South African English

In Foreign Native, RW Johnson looks back with affection and humour on his life in Africa. From schooldays in Durban - fresh off the boat from Merseyside - to later years as an academic, director of the Helen Suzman Foundation and formidable political commentator, he has produced an entertaining and occasionally eye-popping memoir brimming with history, anecdote and insight. Johnson charts his evolution from enthusiastic, left-leaning Africanist to political realist, relating the episodes that influenced his intellectual worldview.

Ellis Park in Johannesburg, 24 June 1995. The Springboks versus The All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup final. Nelson Mandela steps onto the pitch wearing a Springboks shirt and, before a global audience of millions, a new country is born. This book tells the incredible story of Mandela's journey to that moment.

Saesha is being raised as a Hindu girl in a patriarchal society during apartheid in the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa. She has no idea that apartheid even exists. Where do black South Africans live at night? Why does her dad take them through a separate entrance when they enter theme parks and picnic spots? These are just split second wonders that enter her mind when faced with it in the present.

The ancestors of Nelson Madiba Mandela send him back to the world to look for his brother Justice. The two of them in their youthful days on earth had sold the prized cow of regent King Jongintaba and fled to Johannesburg in search of a better life. Everywhere Madiba goes,he asks, "Have you seen Justice?" But Justice, it seems, is like the elephant the seven blind men went looking for.This thrilling and pulsating historical fiction is the first in a series of Madiba comings. Rich in African history, tradition, and socio-economic nuance, it beautifully encapsulates the story of South Africa,...

Linda, Dikeledi, Nolwazi and Sade spent their twenties pursuing fast-paced careers and love lives in vibrant Johannesburg. Now, with their thirties just around the corner, they know the one thing they can count on is each other, but it turns out even the firmest friendships have secrets… On the cusp of their thirtieth birthdays, just when everything should be going to plan, their lives start to derail.

In this book we look at the history of the South African Nuclear Weapons Program, long denied but always winked about, an open secret to many although the details were always vague with rumours of Israeli assistance in designing the bombs. In fact, the Israeli input was negligible as the South African nuclear weapons worked in an entirely unique way, yielding about what the Hiroshima bomb did and considered “sufficient” as a deterrent against a Soviet Union originated and supported conventional attack. This attack almost came to be in 1988 – 1989 via Angola into what was then South ...

Embrace the depths of your being with "The World Within," a unique and captivating collection of 100 sestina poems. This masterful exploration of the human experience delves into life's profound questions, inviting you on a journey of self-discovery and connection. Unveiling the human tapestry: Exquisite artistry: Each sestina is a meticulously crafted piece, woven with stunning imagery and evocative language that will draw you into its emotional resonance. Universal resonance: From joy and triumph to sorrow and struggle, these poems capture the essence of our shared humanity, resonating ...

There’s no place in politics for love… and no place for love in war… Kai, the Water Prince, found himself having to give up his hopes of choosing the woman that his heart desired and marrying for the sake of peace. As the day drew near when he would be forced to choose a queen to rule the entire Realm by his side, the tension weighed heavily on him. He had three choices, all queens and with amazing potential in their own right, but that didn’t put Kai’s mind at ease that his right to his heart’s desires were being compromised for the greater good. Shanira, the Fire Princess, was...

Daniel is a worldly and urbane journalist living in London. His relationships appear to be sexually fulfilling but sentimentally meager. A young gay man with no relationships outside of sexual ones, he can seem at once callow and, at times, cold to the point of cruel with his lovers. Emotionally distant from his elderly, senile father, Daniel nonetheless returns to South Africa to care for him during his final months. Following his father’s death, Daniel learns of an unusual clause in the old man’s will.

Author Lawrence Reid Bechtel has captured the story of Isaac Granger, a slave from Thomas Jefferson's plantation as told through the eyes of amateur historian Reverend Charles Campbell. In 1852, after much searching through the Black districts of Petersburg, Virginia, the amateur historian Charles Campbell finally located Isaac Granger, a former slave of the late Thomas Jefferson.

The Battle of the Crater is known as one of the Civil War's bloodiest struggles - a Union loss with combined casualties of 5,000, many of whom were members of the United States Colored Troops (USCT) under Union Brigadier General Edward Ferrero. The battle was a violent clash of forces as Confederate soldiers fought for the first time against African American soldiers.

With his 2003 announcement of a program known as PEPFAR, George W. Bush launched an astonishingly successful American war against a global pandemic. PEPFAR played a key role in slashing HIV cases and AIDS deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, leading to the brink of epidemic control. Resilient in the face of flatlined funding and political headwinds, PEPFAR is America’s singular example of how to fight long-term plague - and win.

A car has collided with a Coca-Cola truck in Alexandra. The overturned trailer is spilling its contents, which residents are carrying off in their plastic ‘Shangaan Gucci’ bags. With two other bystanders, Lerato Morolong, age 14, helps the injured truck driver. The woman who drives them to hospital is Professor Ngobese, matriarch of the family at Number 80, the only house in the neighbourhood with a street address, aka Those White People.

Through the years, since Apartheid ended officially in 1994, a lot was written about the South African Police Force (SAP), the country’s National Police Force. Not all of the books were true to facts and many with a clear left-wing liberal political motive behind them. Many “anti” books were published, especially by the mainstream publishing houses and although they have a function and fulfilled a financial need, the Mean Streets Series is not like that. This is a story of a man, a junior officer that grew up in Apartheid South Africa and joined the Police at age 18 with the specific ...

MINDSCAPES Volume 1 is a collection of poems written by the author while in exile. In these poems, Thompson Charlie explores the tragedy of displacement. Without any means of economic support, he finds his life anchor-less in a foreign environment. His introspection reveals an honest and tortured sensibility appalled at his own abrogation of duty and the disintegration of his inner world. It is a poignant journey of loneliness and disillusionment with a cruel political system - after his country gained independence - that persecutes and dehumanizes its own people. Mindscapes Volume 1 stands...

An action novel set in the 1980's secretive diamond diggings of South Africa -- by Michael Gerard

The year is 1902, and the world is changing with the new century. Twenty-one-year-old Ava Stanley, the daughter of two celebrated Arcane Taxonomists, has much to live up to—however scarce her magical abilities may be. While her parents draw power from spectacular birds and megafauna, Ava’s connection to the natural world is much smaller, stemming from the microscopic. This is useful in her quest to become a doctor, as she studies the burgeoning links between bacteria and disease, but it means Ava’s power itself is also smaller.

Madagascar's lost pirate utopia represents some of the first stirrings of Enlightenment political thought. In this jewel of a book, he offers a way to 'decolonise the Enlightenment', demonstrating how this mixed community experimented with an alternative vision of human freedom, far from that being formulated in the salons and coffee houses of Europe. Its actors were Malagasy women, merchants and traders, philosopher kings and escaped slaves, exploring ideas that were ultimately to be put into practice in by Western revolutionary regimes a century later.

From an early age, the author grows up on the beach, surfing and playing music. As a forlorn hippy in the 60’s, he indulges in drugs and ends up in prison. His life takes a turn for the better when he starts working and discovers his real passion in life – 'The business edge'. He works for some major blue-chip companies in senior marketing positions and eventually launches his own Ad Agency, which is incredibly successful. However, he never loses his core values of surfing and music, for this is his balance in life... When his family relocates to Jeffreys Bay, eleven-time World Surfing ...

This creative collection brings together love poems by South African poet and writer, Wayne Visser. The anthology traces love’s agony (Broken Dreams) and ecstasy (Galaxies Cart-Wheeling), from first blush (Almost Strangers) to full bloom (Say “I Do!”), as we fly to love: You’ve given me the gift of golden wings The endless sphere of blue imaginings The chance to rise above the silver clouds The will to cast off untold ghostly shrouds