Author : Tim Couzens
Publisher : University of Virginia Press
Page : 500 pages
File Size : 42,59 MB
Release : 2005
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780813925295
Who killed Jacottet? Drawing on teh gret tradition of the "locked room" detective story, Tim Couzens sets out, eighty years after the event, to solve the crime.
Author :
Publisher :
Page : pages
File Size : 47,50 MB
Release : 2012
Category :
ISBN :
Just before Christmas in 1920, six people sat down to a meal at Morija, headquarters of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society in Basutoland (Lesotho). All six were taken violently ill, and one of them died. They had been poisoned. The dead man was Édouard Jacottet, an eminent scholar and missionary. There was no trial and subsequently no one was ever convicted of the murder. Who killed Jacottet? Drawing on the great tradition of the "locked room" detective story, Tim Couzens sets out, eighty years after the event, to solve the crime. Why was Jacottet killed? The answer lies buried deep in the past and is revealed here -- for the first time -- in a tale of heroism and courage, of sacrifice, deception, betrayal, and faith. Written and researched with extraordinary care, this is a brilliant piece of detective work, but it is also much more. It is the biography of a deeply committed man, and a history of the Christian mission he served in an isolated African country to whose people and language he devoted his life before it was brutally cut short in strange circumstances. And the story is a national and religious epic, enclosed in a classical tragedy tempered with the sardonic smile of comedy.
Author : Thomas Mofolo
Publisher : Waveland Press
Page : 193 pages
File Size : 29,51 MB
Release : 2013-05-21
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1478609729
Chaka is a genuine masterpiece that represents one of the earliest major contributions of black Africa to the corpus of modern world literature. Mofolos fictionalized life-story account of Chaka (Shaka), translated from Sesotho by D. P. Kunene, begins with the future Zulu kings birth followed by the unwarranted taunts and abuse he receives during childhood and adolescence. The author manipulates events leading to Chakas status of great Zulu warrior, conqueror, and king to emphasize classic tragedys psychological themes of ambition and power, cruelty, and ultimate ruin. Mofolos clever nods to the supernatural add symbolic value. Kunenes fine translation renders the dramatic and tragic tensions in Mofolos tale palpable as the richness of the authors own culture is revealed. A substantial introduction by the translator provides valuable context for modern readers.
Author : Max du Preez
Publisher : Penguin Random House South Africa
Page : 238 pages
File Size : 28,4 MB
Release : 2010-11-05
Category : History
ISBN : 1770201378
The sequel to the bestselling Of Warriors, Lovers and Prophets, this is a collection of more fascinating, colourful - and mostly unknown - historical tales, all meticulously researched and written in a lively and engaging style. There are stories of Khoikhoi who tried - with mixed fortunes - to integrate into early Cape colonial society, and eccentric Europeans who ventured to the turbulent interior. Readers will meet the Xhosa mystic and war-doctor Makhanda, who nearly succeeded in taking Grahamstown from the British in 1819; and the chieftainess Mantatisi, who led her people to military victories during the upheavals of the nineteenth century. Also featured are the Johannesburg-based Foster Gang, who were indirectly responsible for the killing of Boer hero Koos de la Rey; and the men who pulled off the biggest jewellery heist of the time, stealing Bridget Oppenheimer’s jewels in 1956. Of Tricksters, Tyrants and Turncoats spans more than three hundred years of history, concluding with an account of the man who exposed South Africa’s controversial arms deal. Once again, Max du Preez brings the past to life, proving that history can be more interesting - and more fun - than fiction.
Author : Fareda Banda
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 454 pages
File Size : 23,54 MB
Release : 2005-10-04
Category : Law
ISBN : 1847311830
Africa, with its mix of statute, custom and religion is at the centre of the debate about law and its impact on gender relations. This is because of the centrality of the gender question and its impact on the cultural relativism debate within human rights. It is therefore important to examine critically the role of law, broadly constructed, in African societies. The book focuses on women's experiences in the family. This is because the lives of women continue to be lived out largely in the private domain, where the right to privacy is used to conceal unequal treatment of women which is justified by invoking 'custom' and 'tradition'. The book shows how law and its interpretation is used to disenfranchise women, resulting in their being deprived of land and other property which they may have helped to accumulate. It also considers issues of violence within the home, reproductive rights and examines the issue of female genital cutting. The role of women in development is explored as is their participation in politics and the NGO sector. A major theme of the book is a consideration of the linkages of constitutional and international human rights norms with local values. This is done using feminist tools of analysis. The book considers the provisions of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women which was adopted by the African Union in July 2003.
Author : Sophonia Machabe Mofokeng
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 105 pages
File Size : 11,37 MB
Release : 2021-10-01
Category : Drama
ISBN : 1776145453
Senkatana is a tragic play adapted from Sotho folk narrative. The play is regarded as a classic of Sesotho literature. Seen as one of the greatest essayists and dramatists writing in Southern Sotho, Senkatana was Mofokeng’s first book, published in 1952 in the African (then Bantu) Treasury Series, an imprint of Witwatersrand University Press.
Author : Hermann Giliomee
Publisher : University of Virginia Press
Page : 490 pages
File Size : 18,54 MB
Release : 2018-01-04
Category : History
ISBN : 0813940923
In this eloquent memoir, already widely read and praised in the author’s native South Africa, Hermann Giliomee weaves together the story of his own life with that of his country--a nation that continues to absorb and inspire him, both despite and because of its tortuous history. An internationally respected historian--his landmark The Afrikaners, writes J. M. Coetzee, "includes an account of the origins and demise of apartheid that must rank as the most sober, objective and comprehensive we have"-- Giliomee has devoted a lifetime to exploring the origins and perpetuation of the deep divisions in South African society. Although he grew up in the heart of the Afrikaner nationalist movement, he soon began to cut his own path in examining the rise and entrenchment of exclusive Afrikaner power and became one of the National Party’s chief critics. As an "outside insider"--or, to his critics, a "snake in the grass"--Giliomee has an understanding of Afrikaner power that is informed and nuanced. He has engaged with members on all sides of South Africa’s debates--many of whom appear in these pages through vivid and insightful portraits--and his outspokenness has hit nerves across the political spectrum. The personal journey of this original and courageous thinker will appeal to anyone interested in the complexities of South Africa’s past and present. Reconsiderations in Southern African History
Author : Richard Elphick
Publisher : University of Virginia Press
Page : 862 pages
File Size : 28,89 MB
Release : 2012-10-03
Category : History
ISBN : 0813932793
From the beginning of the nineteenth century through to 1960, Protestant missionaries were the most important intermediaries between South Africa’s ruling white minority and its black majority. The Equality of Believers reconfigures the narrative of race in South Africa by exploring the pivotal role played by these missionaries and their teachings in shaping that nation’s history. The missionaries articulated a universalist and egalitarian ideology derived from New Testament teachings that rebuked the racial hierarchies endemic to South African society. Yet white settlers, the churches closely tied to them, and even many missionaries evaded or subverted these ideas. In the early years of settlement, the white minority justified its supremacy by equating Christianity with white racial identity. Later, they adopted segregated churches for blacks and whites, followed by segregationist laws blocking blacks’ access to prosperity and citizenship—and, eventually, by the ambitious plan of social engineering that was apartheid. Providing historical context reaching back to 1652, Elphick concentrates on the era of industrialization, segregation, and the beginnings of apartheid in the first half of the twentieth century. The most ambitious work yet from this renowned historian, Elphick’s book reveals the deep religious roots of racial ideas and initiatives that have so profoundly shaped the history of South Africa.
Author : Judith Lutge Coullie
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
Page : 502 pages
File Size : 19,74 MB
Release : 2006-05-31
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780824830472
Wide-ranging and engaging, Selves in Question considers the various ways in which auto/biographical accounts situate and question the self in contemporary southern Africa.The twenty-seven interviews presented here consider both the ontological status and the representation of the self. They remind us that the self is constantly under construction in webs of interlocution and that its status and representation are always in question. The contributors, therefore, look at ways in which auto/biographical practices contribute to placing, understanding, and troubling the self and selves in postcolonies in the current global constellation. They examine topics such as the contexts conducive to production processes; the contents and forms of auto/biographical accounts; and finally, their impact on the producers and the audience. In doing so they map out a multitude of variables--including the specific historical juncture, geo-political locations, social positions, cultures, languages, generations, and genders--in their relations to auto/biographical practices. Those interviewed include the famous and the hardly known, women and men, writers and performers who communicate in a variety of languages: Afrikaans, English, Xhosa, isiZulu, Sesotho, and Yiddish. An extensive introduction offers a general framework on the contestation of self through auto/biography, a historical overview of auto/biographical representation in South Africa up to the present time, an outline of theoretical and thematic issues at stake in southern Africa auto/biography, and extensive primary and secondary biographies. Interviewees: Breyten Breytenbach, Dennis Brutus, Valentine Cascarino, Vanitha Chetty, Wilfred Cibane, Greig Coetzee, J. M. Coetzee, Paul Faber, David Goldblatt, Stephen Gray, Dorian Haarhoff, Rayda Jacobs, Elsa Joubert, K. Limakatso Kendall, Ester Lee, Doris Lessing, Sindiwe Magona, Margaret McCord, N. Chabani Manganyi, Zolani Mkiva, Jonathan Morgan, Es’kia Mphahlele, Rob Nixon, Mpho Nthunya, Robert Scott, Gillian Slovo, Alex J. Thembela, Pieter-Dirk Uys, Johan van Wyk, Wilhelm Verwoerd, David Wolpe, D. L. P.Yali Manisi.
Author : Kirsten Rüther
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 215 pages
File Size : 18,96 MB
Release : 2016-03-03
Category : History
ISBN : 131713074X
Addressing an important social and political issue which is still much debated today, this volume explores the connections between religious conversions and gendered identity against the backdrop of a world undergoing significant social transformations. Adopting a collaborative approach to their research, the authors explore the connections and differences in conversion experiences, tracing the local and regional rootedness of individual conversions as reflected in conversion narratives in three different locations: Germany and German missions in South Africa and colonial Australia, at a time of massive social changes in the 1860s. Beginning with the representation of religious experiences in so-called conversion narratives, the authors explore the social embeddedness of religious conversions and inquire how people related to their social surroundings, and in particular to gender order and gender practices, before, during and after their conversion. With a concluding reflective essay on comparative methods of history writing and transnational perspectives on conversion, this book offers a fresh perspective on historical debates about religious change, gender and social relations.
