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 Book |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | The South Africa reader: history, culture, politics |
| Editors: | Crais, Clifton McClendon, Thomas V. |
| Year: | 2014 |
| Pages: | 606 |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | The world readers |
| City of publisher: | Durham |
| Publisher: | Duke University Press |
| ISBN: | 9780822355144; 9780822355298 |
| Geographic term: | South Africa |
| Subjects: | history culture politics anthologies |
| Abstract: | In more than eighty contributions by various authors, this anthology of South African voices provides many perspectives on the country's diverse peoples, its first two decades as a democracy, its history and the challenges to its future, particularly violence, inequality, and racial discrimination. The book includes folktales passed down through the centuries, statements by seventeenth-century Dutch colonists, mine workers' songs, and a widow's testimony before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It contains the voices of slaves and indentured workers, African chiefs and kings, presidents and revolutionaries. Iconic political documents are iuxtaposed with fiction and photography. The book is divided into eight parts, beginning with African stories of the past in 'African worlds, African voices'. Part II 'Colonial settlement, slavery, and peonage' and part III 'Frontiers' examine South Africa's history from the seventeenth century to the development of slavery and the expansion of European empire, in addition to the emergence of new forms of identity and ways of understanding the world. Parts IV ('All that glitters') and V ('United and divided') take up South Africa's economic and political revolutions, the rapid emergene of a labour-hungry industrial economy, and the consolidation of white domination. The final three parts ('Apartheid and the struggle for freedom', 'From Soweto to liberation', and 'Transitions and reconciliations' are dedicated to South Africa after 1948, when the National Party came to power and began introducing its policies of apartheid. These parts chart the often violent confrontations between the government and black South Africans, but also continue themes introduced in earlier parts, such as religion, the politics of ethnicity, and the creation of vibrant cultural styles. The last part also aims at provoking discussion about the 'new' South Africa of the postapartheid era. [ASC Leiden abstract] |