its innocence. The optimism remains widespread, but the cracks, first hinted at in the 2004 edition, are beginning to show. The halcyon days of the Nelson Mandela presidency have slipped away too rapidly, replaced by early signs of that distinctive post-Uhuru pattern.

Millions of Black South African workers struggled against apartheid to redeem employment and production from a history of abuse, insecurity, and racial despotism. Almost two decades later, however, the prospects of a dignified life of wage-earning work remain unattainable for most South Africans. Through extensive archival and ethnographic research, Franco Barchiesi documents and interrogates this important dilemma in the country's democratic transition.

South Africa is under attack from all sides when Elanza, a politically connected heiress blinded by disease and looking for love before it is too late, meets a naïve English boy. Ralph, 18 and innocent, has accidentally stumbled upon Elanza - and South Africa’s biggest secret. When Ralph disappears into the darkest part of the continent to walk home overland, a Swazi spy, the only black African agent working for the apartheid-era National Intelligence Service, comes into both of their lives.

Our Poisoned Land is Jacques Pauwʼs sequel to the bestselling The Presidentʼs Keepers. A publishing phenomenon and South Africaʼs fastest-selling book ever, The Presidentʼs Keepers fearlessly exposed former president Jacob Zumaʼs darkest secrets. Our Poisoned Land is as riveting and explosive as its predecessor.

This is the extraordinary story of the South African boy whose bravery and fierce determination to make a difference despite being born with AIDS has made him the human symbol of the world's fight against the disease, told by the veteran American journalist whose life he changed.

Im September geht es im Reiseteil von Spotlight Audio in die Wildnis Südafrikas. Lernen Sie neue Vokabeln aus dem Bereich Tiere und Natur...

Empty Hands is the inspiring memoir of Zulu nurse and health-care activist Sister Abegail Ntleko. Growing up poor in a rural village with a father who didn't believe in educating girls, against seemingly insurmountable odds Sister Abegail earned her nursing degree and began work as a community nurse and educator, dedicating her life to those in need.

In the case of some historical figures, a single event or small span of years is sufficient for understanding the timeliness and extent of their impact upon the world. But others have taken lengthier, more convoluted journeys with broadly-evolved circumstances, intentions and roles to be played, reinventing themselves and playing different roles as times change.