About Best Sellers in South African HistoryHere you can discover the best South African History in Amazon Best Sellers, and find the top 100 most popular Amazon South African History. A History of South Africa, Third Edition This magisterial history throws a floodlight on South Africa's current crisis by examining the past. The absurdity of the apartheid philosophy of racial separatism is underscored by the author's argument (backed with convincing research material) that the genes of the nation's first hunter-gatherers are inextricably mixed with those of modern blacks and whites. The Dutch colonial invaders felt no sense of kinship with the original inhabitants, however: their arrival brought slavery and disease, pulverizing chiefdoms and pastoral communities. From the outset, white settler society was dependent on the labor of slaves and indigenous peoples. Thompson, a specialist in South African history, expertly relates how the Afrikaners--still poor, scattered and disunited in 1854--threw off Dutch and British hegemony to forge their own national identity, forcibly uprooting and relocating millions of blacks.
Although the author deems president Frederik W. de Klerk "like his predecessors . . . wedded to fixed racial categories," he sees signs of hope in blacks' increasing economic power and the student revolt against pedagogical brainwashing in the state-controlled schools. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. YA-- A penetrative probe into South Africa's memorable history. Beginning with the earliest aborigines of the area and concluding with the up-to-date happenings, Thompson examines primarily the encounters of blacks. The text is basic for any reader who wishes to comprehend the historical patterns that preface the struggles that seethe and boil in this country. A careful, reliable book for student research. --Mike Printz, Topeka West High School, KSCopyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. Publisher: Yale University Press; 3rd edition (March 1, 2001) 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches Shipping Weight: 12 ounces #444,424 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) in Books > History > Africa > South Africa
5 star60%4 star26%3 star8%2 star6%See all verified purchase reviewsTop Customer Reviewsread before you travel|Great content, dense writing|Excellent Summary of SA History| A History of South Africa, Fourth Edition Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela The South Africa Reader: History, Culture, Politics (The World Readers) Diamonds, Gold, and War: The British, the Boers, and the Making of South AfricaSANTACO: SA Taxi Drivers To Undergo Training And Special Certificate To Operate It’s no longer news that the reading culture in South Africa has degenerated to a point that is best described as pathetic. And, it is now almost generally accepted that the reading skills of many South Africans are poor despite the fact that a large portion of the population go through the formal educational system. As only an insignificant part of the public can find reasons to read or buy books, majority of South Africans rarely devote their leisure time to reading.
They simply do not view reading as empowering to self-development, and as such, apparently have no need for reading especially outside the school. See Also: Top 10 Iconic South African Writers Whose Books You Should Not Miss Reading Consequently, public library services and publishing outlets have steadily collapsed just as school libraries are becoming unneeded; as students are increasingly reluctant to make use of them. Nevertheless, to the insignificant portion of South African population that still find reading useful, and to those that will love to cultivate the habit of reading, here is a countdown list of the most popular and must-read books in South Africa. Burger’s Daughter is a novel based on the history of the anti-apartheid struggle. Whereas the tales are of actual happenings and people from the struggle era, the story revolves around a revolutionary lady (Rosa) who strives to uphold the legacy of her martyred parents. The historical and political novel as written by the South African Nobel Prize in Literature winner Nadine Gordimer was first published in the UK in 1979.
Due to its contents, the import and sale of this book in South Africa was initially prohibited by the then Publications Control Board. However, the novel was generally well-received as the banning and the restrictions were later lifted. Read Also: Top 10 Iconic South African Writers Whose Book You Should Not Miss Reading As the debut novel of award-winning filmmaker Malla Nunn, “A Beautiful Place To Die” was published in 2009. As rightly captured by goodreads, Malla Nunn “delivers a stunning and darkly romantic crime novel set in 1950s apartheid South Africa, featuring Detective Emmanuel Cooper — a man caught up in a time and place where racial tensions and the raw hunger for power makes life very dangerous indeed.” Aside some critics that regarded this autobiography as a racist book, readers all over the world regard “My Traitor’s Heart” as a masterpiece. This book was first published in 1990, it became a best-selling book, and was subsequently translated into 11 languages.
“My Traitor’s Heart” is either subtitled “South African Exile Returns to Face His Country, His Tribe and His Conscience” or “Blood and Bad Dreams: A South African Exile Explores the Madness in His Country, His Tribe and Himself”. In the book, Rian Malan tells his story as an Afrikaner and a relative to the architect of apartheid who fled South Africa due to the terrors and evils of the apartheid struggle. He returned after eight years, and his story revealed more horrific and astonishing details about apartheid which you’ll only get to know when you read the book. Like “My Traitor’s Heart”, “Kaffir Boy” is an autobiography published in 1986 which equally tells a classic tale of life in Apartheid South Africa. This book is well captioned by its subtitle; “The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa” as it depicts the exact content of the book. It is really fascinating to read about young Mark who struggled through all the devastating odds of racial segregation and poverty to triumph.