Search results for ""Jacana""
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd All things bright and broken
Meet Colleen, the third-born child of parents who share a chaotic relationship. Set against the backdrop of Cape Town in the 1940s, this is Colleen's journey. It is a time of religious fervor, baptisms, conversions and Sunday school picnics. Apartheid can't be escaped and is experienced by the children, who are bemused and confused by the flawed and unjust system. The pages are crowded by a host of odd characters, at once lovable, eccentric and troubled. There's Aunty Bubbles who teaches the children to jitterbug and Uncle Nicholas who speaks the Queen's English and plays a trumpet in the Royal Navy Band. There's Aunty Beryl, who carries a Chihuahua around in her handbag, and a midwife and home-undertaker named Two-Coffee-One-Milk. But not all is rosy in this richly peopled world. There is a human thread recognizable to anyone who has ever been in a co-dependent relationship, been abused, grown up poor or had an alcoholic father, which gives this book universal appeal. Sharp, insightful, and abundant in measured humor, it will resonate with many.
£14.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Being Bertus Basson
So just who is Bertus Basson? A dreamer, successful entrepreneur, braaimaster, genius, fanatic or chef extraordinaire? He is, of course, all of those things. This extraordinary cookbook, beautifully photographed by the legendary Claire Gunn, follows the success of Bertus’s first cookbook Homegrown, now almost out of print. But this one is different. In it you will feel the drive and energy of this whirlwind of a man. The book offers inspiration to those of us who sit, mouths agape, wondering just how Bertus and his remarkable wife have so successfully built multiple restaurants. It presents an inside look into these restaurants from the story of the beginnings and growth of signature restaurant Overture, to Spice Route, wildly popular with the tourist crowds, and Spek & Bone, the small-plate wine bar in Stellenbosch, through to his love affair with burgers and just how De Vrije Burger was conceptualised and brought to life. Being Bertus Basson, or BBB as this book has fondly become known, is a combination of all that makes up Bertus. There’s a bit of entrepreneurial spice; a dollop of the practical advice that makes him such a successful restaurateur. For all those who’ve eaten or who’ve dreamed of eating at one of the restaurants so beautifully photographed in the book, here’s how to do it. The recipes will surprise you with their simplicity and quirkiness, show you just how to step beyond the usual and how to look at food, South African food in particular, in a whole new light. Once you’ve read Being Bertus Basson, there’s no going back to banal food experiences.
£20.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd This is the Chick
A tiny guinea fowl chick hatches early one morning and lets out a ‘cheep’. Find out what happens in the bush when the ‘cheep’ is heard by all the African animals. Written in rhyme by best-loved children’s author Wendy Hartmann, this humorous story will enchant and entertain.
£9.34
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd An empty plate: Why we are losing the battle for our food system, why it matters, and how we can win it back
Why is it that food prices are so high that millions of South African families go hungry, while the prices paid to farmers for that same food are so low that many cannot stay in business? Why are the people who produce our food – farmworkers – among the most insecure of all? Why do high levels of rural poverty persist while corporate profits in the food sector keep rising? How did a country with a constitutional right to food become a place where 1 in 4 children is so malnourished that they are classified as stunted? An Empty Plate analyzes the state of the South African agri-food system.
£14.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Dub steps
The plants were pushing the houses back, each millimetre of growth adding to each tendril a new triumph of organic force. Dub Steps has a strange long aftertaste. It is science fiction with ordinary characters trying to understand what it is to be alive. People have gone, suddenly, inexplicably, and the remaining handful have to find each other and start again. Nature comes back, Johannesburg becomes wonderfully overgrown, designer pigs watch from the periphery walls, and the small group of survivors have to find ways of living with their own flaws and the flaws of each other. There are no clichés in this book, but there is plenty of humor, originality and a gripping, unusual interrogation of the ordinary but really extraordinary fact of being alive.
£12.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd The Sol Plaatje European Union poetry anthology 2015
Poetry lovers – those who enjoy reading it and those who are compelled to write it – will find in this collection a truly splendid experience of the country's soul. So much of the ineffable human spirit and experience that usually remains untold is gently lifted above the survace with care, attention and honesty. This is the fifth annual Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Anthology, and is a compendium of the poems long-listed for the 2015 Sol Plaatje EU Poetry Award. Every year South African poets, young and old, debut or previously published, are invited to submit up to three of their poetic efforts to the award, in any of the country's 11 official languages. The anthology seeks to publish voices in as many difference languages as possible, and be one of the spaces in which these tongues are given equal space and respect. The anthology is a truly democratic as well as creative effort, in keeping with the spirit of the legendary intellectual giant, Sol Plaatje, the activist, linguist, translator, novelist, journalist and leader.
£10.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Dagga: A short story
This book is intended as a conversation piece. It does not purport to be a comprehensive take on dagga, aka cannabis, marijuana, bhanga, ganga, pot, zol, weed, etc., but is intended simply as an overview. Its hope is to provide a background to dagga in South Africa and, by putting all the dope into one joint, so to speak, ignite debate on emerging issues such as licensing, legalization and taxation.
£10.01
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd South African flavours and traditions
£11.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd It's code red!
A reflective summary in cartoon form, this 19th annual compilation chronicles South Africa’s political events in the year 2014. Packed with biting humor and cutting-edge satire, it showcases South Africa’s sharpest cartoonist and provides an insight into the country’s political situation. Open and honest, these cartoons ensure that no event passes by without comment or a laugh.
£10.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Madam & Eve: Annual 2014
Madam, Eve, Thandi, and Mother Anderson return with their chaotic and totally recognizable South African household in the latest hilarious reflection of everyday life in South Africa. Featuring the humor South Africans have come to know and love, Send in the Clowns explores the social and political issues of South Africa with laughter.
£10.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd The rise of the securocrats
The South African government stands accused of having fallen under the sway of the securocrats. Who are they? Securocrats are officials located in the security establishment—the police, intelligence services, or the military—that have the power to influence government policy in their favor. The ANC has become dominated increasingly by the securocrats who have politicized the state, including the security services, to the advantage of Zuma and those around him. The Rise of the Securocrats illustrates how when securocrats dominate government decision-making, the democratic life of a country can be threatened. Annexing the power to subvert democratic processes to entrench their own power or the power of their favored leaders, they also use the armed might of the state to suppress their political opponents. Duncan argues for the importance of keeping the security cluster under democratic, civilian control, and broadly accountable to the society they claim to serve.
£15.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Urefilwe: Izindaba ezindaba kakhulu zase-Afrika
Through the Best loved tales for Africa, we aim to grow a love of reading. "Refilwe, Refilwe, let down your locks, So I can climb the scraggy rocks!" In a cave high up on a craggy cliff, beautiful Refilwe is allowed to see no one but the witch who locked her away. One day, Prince Tumi hears Refilwe singing as he is riding his horse near her cave and he searches for the owner of the magical voice. Will Refilwe ever be free from the evil witch? Will she ever find true love? An African retelling of the classic fairy tale Rapunzel by one of our best loved authors, Zukiswa Wanner, with magical illustrations by Tamsin Hinrichsen will keep all children entranced, and grow a love of reading. Read aloud, read together, read alone, read forever!
£7.04
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Baobab trails: A journey of wilderness and wanderings
Told through South African conservationist Clive Walker’s own experiences, Baobab Trails is the story of a 40-year journey that covered nearly 28,000 miles of southern Africa’s diverse landscape in an effort to preserve its natural heritage. Forty trees, each commemorating one year of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, are identified and recorded through photographs and art. The history of the trees is woven into Walker’s autobiography, such that as he relates his own personal story—which includes cameos from remarkable personalities such as Ian Player, David Shepherd, Kuki Gallman, Blythe Loutit, and others—he also reveals the history of the region, including that of the 19th-century travelers, hunters, traders, and explorers who carved their names into the trunks of the massive baobabs. A chapter that discusses the Baobab Peace Trail enables and encourages readers to follow their own trail locating these amazing specimens, which include five of the largest known baobabs, throughout southern Africa—in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, the Limpopo state of South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana. This book is both a fascinating personal account as well as the first detailed collection of historical baobab trees.
£20.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Rick Turner: Choosing to be free
Rick Turner was one of South Africa's most original and powerful thinkers and is remembered today as a remarkable teacher and activist. For almost ten years, from 1968, when he returned to South Africa from his studies at the Sorbonne, to 1978, when he was shot by an unknown assassin, Rick Turner played an important role in the opposition to apartheid, especially by provoking whites to expand their vision of what South Africa could be. Believing in the 'necessity of utopian thinking', he wrote a short book, The eye of the needle (1972), that sought to envision a very different kind of society. It has become a classic of its kind. For the authorities Rick Turner was a constant source of annoyance, a threat and anomaly that had to be dealt with. What was most dangerous about him was that his life and thought failed to fit within the dominant narrative of his time. Never a member of the ANC or the Communist Party or any political party for that matter, he propounded a vision for the transformation of South Africa that was both independent and radical. Although he lived a short life, he nevertheless had a great influence on those around him, including people like Steve Biko, and had a profound effect on people's imagining of what was possible. In the end, he became too much for the apartheid system and was killed. Even today, in the severely compromised political climate after the end of apartheid, the need for the kind of idealist vision that Rick Turner lived and died for is perhaps just as urgent.
£16.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd South African communist party: Exile and after apartheid
This volume is a revised version of The South African Communist Party in Exile, which was published by the Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA). What is covered here is the story of the SACP during the exile years until its unbanning in 1990, the 1990–94 negotiated transition, and the immediate period after the 1994 first democratic elections, which brought into being post-apartheid South Africa.
£16.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Ngiyakwazi lokho!
Hlangana noZikhala, inkonyane leNguni, esazisa ngomngane wakhe inyoni uMlindankomo wamagcino. Kwathi uma uZikhala emkhombisa ngobumnandi bokufunda nobezincwadi, uMlindankomo wathola ukuthi uzuza okuningi uma ufunda kunokuhlala umemeza: "Ngiyakwazi lokho!" Le ncwadi iphakamisa futhi ikhuthaza uthando lokufunda izincwadi.
£7.56
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd The harvest kitchen
Building on the success of Christine Steven's first book, Harvest: Recipes from an Organic Farm, we now bring you The Harvest Kitchen. The Harvest Kitchen guides you through the seasons, the importance of eating seasonal produce and how to grow and prepare your own. A simple meal can be transformed by using the freshest ingredients - a lettuce just plucked from the ground or a peach picked straight from the tree. This is not just a recipe book about preserving jams and chutneys from excess produce, but more a look at how you can better use and preserve the fresh produce that is available to you by capturing the essence of seasonal ingredients to enhance your larder and your lifestyle. Each chapter describes the background of the food it covers with a little bit of growing or production advice, personal anecdotes and practical knowledge, with a selection of up to sixteen recipes per chapter and a series of photos. Each recipe is tried and tested and has a story of how or why it came to exist. With people becoming more inquisitive about food, more people are growing their own food and questioning what goes into the food they buy. To many people, preserving and baking mean a trip down memory lane, a remembrance of a mother's freshly baked loaf of bread spread with a dollop of Granny's strawberry jam. In today's world, preserving means having economical and ethical control over your food. It is time for us all to re-look at the way we eat; to re-establish food values that affect our lives and everyday health. The Harvest Kitchen is full of information with easy-to-follow recipes and tips that will fill your year with flavour while filling the shelves of your larder.
£18.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd 89 Bags later: My long haul to OR Tambo International and the mystery of the missing baggage
Bringing readers and travelers a fascinating but cautionary account of an airport’s baggage-handling system, Steve Chart shares the many interesting and at times humorous investigations he undertook as a security consultant to the Airports Company South Africa. In 2007 Steve Chart was appointed with the task of assisting in the reduction of baggage pilferage at OR Tambo International Airport in South Africa. What Steve soon realized, however, was that in terms of security, the airport wasn’t a vessel with a small leakage problem but a boat on the absolute verge of sinking. He discovered a criminal incursion within the South African travel industry, encountering countless cases of corruption, poor management, and no desire to take responsibility. This personal narrative of his investigations serves as a reminder to the public about protecting their luggage, themselves, and their fellow travelers.
£12.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Zumanomics revisited
In the light of global and domestic developments since his 2009 publication Zumanomics, Raymond Parsons now reassesses the economic prospects for South Africa post-Mangaung and following the 2014 general election. While the original book was a collective effort with other contributors, this is an individual one. Many red lights are flashing for the economy and South Africa is struggling to avoid a low-growth trap. What are the conditions for the success of the National Development Plan's vision for 2030, and can it be translated into reality? What will happen after the 2014 election? Drawing on his considerable experience and analysis of South Africa's political economy, Professor Parsons redefines and updates Zumanomics in light of these developments. Will South Africa be able to move successfully to address the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty, and inequality identified by President Zuma as the three greatest issues needing South Africa's attention? How can the country improve its global competitiveness? How can South Africa best build on its strengths and address its weaknesses? This is a timely book, comprehensive, insightful, and recommended reading for individuals interested in understanding the challenges for new government and the way forward toward unlocking the growth potential with a shared prosperity for all in South Africa.
£16.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Freedom rider: 10 000 kms by mountain bike across South Africa
An adventure in extreme endurance sport, as well as an inquiry into the unique story of South Africa, journalist Kevin Davie shares his story of mountain biking in remote, wide-open South African spaces, as he endures a 10,000 kilometer journey that tested his courage and determination through blizzards, lightning, and hail storms, as well as 104-degree heat. Riding in minimalistic fashion—carrying all of his equipment without the aid of a backup vehicle—Davie’s story explores the question of why athletes push themselves to rise to the challenge of extreme sport and provides a stirring account of the South Africa and the incredible warmth and support from locals who reached out to help.
£16.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd The Sol Plaatje European Union poetry anthology
Poetry lovers - those who enjoy reading it and those who are compelled to write it - will find in this collection a truly splendid experience of the country's soul. So much of the ineffable human spirit and experience that usually remains untold is gently lifted above the surface with care, attention and honesty. Here, for the reader who must yet write of his or her own intimate recovery and sacred journey, are guideposts on the way. Here, for those who are already on the journey, are good and wise and funny journeymen and women to keep them company on the road. This year's compilation features several distinguished names of the South African literary world, including (among others) Vonani Bila, Julian de Wette, David Maahlamela, Anthea Garman, Chris Mann and last year's award winner Dawn Garisch.
£12.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd The forgotten people: Political banishment under apartheid
In 2001, in Unfinished Business: South Africa, Apartheid and Truth, Dumisa Ntsebeza and Terry Bell complained that 'like so much of South Africa's recent brutal history, we shall probably never know exactly how many people were banished and what happened to all of them'. Saleem Badat's The Forgotten People: Political Banishment under Apartheid answers many questions about banishment and shines a bright and welcome light on a largely hidden and unknown aspect of our indeed 'brutal history'. It shows how apartheid's political opponents from rural areas were condemned to the living hell of banishment: a weapon used to expel rural opponents to distant and often arid and desolate places for unlimited periods. These rural opponents were plucked from their families and communities and cast, in the late Helen Joseph's words, 'into the most abandoned parts of the country, there to live, perhaps to die, to suffer and starve, or to stretch out a survival by poorly paid labour, if and when they could get it'. They were strangers in strange areas who could not speak the local language, and often had little in common with the locals and even less in common with those under whose surveillance they fell. This is the first study of an important but hitherto neglected group of opponents of apartheid set in a global, historical and comparative perspective. It looks at the reasons why people were banished, their lives in banishment and the efforts of a remarkable group of activists, led by Helen Joseph, to assist them. Indeed, this book originated in a promise made by the author to Helen Joseph, who had undertaken an epic journey in 1962 to visit all those banished across the length and breadth of South Africa. The work is illustrated with stunning photographs by Ernest Cole, Peter Magubane and others.
£21.00
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Endings and beginnings
Two years after her father’s death, 11-year-old Redi Tlhabi meets Mabegzo: handsome, charming, and smooth, but also a rumored gangster, murderer, and rapist. Against her family’s wishes, Redi develops a strong and sometimes uncomfortable attraction to him; she herself doesn’t understand why she is drawn to Mabegzo. When he too is found lying dead in a pool of blood, as her father was, Redi has to try to stay sane. Following her emotional journey into the past to finally humanize Mabegzo, this account interviews the alleged criminal's family and friends. As she fits together the pieces of the puzzle that was Mabegzo, Redi also finds peace and allows her demons to rest.
£14.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Kgalema Motlanthe
Presenting a superb account of a man characterized by his reticence, this biography offers rare and thorough insight into the life of one of South Africa’s most powerful men: Kgalema Motlanthe. From Motlanthe’s ancestral family to his political awakenings as he discovered the African National Congress, this account traces Motlanthe’s political path to becoming the third president of the Republic of South Africa. With impeccable timing and a real sense of history, this book contains wide-ranging interviews with Motlanthe himself as well as with family members, friends, comrades, and leading figures in political organizations, civil society, academia, and the media. Unsparing in its scope, detailed in its revelations, and rigorously critical in its analysis, this biography reveals not only the complex politician but also the very human nature of the man.
£20.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Protecting the future: Governance and public accountability
The primary intention of this book is to provide a nexus of theory and practice of governance and public accountability in democratic South Africa. The book focuses mainly on public accountability and the state, institutional design and measures of public accountability, decentralised governance, leadership and management of public and private economies and industries, democratic accountability and political parties and participation, civil society and voice. The basic assumption of the book is that without comprehensive, integrated and functional democratic accountability measures in place, the constitutional democratic state will collapse. The book from the contributors' perspectives answers broad questions: What is the nature of the architecture and discourse of governance and public accountability in South Africa? What are the challenges to the design, dilemmas and prospects of governance and public accountability measures? How does South African society ensure a state with competing interests continuously strives towards good governance and public accountability? How does society ensure that leaders and institutions - political, economic and social - are kept answerable for responsibilities and obligations assigned to them?
£17.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd South Africa's struggle for human rights
South Africa's transition to a post-apartheid democracy has been widely celebrated as a triumph for global human rights. Yet, less than a generation after the achievement of freedom, the future of human rights and constitutionalism in South Africa is uncertain. This book seeks to explain how and why the apartheid government and the ANC both 'discovered' human rights in the mid-1980s. It does so by exploring several rights 'regimes' over two centuries: African nationalist, liberal, and republican. Although fragmented and episodic, these traditions help explain why rights discourse and constitutionalism gained broad acceptance in the last decade of the twentieth century, and momentarily aligned South Africa with broader global trends.
£9.34
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd The founders: The origins of the African National Congress and the struggle for democracy
The African National Congress was founded a hundred years ago, in January 1912. But the roots of the ANC run even deeper in South African history. In fact, the ANC's founding was the culmination of more than sixty years of organisation by a new class of African modernisers. These were men and women educated in local mission schools and in universities abroad, who sought a place for themselves in the new South Africa emerging at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. Much of their history is unknown but their story has been painstakingly recovered by Andre Odendaal, who has pieced together the astonishing achievements of this new class and the broad vision they proposed for a new society. Today, only a few of the founders of the ANC are still well known - John Dube and Sol Plaatje among them. But they were only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, for, across the length and breadth of the country, educated Africans were emerging in numbers and claiming their rightful place in the new South Africa. This is the epic story of that development. Many of the individuals and families who were prominent at that time are the forebears of leading African politicians and political families today. This is their story too. When the Union of South Africa was finally formed in 1910, Africans found themselves largely excluded from the new society. In protest, Africans from throughout the country came together in Bloemfontein in 1912 and formed their own organisation to represent their interests and advance their claims. It would take another eighty years before they achieved their aims. When he cast his vote in 1994, Nelson Mandela is reported as saying at the nearby memorial to John Dube, first ANC president: "Mission accomplished, Mr President."
£26.00
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Why Dog Is Afraid of Storms
A creative and engaging tale, this book presents a fable to justify Dog's frightened behaviour around storms. Accompanied by delightful illustrations, it explains why Dog's eyes grow wild and why he shivers and shakes and hides away.
£8.01
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd African delights
A unique literary journey through select critical moments in South African history, this collection of short stories opens in Sophiatown of the 1950s—one of the most definitive periods in South African urban culture—and concludes by exploring the social fabric of contemporary society. Simple yet profound, the stories span generations, demonstrating the painful rhythms of a society in distress in the 1980s through the eyes of a child as well as the transitional period of the 1990s through the life of young man torn between the old and new world, eventually exploring the first decade of South African democracy. Informative and engaging, the narratives examine the interplay of past and present, and prompt a re-examination of the future.
£13.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Zombie and the Moon: More tales from the Shaman's record
In the fetid depths of a Jamaican prison, the half-caste bastard son of an eighteenth-century Jamaican sugar planter is turned into a zombie and banished to the diamond-hungry colonies of the Cape. Thwarted by an unrequited love he unleashes a dire curse, which reverberates across the continents and generations. From the imagination of Peter Merrington, author of Zebra Crossings: Tales from the Shaman's Record, comes an eclectic tale, woven with folklore, fairy tale and magic, that draws urban shaman Malibongwe Ngingingini and his beloved apprentice, Anna Persens, into a quest to heal their land of the zombie's curse: a foul emanation of fog and narcolepsy. The Zombie's curse affects two family dynasties on either side of the Atlantic. Guided by Maria Juanita - the shape-shifting Sister Moon - Malibongwe and Anna's journey takes them from Cape Town to Great Bushmanland, and on to the mystical deserts of New Mexico and the voodoo-fuelled New Orleans, where Lord Tantamount, the Zombie Prince, haunts the highways. The Zombie and the Moon is a blend of real social issues and deep spiritual symbolism that includes a fanciful exploration of astral travel, the role of the ancestors, animist earth spirits, utopian visions, quotidian squalor, social injustice and an aged goat.
£13.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd African pens 2011
A new anthology of writings, this collection contains stories with varying themes from 21 different writers. Including an assured and professional piece of writing about a seemingly simple interaction between two men in which the true drama takes place beneath the surface, this book will give insight into what African writers are experiencing and writing about in the new decade.
£16.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Joonie
Heartwarming yet tough, this unforgettable story centers around a brave, young black girl named Joonie from Grassy Park, South Africa. When both her uncle and local priest attempt to take sexual advantage of her, Joonie refuses their advances. For all her fortitude, however, Joonie is slow to learn from the past—especially with respect to relationships—and she soon finds herself single and pregnant. A journey of self-discovery, this narrative chronicles Joonie’s coping with a shocking revelation about her identity in a foreign country and celebrates her indomitable spirit.
£15.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Dear Ahmedbhai, Dear Zuleikhabehn
In this collection of letters between a South African political prisoner and a community organizer in Durban, two people who have never met become dear friends during the last decade of apartheid. Ahmed Kathrada is being held in Robben Island when he sends a letter to a former flat mate and receives a reply from the man's sister, Zuleikha Mayat, the "Betty Crocker" of South Africa and the editor of the best-selling cookbook Indian Delights. Virtual strangers, these two have in common their small-town Transvaal childhoods, and they find much to explore in their different approaches to culture, politics, and religion. The letters are written with wit and style as they discuss both the issues of the day and the sustenance found in memory.
£17.99
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Blood’s mist
Interweaving the stories of two families in colonial Africa, this novel explores parallel crises and hardships experienced from distinct cultural perspectives. Through the eyes of Richard and Kaunu, the Colony of Natal comes to life with an authentic sense of place and historical time, with the drastically changing circumstances of life in the British empire bringing their families inevitably to explosive conflict, with devastating consequences for both.
£14.99
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd The ANC underground
It is commonly held that the ANC – after its banning in 1960 and the imprisonment of its leaders – largely disappeared off the face of South Africa until public support for it revived in the wake of the Soweto uprising of 1976. This book takes issue with that view. Drawing on substantial oral testimony, Raymond Suttner develops a convincing case that internally based activists, sometimes working independently of the ANC in exile and sometimes in combination, were able to reconstitute networks within South Africa after the organization's banning.
£15.99
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Race
The author, interviews some South Africans of different hues, about the idea of race, what it has meant to them and how they envision a future South Africa, steeped as the country and its people are in a highly charged and often unacknowledged world of racial sensitivity. Amongst the interviewees are Naledi Pandor, Minister of Education; Wilmot James, executive director of the African Genome Education Institute; Rhoda Kadalie, journalist and human rights activist; Melanie Verwoerd, former South African ambassador to Ireland; Phatekile Holomisa, president of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa); and Carel Boshoff, the founder of Orania, an Afrikaner homeland established in 1991 in the Northern Cape.
£18.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Beat about the bush Birds
The Beat about the Bush series answers all those everyday questions that are prompted by visits to the bush. It fills the gap in exisiting literature and field guides alike, complemented by more than 900 full-colour photographs. Although details are given on bird identification and all. The bird groups of southern Africa are covered in a very informative 'Did you know' section, this work can more appropriately be described as a behavioural guide. It delves into the fascinating lives of birds - discussing in detail their myriad forms, survival strategies, breeding and feeding behaviours, movements, migration,s and vocalisations. The result is a comprehensive reference work in a style that appeals to novices, birders, twitchers, tourists, bush enthusiast and field guides alike.
£36.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Beginnings of a dream
The author takes the reader into a phantasmagoric world where streets are paved with human remains and men are apocalyptically condemned to death by the fire of their loins. And yet, despite recurrent nightmares, the world is also home to calligraphers who continue to record dreams that encompass the past, present, and future in a sort of Borgesian circularity. The absolute certainty that life begins in dream, that the world beyond is what lends ours a semblance of reality, that only the meditation of ancestors offers a link to the gods, has seldom been expressed with the depth of conviction one finds in this work. For all its contemporary relevance, it has at its core a dialogue between the living and the ancestors that creates a powerful resonance between the bones of the dead and the echoes of their survivors.
£13.99
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd SAPPI Tree spotting bushveld
Sappi Tree spotting is a new, easy method of tree identification, written for the newcomer to an area, as well as the experienced tree enthusiast. It won't take long before you are able to recognise almost three-quarters of the larger trees you see in the bushveld. Innovative, accurate maps provide precise location information, Colour-coding lists the likely trees you will encounter in each area. The title is based on three innovative concepts - It keeps the terminology simple. The average recreational tree spotter will never use 'pubescent' when 'hairy' will do! Most trees are easy to find, as long as you look for the right trees in the right places. Some trees can be identified easily because of the striking features. These trees do not need a complex system of 'keying' because they are instantly recognisable.
£20.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd A simple man
Ronnie Kasrils's insights into Jacob Zuma, both shocking and revelatory, are vividly illuminated through this story—from their shared history in the underground to Kasrils's time as minister of intelligence and his views on South Africa now. This fast-paced, thriller-style memoir outlines the tumultuous years that saw Mbeki's overthrow and replacement by Zuma, Nkandlagate, the growing militarization of the police and the Marikana Massacre, the outrageous appointment of flunkies to high office, the ""state capture"" report and his relationship with the Guptas. We relive the Schabir Shaik corruption trial, Kasrils's relationship with Fezeka Kuzwayo (Khwezi), Zuma's rape trial accuser, the email and spy tapes saga, conspiracy, and betrayal. While Kasrils explains the enigmatic contradictions of Jacob Zuma, he also explains that corruption and the abuse of power did not begin with him. His story points to the compromised negotiations of the 1990s, which he refers to as a ""Faustian Pact."" This is a story told from the inside, exploring the many machinations of power and how one man's struggle for the truth can have such an impact on the political outcomes of a nation.
£17.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Safaris & spices: An African food journey
Safaris & Spices takes you on the same journey Nico Verster experienced while travelling to all corners of Africa. It captures the essence of African food steeped in tradition and ancient recipes, while highlighting the modern diversity in the current gastronomic scene. On our food safari we start in North Africa among the Kasbahs and medinas of Morocco, following the ancient trade roots all the way past East Africa, Mozambique and Madagascar down to southern Africa. Nico effortlessly guides the reader through a colorful range of magnificent but easy-to-follow recipes. With stunning photography from award-winning Joe Dreyer, the recipes will inspire you to make your own stocks, spice mixes, chutneys, and sauces that can be used with an array of local dishes, as well as give you simple tips on making the most delicious cakes and desserts.
£23.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd The Guide to the animals of Southern Africa
This essential guide to the animals of southern Africa has been written specifically for young outdoor enthusiasts. It is filled with fascinating facts about the extraordinary animals living in the area. Discover the amazing adaptations that animals have developed in order to survive. Find out about their lifecycles, the places they live, why some keep territories, why they migrate or hibernate, how they find a mate and escape predators, and how they interact with one another. There is an important section on conservation matters that all the future generations on our planet stand to gain or lose depending on the solutions that are implemented today.
£15.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Mother Anderson’s secret book of wit & wisdom
Based on South Africa’s beloved comic strip, this special volume features Madam & Eve's favorite grandmother, Mother Anderson, as she shares her thoughts on surviving life’s twists and turns with a little help from her old friend, gin and tonic. Cantankerous yet warm and witty, Mother Anderson is depicted watching television and fighting with both Eve, her daughter’s maid, and the mielie lady—who frequently wakes the combative granny from her naps while selling ears of corn on the street. Entertaining and politically aware, this book provides a cynical and lighthearted perspective on life in South Africa.
£10.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd The big stick
Alma Nel leaves her home on the edge of the Kalahari to retrieve the body of her gay son in Amsterdam. Driven by guilt and grief, she resolves to reconstruct Staal's life and the events leading up to his death, undertaking a bizarre quest in a strange and surreal world. Guided by a coke-dealing Rastafarian, Alma opens a psychedelic can of worms, meeting many of Staal's friends and acquaintances - scissor queens, leather men, rent boys, daredevils. But not everyone is sympathetic towards Alma, and some of Staal's friends would prefer to keep their secret histories hidden in the darkrooms of the night. As her quest progresses, Alma discovers that a mysterious stranger is several steps ahead of her, trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle. The mysterious stranger turns out to be Staal's friend Remco de Heer, the accident-prone leading man from Six Fang Marks and a Tetanus Shot. Rem seeks Staal's help after fleeing from his brother's attic at the end of Six Fang Marks and a Tetanus Shot. Now Rem descends into the underworld again to find Staal's rent-boy lover Janusz, who was with him the night he died. Rem is driven by the need to know whether his malignant accident-proneness played any part in Staal's death. The Big Stick is poignant, comical, suspenseful and (strangely) sexy. Two telling compliments from Dutch reviewers give us a snapshot of their reactions: "Characters I'd love to meet in the flesh" and "How can a straight author write so accurately about the gay scene?"
£13.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Political parties in Africa
In the wake of political unrest across various nations, democratic governance systems need strong and well-established political parties to channel the demands of citizens, govern in the public good and satisfy the basic needs of societies. Therefore political parties are crucial in aggregating and articulating interests, recruiting leaders, presenting election candidates and developing competing policy proposals that provide a voice – and a choice – to citizens. To fulfil these functions, however, trust in how the political system functions and in political parties as cogs in this machine of government is critical. But, across the African continent, there are low levels of confidence and trust in political parties, notwithstanding the monumental changes taking place among citizen attitudes, especially recent trends towards greater direct political action.
£24.28
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Just for kicks!: The year in cartoons
A year’s anthology of South Africa’s best political cartoons, this hilarious compilation also narrates the story of the country’s epic hosting of the FIFA World Cup. Corruption scandals, counterfeit currency, dodgy judges, eco-disasters, lifestyle audits, paternity scandals, and all the usual gaffes and catastrophes are momentarily sidelined by a month of deafening soccer madness. An interesting reexamination of South African society, this unique chronicle covers all of 2010’s notable occurrences.
£15.26
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Pride and Prejudice: The Gerald Kraak Anthology African Perspectives on Gender, Social Justice and Sexuality
Pride and Prejudice is the first in the Gerald Kraak Anthology series. The kaleidoscopic collection comprises the most exceptional written and photographic entries for the annual Gerald Kraak Award, which was established in 2016 by The Other Foundation and the Jacana Literary Foundation. Offering important African perspectives gathered from the continent, this inaugural edition features works of fiction, journalism, photography and poetry. The pieces are multi-layered, brave and stirring. They represent a new wave of fresh storytelling that provokes thought on the topics of gender, social justice and sexuality.
£18.95
Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd Discovering home: A selection of writings from the 2002 Caine Prize for African Writing
"Discovering Home" is the third collection of stories from the Caine Prize for African Writing and includes works by writers from Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa. This volume also contains the stories written by participants at the first African Writers' Workshop held in Cape Town in March 2003.
£15.99