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The received view of Zambia's mineworkers is of a reactionary body unable and unwilling to shape progressive politics in post-colonial Zambia. Miles Larmer seeks to use a whole range of little-used sources to dispel this myth. Extensive interviews with mineworkers and their wives reveals a working-class consciousness and a whole host of social and economic expectations that shaped their attitude towards political change. Mineworkers in Zambia gives this misunderstood group a place in the movemen...

Xolela Mangcu is well known for the incisive social commentary that characterises his regular newspaper columns. In ""To the Brink"", Mangcu turns his focus to the state of South Africa's evolving democracy. From policy controversies surrounding HIV/AIDS, Zimbabwe, corruption and the constant labelling of black critics as 'foot lickers' of the white man, no relevant issues escape his analysis of the racial insider/outsider dynamic that has evolved under Thabo Mbeki's rule.Drawing on the intellec...

The Boer War (1899-1902) was one of the last of the romantic wars, pitting a sturdy, stubborn pioneer people, fighting to establish the independence of their tiny nation, against the might of the British Empire at its peak. Farwell captures the incredible feats, the personal heroism, the unbelievable folly, and the many incidents of humor as well as tragedy.

The adoption of the new republican constitution by the Rhodesian electorate in 1969 was intended to end the fruitless four-year-long negotiations with the British to secure recognition of the unilateral declaration of independence by Ian Smith on 11 November 1965. Given the evasion by significant nations of the trade sanctions imposed by the United Nations, the gamble was that this de facto recognition would become de jure. Formal recognition, needless to say, was unlikely because the framers of...

President Cyril Ramaphosa is South Africa's fifth post-apartheid president. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as the founder of the National Union of Mineworkers. When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in February 1990, Ramaphosa was at the head of the reception committee that greeted him. Chosen as secretary general of the African National Congress in 1991, Ramaphosa led the ANC's team in negotiating the country's post-apartheid constitution.Thwarted in his ambition to succeed Mand...

State of the Nation: South Africa 2012-2013 offers 32 diverse angles on poverty and inequality in contemporary South Africa in one compelling and comprehensive collection. Five sections dealing with politics, economics, society, health and environment and the global context, each start with an introduction followed by chapters which analyse burning issues and highlight long-term and recent trends, with a focus on policies and practice. The in-depth analyses deal with ideology and modern and...

Delta Scout was the call sign for Tony Trethowan's Ground Coverage 'stick' during the Rhodesian bush war of the late seventies. This is the story of an ordinary policeman, a young man who signed up with the British South Africa Police as a raw 18 year old and who was to serve eight years with that fine force. As a young Patrol Officer, he was to experience rural life in remote stations in the bush of Matabeleland. He embraced the experience and learned Sindebele within a few months. The book i...