History
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Albert Luthuli: Bound by faith R200.00
Much public historical mythology asserts that Chief Albert Luthuli, former President of the African National Congress (ANC), launched the armed struggle upon his return to South Africa after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. This misinterpretation sparks what is arguably one of the most relevant and controversial historical debates in South Africa. Due to Luthuli’s domestic and international prominence and impeccable moral character, liberation struggle icons, political parties and politicians justify in part their past actions and their contemporary relevance upon a contrived historical memory. Often that memory is not compatible with the archival record. Contrary to a nationalist inspired historical perspective, in this book Scott Couper argues that Luthuli did not support the initiation of violence in December 1961. Luthuli’s ecclesiastical tradition, Congregationalism, embedded within him the primacy of democracy, education, sacrificial service, multiracialism and egalitarianism, propelling him to the heights of political leadership. However, these same seminal emphases rendered Luthuli obsolete as a political leader within an increasingly radicalised, desperate and violent environment. While Christian faith fuelled his political success, it engendered the inertia for his irrelevance following the ANC’s resort to violence. By not supporting the ANC’s armed movement, Luthuli’s political career proved to be `bound by faith’.
Author(s): Scott Couper
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AMAMPONDOMISE, A Story of Resilience R250.00
The history of the AmaMpondomise nation: its origins, royal lineage and heritage, the wars it fought, its disintegration as a result of colonialism and apartheid, and its recognition and restoration as a kingdom in 2019.
Samkelo Callaway Mtwana is a descendant of Nkosi Cwerha, the eldest son of King Ntose of AmaMpondomise. He was born in the Tsolo district of the Eastern Cape province, went to Jongilizwe College for sons of traditional leaders, and studied law at the University of Transkei (now Walter Sisulu University of Technology).
Author(s): Samkelo Callaway Mtwana
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Don't Upset ooMalume! Original price was: R280.00.R230.00Current price is: R230.00.
Returning to the family homestead in the Eastern Cape these holidays, and worried that your city ways and less than perfect knowledge of Xhosa culture will get you a wagging finger in the face from oomalume – the uncles? No need to fret, Don’t Upset ooMalume! offers an easy solution. This book, written by Xhosa ambassador and agriculturalist Hombakazi Mercy Nqandeka, aims to capture the essence of Xhosa heritage and culture and explores the many unique characteristics of village life.
It covers a range of topics, from basic greetings and major Xhosa life ceremonies to traditional clothing, what to expect in and around the rondavel and Xhosa cuisine. Mercy interweaves her descriptions of Xhosa culture with references to her childhood and lessons taught to her by her grandmother and mother, who was the inspiration for this book.
She also identifies edible forage and medicinal plants and even shares recipes for how these plants can be used. Furthermore, Mercy shares stories about the central role nature and different animals hold in Xhosa culture. The book was born from the author’s concern that knowledge of Xhosa heritage and culture will be lost to future generations.
In writing this book, she hopes to help reconnect Xhosa people to their roots.
Author: Hombakazi Mercy Nqandeka
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Dreams From My Father - A Story of Race and Inheritance R225.00
An international bestseller which has sold over a million copies in the UK, Dreams From My Father is a refreshing, revealing portrait of a young man asking big questions about identity and belonging. The son of a black African father and a white American mother, President Obama recounts an emotional odyssey, retracing the migration of his mother’s family from Kansas to Hawaii, then to his childhood home in Indonesia. Finally he travels to Kenya, where he confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.
Author(s): Barack Obama
Available on back-order
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How The West Was Lost - Fifty Years of Economic Folly - And the Stark Choices Ahead R150.00
From the author of Dead Aid, Dambisa Moyo’s How the West was Lost explores how the ‘first world’ has its wasted inheritance with flawed economic policy – and what can be done to reverse the decline. We think we know what’s coming. But is it already too late? How the West Was Lost is a wake-up call for all of us. Dambisa Moyo argues that during the last fifty years the most advanced countries on earth have squandered their advantage through fatally flawed policies: obsessing over property, ravenously consuming and building up debt instead of investing. Here Moyo outlines solutions that could help stem the tide. By rethinking many of the things we take for granted, she shows, it may yet be possible for the West to get back into the race. ‘An outspoken iconoclast … Moyo shows well how fundamental economic liberalisation espoused by what she calls the profligate, greedy, self-interested West has come back to bite it’ Guardian ‘Succinct and sophisticated … I applaud her brave alarum against our economic and social complacency’ Observer ‘A well-reasoned look at how the world’s most-advanced nations are squandering their economic lead … a prescription for stopping the rot’ Bloomberg ‘Clear and brazen … This argument has rarely have been made more concisely’ The Times ‘An economist who makes waves’ Sunday Telegraph Dambisa Moyo worked at Goldman Sachs for eight years, having previously worked for the World Bank as a consultant. Moyo completed a PhD in Economics at Oxford University, and holds a Masters from Harvard University Kennedy School of Government. Her other books include Winner Take All and How the West was Lost. She was born and raised in Lusaka, Zambia.
Author(s): Dambisa Moyo
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Iziduko Nezibongo R200.00
Umlawu Tyatyeka lithole lwasemaQwambini eCacala (Lady Frere) kwilali yaseNtshinindeni. Ngunyana kaVayeke, uGamgam kaZinkebe, ozalwa nguSirhobo, abathi nguNgomana ozalwa ngu Tyatyeka, ozalwa nguRhala, ozalwa nguZembe unyana ka Gumuza. Unina yintombi yakwaKwedana emaMpondomiseni kwilali yaseRhwantsana kwase Lady Frere.
Ngoku sithethayo, umbhali lo yinqununu yesikolo semfundo ephakamileyo iNkwanca kuKomani. Umdla wakhe kwizinto zemveli ubonakle kwiqaqobana lweencwadi esele zipapashiwe, ezinjengale ithi, “Kusadliwa ngendeb’endala”. Nakule ncwadi usalandele elo khondo.Author: D.M Tyatyeka
Available on back-order
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The Bus People R220.00
This book is about the lived experiences of the bus commuters. The Bus People are the Black-working class who primarily reside in informal settlements. The book covers the impact of taxi violence on the bus people, the targeting of bus drivers when there are conflicts about public transport routes, the struggles of domestic workers, #FeesMustFall, access to water and dignified sanitation, policing, absent fathers and family planning.
Author(s): Chumile Sali
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The Man Who Founded The ANC - A Biography Of Pixley ka Isaka Seme Original price was: R300.00.R240.00Current price is: R240.00.
It is well known that the African National Congress was formed in 1912 and is considered the oldest political organisation on the African continent. What is often not widely known is that the person who founded it was one Pixley ka Isaka Seme, a thirty-year-old black South African from Inanda outside the city of Durban.
What is remarkable about Seme’s achievement in founding the ANC is not only that he succeeded where most had failed at forging black political unity. It is also the speed at which he did it. He had just returned to South Africa from the United Kingdom and the United States of America, where he had been a student since he was a teenager. In slightly over a year the founding conference of the ANC was convened and he was at its helm as the main organiser.Seme also established a national newspaper, became one of the pioneering black lawyers in South Africa, bought land from white farmers for black settlement right at the time when opposition to it was gaining momentum, became a sought-after adviser and confidant to African royalty, and was considered a leading visionary for black economic empowerment. And yet, when he became president general of the ANC in the 1930s, he brought it to its knees through sheer ineptitude and an authoritarian style of leadership. On more than one occasion he was found guilty for breaching the law, which partly led to him being struck off the roll of attorneys.
This book discusses in detail Seme’s extraordinary life, from his humble beginnings at Inanda Mission to his triumphs and disappointments across the continents, in his public and private life. When Seme died in 1951 he was bankrupt and his political standing had suffered greatly. And yet he was praised as one of the greatest South Africans ever to have lived. For all this, he has largely been forgotten. This biography brings the remarkable life of this extraordinary South African back to public consciousness.
Author: Bongani Ngqulunga
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There Was A Country - A Personal History of Biafra R170.00
The defining experience of Chinua Achebe’s life was the Nigerian civil war, also known as the Biafran War.
For more than forty years Achebe was silent on those terrible years, until he produced this towering reckoning with one of modern Africa’s most fateful events.A marriage of history, remembrance, poetry and vivid first-hand observation, There Was A Country is a work of wisdom and compassion from one of the great voices of our age.
Author(s): Chinua Achebe
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Time Is Not The Measure - A Memoir R180.00
Vusi Mavimbela is one of South Africa’s foremost political adventurers and wanderers. A writer of singular verve, humour and descriptive power, his memoir provides penetrating pen portraits of many well-known South African and African political actors, including martyred uMkhonto weSizwe guerilla Solomon Mahlangu, Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo, Robert Mugabe and a galaxy of senior ANC exiles such as Joe Slovo, Chris Hani, Josiah Jele, Joel Netshitenzhe and Mac Maharaj.
He touches on and illuminates the personalities of many influential men and women in South Africa’s early democratic governments. But the heart of Mavimbela’s narrative lies in his unique experience of working as a top administrator and counsellor in the offices of Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. In the most intimate detail, he describes the emergence and escalation of the conflict between those two flawed principals. He captures the drama of their struggle and its destructive fallout for the new South African state.Mavimbela offers a potent warning: loyalty and long service to a political party is no guarantee of wise and effective leadership.
Author: Vusi Mavimbela
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Truth, Lies and Alibis - A Winnie Mandela Story Original price was: R270.00.R250.00Current price is: R250.00.
On New Year’s Eve in 1988, Stompie Moeketsi was beaten to within an inch of his life in Soweto, then stabbed and dumped in the veld. When his body was identified weeks later, the trail led to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and the Mandela United Football Club. Will we ever find out who killed Stompie?
On New Year’s Eve in 1988, Stompie Moeketsi was beaten to within an inch of his life in Soweto, then stabbed and dumped in the veld. When his body was identified six weeks later, the trail led to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and the feared Mandela United Football Club. Will we ever find out who killed Stompie? Was Madikizela-Mandela above the law? Veteran news correspondent Fred Bridgland reinvestigates.Author(s): Fred Bridgland
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Unbecoming To Become - My Journey Back To Self R270.00
Ayanda is a South African actress, public figure and artivist best known for playing the title role in the SABC1 sitcom Nomzamo, since 2007. It is her however her current role as Phumemele on Isibaya that has cemented her presence in the acting industry. A role which saw her twice nominated for the Royalty Soapie Awards.
In this personal memoir, Ayanda tracks her journey back to self in a bid to return to her true self and to redefine her worth. Ayanda shares intimate details of her most profound experiences as a young girl in the township in a toxic relationship with a high flying gangster. As young woman falling pregnant out of wedlock and the ostracism she encountered. As a young black woman in a white male dominated corporate environment. As an artist who didn’t quite fit into mainstream popularity and her battle to maintain her authenticity in an industry that recognizes fake over real. As a loyal friend betrayed by someone she loved and trusted. As a mother overwhelmed by the expectations of being a supermom. As a young wife fighting not to lose herself in marriage. As well as finding God by going against the stereotypes that define God for us.In this memoir Ayanda zooms into and challenges the social expectations, cultural conditioning and people perceptions that sets the narrative that dictates the “self worth” for girls and women. By unlearning and reflecting on the untrue narratives girls and women are told and taught about themselves and learning a different truth, girls and women can begin the ‘Unbecoming To Become’ journey of restoring their identity, reclaiming their power and redefining their self worth.
Author(s): Ayanda Mangubane Borotho
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Walter & Albertina Sisulu - In Our Lifetime R350.00
For more than five decades Walter and Albertina Sisulu were at the forefront of the struggle against apartheid. As secretary-general of the ANC, Walter was sentenced to life imprisonment with Nelson Mandela in 1964 and spent 26 years in prison until his release in 1989. While her husband and his colleagues were in jail, Albertina played a crucial role in keeping the ANC alive underground, and in the 1980s was co-President of the United Democratic Front. Their story has been one of persecution, bitter struggle and painful separation. But it is also one of patience, hope and enduring love.
Author(s): Elinor Sisulu
