Black Tax: Burden or Ubuntu?
R200.00
A secret anguish for some, a proud responsibility for others, black tax draws heated and wide-ranging reactions. While the debate rages, these payments and other forms of support to family members remain a daily reality for many black South Africans. Black tax has its historical roots in the inequalities created by apartheid and the loss of land. Consequently, thousands of black South Africans still live in poverty today. Some believe black tax is an undeniable part of black culture and part of the philosophy of ubuntu.
Others feel they should not have to take over what is essentially a government responsibility and should be allowed to focus on building their own wealth. In this book, award-winning author Niq Mhlongo has brought together deeply personal stories that tease apart a multitude of thought-provoking perceptions on black tax by well-known writers, such as Dudu Busani-Dube, Sifiso Mzobe, Fred Khumalo, Mohale Mashigo, Thanduxolo Jika and many other new voices.
The stories cover an engrossing cross-section of experiences, ranging from the student who diverts bursary money to put food on the table back home, family members who make outrageous demands on individuals often resulting in debt to look after their families, to people who are happy to open their homes to provide shelter to jobseekers or the downtrodden. In giving voice to the many different perspectives on this topical issue, this book hopes to start a dialogue about this undeniable part of the lived reality of black South Africans.
Author: Niq Mhlongo
Related Products
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
An urgent primer on race and racism, from the host of the viral hit video series “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man”.
“You cannot fix a problem you do not know you have.” So begins Emmanuel Acho in his essential guide to the truths Americans need to know to address the systemic racism that has recently electrified protests in all fifty states. “There is a fix,” Acho says. “But in order to access it, we’re going to have to have some uncomfortable conversations.”
In Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, Acho takes on all the questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, many white Americans are afraid to ask―yet which all Americans need the answers to, now more than ever. With the same open-hearted generosity that has made his video series a phenomenon, Acho explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white privilege, cultural appropriation, and “reverse racism.” In his own words, he provides a space of compassion and understanding in a discussion that can lack both. He asks only for the reader’s curiosity―but along the way, he will galvanize all of us to join the antiracist fight.
Author(s): Emmanuel Acho
Native Life in South Africa is one of South Africa’s great political books. First published in 1916, it was first and foremost a response to the Native’s Land Act of 1913 and was written by one of the most gifted and influential writers and journalists of his generation. Native Life in South Africa provides an account of the origins of this crucially important piece of legislation and a devastating description of its immediate effects. Plaatje spent many weeks traveling in the countryside and the most moving chapters in the book tell us what he saw. His book explores the wider political and historical context that produced policies of the kind embodied in the Land Act, and documents meticulously steps taken by South Africa’s rulers to exclude black South Africans from the exercise of political power.
Author(s): Sol Plaatje
In 1889 a gold rush broke out on the Witwatersrand, changing South Africa’s history forever. More than 130 years later the mining industry is still one of the biggest drivers of the economy but this was at the expense of those who worked underground. Broke & Broken is the story of the thousands of men from South Africa and beyond its borders who paid with their lives for generations. These are men who left their homes as healthy, ambitious youngsters and returned broke, broken and bitter; victims of the shameful legacy of gold mining. The book seeks to say the names of the mine workers who, through their sweat, blood and tears, have built this country’s economy, because their own stories and their own spirits need to be magnified. The precious stone they spent most of their lives digging brought no shine to their lives – only pain, tears and death. #SayTheirNames, remembering some of the men eaten, chewed and spat out by the gold mines: Mokete Bokako has a speech defect which was allegedly caused by complications from silicosis. He worked on South Africa’s gold mines for many years before he was retrenched. He now lives alone in poverty in Roma, Lesotho; Alloys Mncedi Msuthu of Ramafole in the Eastern Cape suffers from silicosis. He was paid R76 000 after he was declared medically incapacitated, but that money was too little to sustain him and his family and to cover medical costs. He now struggles to survive; Mthobeli Gangatha was told to ‘go home and die’ in 2001, when he was 37 years. He now owns a small grocery store in Nkunzimbini village where he comes from; Zwelendaba Mgidi was 23 years old when he left his village of Kwabhala near Flagstaff. He returned home in 2011, aged 52. He was diagnosed with silicosis in 2008, aged 48.
Author(s): Lucas Ledwaba & Leon Sadiki
Available on back-order
After his wife died, Rick Rigsby was ready to give up. The bare minimum was good enough. Rigsby was content to go through the motions, living out his life as a shell of himself. But then he remembered the lessons his father taught him years before – something insanely simple, yet incredibly profound. These lessons weren’t in advanced mathematics or the secrets of the stock market. They were quite straightforward, in fact, for Rigsby’s father never made it through third grade. But if this uneducated man’s instructions were powerful enough to produce a Ph.D. and a judge – imagine what they can do for you. Join Rigsby as he dusts off time-tested beliefs and finds brilliantly simple answers to modern society’s questions. In a magnificent testament to the “Greatest Generation” which gave so much and asked so little in return, Lessons from a Third Grade Dropout will challenge you while reigniting your passion to lead a truly fulfilling life. After all, it’s never too late to learn a little bit more about life – just ask the third-grade dropout.
Author(s): Ricky Rigsby
Yusuf Daniels was the proverbial stougat among the children in his family. Growing up on the Cape flats, from Bridgetown to Portland and the occasional holiday in District six with his grandmother, he still loves to reminisce about childhood street games, family camping, beach days and the traditions that are part of his Muslim heritage.
Most coloured people will instantly recognise the memories. For those who were mere spectators at the time because of South Africa’s divisive past. Living coloured provides a front row seat to the coloured experience as seen through Daniel’s eyes and humour.
Author: Yusuf daniels
After decades of British rule Kenya has declared its independence, but drought and poor harvest still govern the village of limorog. Undeterred, Munira, Karega, Wanja and Abdulla each move to ilmorog in search of a more provincial life, only to find themselves suspects in a crime that signals a dark turning of the times.
A classic of modern African literature, Ngugi wa Thiongo’s damning satire of politics and corruption in Kenya would prove the catalyst for his imprisonment by the Kenyan government.
Author: Ngugi wa Thiongo
Out of stock
Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain development and trauma expert, Dr. Bruce Perry, discuss the impact of trauma and adverse experiences and how healing must begin with a shift to asking, “what happened to you?” rather than “what’s wrong with you?”
Through wide-ranging, and often deeply personal conversation, Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Perry explore how what happens to us in early childhood – both good and bad – influences the people we become. They challenge us to shift from focusing on, “What’s wrong with you?” or “Why are you behaving that way?,” to asking, “What happened to you?” This simple change in perspective can open up a new and hopeful understanding for millions about why we do the things we do, why we are the way we are, providing a road map for repairing relationships, overcoming what seems insurmountable, and ultimately living better and more fulfilling lives.
Many of us experience adversity and trauma during childhood that has lasting impact on our physical and emotional health. And as we’re beginning to understand, we are more sensitive to developmental trauma as children than we are as adults. ‘What happened to us’ in childhood is a powerful predictor of our risk for physical and mental health problems down the road, and offers scientific insights in to the patterns of behaviors so many struggle to understand.
A survivor of multiple childhood challenges herself, Oprah Winfrey shares portions of her own harrowing experiences because she understands the vulnerability that comes from facing trauma at a young age. Throughout her career, Oprah has teamed up with Dr. Bruce Perry, one of the world’s leading experts on childhood trauma. He has treated thousands of children, youth, and adults and has been called on for decades to support individuals and communities following high-profile traumatic events. Now, Oprah joins forces with Dr. Perry to marry the power of storytelling with the science and clinical experience to better understand and overcome the effects of trauma.
In conversation throughout the book, the two focus on understanding people, behavior, and ourselves in the context of personal experiences. They remove blame and self-shaming, and open up a space for healing and understanding. It’s a subtle but profound shift in our approach to trauma, and it’s one that allows us to understand our pasts in order to clear a path to our future – opening the door to resilience and healing in a proven, powerful way.
Grounded in the latest brain science and brought to life through compelling narratives, this book shines a light on a much-needed path to recovery – showing us our incredible capacity to transform after adversity.
Author(s): Oprah Winfrey
The international bestselling author returns with an exploration of one of the grandest obsessions of the twentieth century.
In the years before the Second World War, in a sleepy air force base in central Alabama, a small group of renegade pilots put forth a radical idea. What if we made bombing so accurate that wars could be fought entirely from the air? What if we could make the brutal clashes between armies on the ground a thing of the past? This book tells the story of what happened when that dream was put to the test.
The Bomber Mafia follows the stories of a reclusive Dutch genius and his homemade computer, Winston Churchill’s forbidding best friend, a team of pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard, a brilliant pilot who sang vaudeville tunes to his crew, and the bomber commander, Curtis Emerson LeMay, who would order the bloodiest attack of the Second World War.
In this tale of innovation and obsession, Gladwell asks: what happens when technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war? And what is the price of progress?
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Watch a Video Watch a video In his first book for adults, the “New York Times” bestselling author sparks honest dialogues between men and women, in the tradition of Steve Harvey’s “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man.” Only 34 percent of African-American children today are raised in two- parent households, a sharp contrast to 1966, when 85 percent of black children were raised by two parents. In provocative but heartfelt words, Hill Harper takes on these urgent challenges, bringing a variety of issues out of the shadows.
In “The Conversation,” Harper speaks to women and men with clear-eyed perspective, covering topics such as: -The roots of the breakdown in the black family -The myth that there are no mature, single, black male professionals -What women can do to alleviate the “heaviness” they sometimes attach to dating -What men can do to break the cycle of being a player -The difference between sex and intimacy -Bridging the communication gap -Self-worth and net worth, and why you should never settle for an unworthy partner Capturing the conversations Harper and his friends frequently have, this book is destined to be one of Harper’s most healing contributions.
Author(s): Hill Harper
In Sorry, Not Sorry, Haji Mohamed Dawjee explores the often maddening experience of moving through postapartheid South Africa as a woman of colour.
In characteristically candid style, Dawjee pulls no punches when examining the social landscape: from arguing why she’d rather deal with an open racist than some liberal white people, to drawing on her own experience to convince readers that joining a cult is never a good idea. In the provocative voice that has made Dawjee one of our country’s most talked-about columnists, she offers observations laced throughout with an acerbic wit.
Sorry, Not Sorry will make readers laugh, wince, nod, introspect and argue.
Author: Haji Mohamed Dawjee
1 in stock (can be backordered)
“Her book titled: “We are the ones we need: The war on black professionals in corporate South Africa”, peel away the layers of race related discrimination in the workplace, lending her voice to a territory many are afraid to enter.”
Author:Sihle Bolani
Out of stock
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.