Reading List
 
Get to know the place we’re visiting We strongly believe that to get the most out of one of our trips we have do our homework. In this case, the “work” part should be more fun than a task. To that end, here are some reading and viewing suggestions to intrigue you and stimulate your interest. The expectation is not that you read/view all of these items. These recommendations come from a variety of knowledgeable sources including some from South Africa. The links embedded in the text are to Amazon; if you want to search elsewhere, cut & paste to your heart’s content. Travel Guide: The combination of graphics, maps and coverage make the Eyewitness Travel Guide to South Africa (September 2003) earns our recommendation. Note: there is a newer edition (August 2005), but it has not yet in common release in the States. The usual suspects, Frommers (November 2005), Rough Guide (August 2005), Lonely Planet (November 2004), Fodors (The most current - March 2006) etc. all have their supporters, are easily obtainable, and cover the subject. The following is a “short list” of books that has been compiled by the Arts & Education Task Force: History and Politics: 1. A History of South Africa by Leonard Thompson, Yale University Press From Publisher's Weekly: "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." Available in paperback. (2001) 2. Anthony Marx, Making Race and Nation - A Comparison of the United States, South Africa and Brazil. From Amazon: "Anthony Marx has brought off a bold comparison among South Africa, Brazil, and the United States, showing how state policy and racial categorization interact....He offers a remarkable combination of comparative history, political theory, and sociological interpretation...To cover so much intellectual and geographic space so coherently amounts to a tour de force." Charles Tilly, Columbia University Available in Paperback (1998) 3. Allister Sparks, Tomorrow is Another Country: The Inside Story of South Africa’s Road to Change. From Library Journal: “This vivid description of South Africa's political transformation from the mid-1980s to the elections of April 1994 is a sequel to Sparks's earlier book, The Mind of South Africa (LJ 3/15/90), which chronicled the history of the rise of apartheid. Much of this readable and informative work is devoted to the details of the secret negotiations that went on for five years before the 1990 release of Nelson Mandela from prison; Sparks corroborates Mandela's autobiographical account, Long Walk to Freedom (LJ 12/94). In addition, our understanding of the white South African government is enlarged, with the author stressing the intelligence, patience, and humanity of many of those involved in the negotiations. Sparks also describes the violence of the period following Mandela's release and preceding the election. While not taking lightly the incredible problems facing South Africa, he lists in the final chapter ten reasons why he believes the country will not slide into disaster as many other African nations have done.” Available in paperback. (1995) Also recommended, but not easy to find: 4. Max du Preez , Pale Native Zebra Press 5. Jonathan Ball, The Other Side of History: An Anecdotal Reflection on Political Transition in South Africa Biography and Autobiography: 1.Nelson Mandela, The Long Walk to Freedom. Extraordinary tale of Mandela’s life from puberty rites, through the Struggle, to freedom. An inside-the-Struggle story well told that sets the table for understanding present day South Africa. I cannot say enough as to how this book prepares you to begin to understand what you are about to experience. A must read if there is one on this list. Available in paperback. (2000) 2. Desmond Tutu, God Has A Dream - A Vision of Hope For Our Time. From Publisher’s Weekly: “Reading this book is like having a long, and somewhat homiletical, afternoon tea with former Archbishop of Cape Town and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Tutu. Four years after No Future Without Forgiveness, Tutu's reflection on his role as Chairman of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, comes this deeply personal book that Tutu calls "a cumulative expression of my life's work."” Available in paperback (2004) Fiction: 1. J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace. From Publishers Weekly, “As a writer, Coetzee is a literary cascade, with a steady output of fiction and criticism (literary and social) over the last two decades. This latest book, his first novel in five years, is a searing evocation of post-apartheid South Africa; it earned him an unprecedented second Booker Prize. An uninspired teacher and twice divorced, David Lurie is a 52-year-old poetry scholar-cum-“adjunct professor of communications” at Cape Technical University. Spooked by the flicker of twilight in his life trajectory, he sees himself as an aged Lothario soon to be "shuddered over" by the pretty girls he has so often wooed; he is disappointed in and unengaged by the academy he now serves by rote; and he cannot locate the notes for his opera, Byron in Italy, in which he has placed so much reluctant hope. He is, even at his best, a man of “moderated bliss.”… n Coetzee's tale, not a single note is false; every sentence is perfectly calibrated and essential. Every passage questions the arbitrary division between the "major and minor" and the long-accepted injustices propped up by nothing so much as time. The book somehow manages to speak of little but interiority and still insinuate peripheries of things it doesn't touch. Somber and crystalline, it "has the right mix of timelessness and decay." It is about the harsh cleansing of humiliation and the regretfulness of knowing things: "I lack the lyrical. I manage love too well. Even when I burn I don't sing, if you understand me." To perceive is to understand in this beautifully spare, necessary novel.” Available in paperback. (1999) 2. Nadine Gordimer, The Pick Up. From Publishers Weekly, “While Nobel Prize-winner Gordimer's trenchant fiction has always achieved universal relevance in capturing apartheid and its lingering effects in South Africa, this new work attains still broader impact as she explores the condition of the world's desperate dispossessed. To Julie Summer, rebellious daughter of a rich white investment banker, the black mechanic she meets at a garage is initially merely an interesting person to add to her circle of bohemian friends. But as their relationship swiftly escalates, Julie comes to understand her lover's perilous tightrope attempts to find a country that will shelter him. Abdu, as he calls himself (it's not his real name), is an illegal immigrant from an abysmally poor Arab country. Now on the verge of deportation from South Africa, he's forced to return to his ancestral village. Julie insists on marrying him and going with him, despite his fears that she does not understand how primitive conditions are in the desert town where his strict Muslim family lives. …Gordimer handles these psychological nuances with understated finesse. With characteristic bravado, she reprises a character from her previous book, The House Gun, to show how some blacks are now faring in a reorganized South African society. The brilliant black defense lawyer in that book has taken advantage of opportunities to join a banking conglomerate; he is now involved in "the intimate language of money." It's the people still trapped by economic chaos and racism who now interest this inveterate and eloquent champion of the world's outcasts.” Available in paperback. (2001) 3. James Michener’s popular fiction, The Covenant. In typical Michener style, this 1980 rambling tale relates the full range of South Africa’s history before freedom. Yes, it’s popular fiction and there are some egegious errors in it, it still tells the back story reasonably well; not to mention being a pretty good read. From Amazon’s review: “Adventurers, scoundrels and missionaries. The best and worst of two continents carve an empire out of the vast wilderness that is to become South Africa. From the first Afrikaners to the powerful Zulu nation, and the missionaries who lived with both--all of them will influence and take part in the wars and politics that will change a nation forever.” Still available in paperback. If you want to attempt to begin to understand how the Afrikans conceived of and implemented the particular evil that was apartheid, this is not a bad way to begin. Available in paperback. (1980) 4. Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country. Yes, most of us read it in high school, yes, Oprah chose it as an Oprah book club selection; it is still one of the best. Amazon again: "When first published in 1948 in apartheid South Africa, Cry, the Beloved Country raised more than eyebrows as a powerful book about the power of unity and an author's unflinching hope of a future where segregation no longer exists. The book summoned feelings of pride, optimism, and anticipation of a long-desired goal. But Paton's lyrical, poetic prose is not your typical run-of-the-mill anger evoking story about discrimination. The story is a humanizing experience that evokes feelings of sympathy and understanding, not hatred for a system so blatantly wrong." Available in paperback. (1948) 5. Finally for fun - - - - and knowledge: If you want to get a glimpse into the everyday life of everyday Africans, pick up Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, the beginning of the series of books about the "detective" career of Mma (aka Precious) Ramotswe, "Botswana's one and only lady detective." Part detective, but mostly social observation by an African born Scottish legal writer. Smith has a light  hand and these small books (5 of the 8 in the series are available in the States) are a confection of surprising depth and breadth.  From Amazon yet again: "It's the detective as folk hero, solving crimes through an innate, self-possessed wisdom that, combined with an understanding of human nature, invariably penetrates into the heart of a puzzle. If Miss Marple were fat and jolly and lived in Botswana--and decided to go against any conventional notion of what an unmarried woman should do, spending the money she got from selling her late father's cattle to set up a Ladies' Detective Agency...the solutions she comes up with, whether in the case of the clinic doctor with two quite different personalities (depending on the day of the week), or the man who had joined a Christian sect and seemingly vanished, or the kidnapped boy whose bones may or may not be those in a witch doctor's magic kit, are all sensible, logical, and satisfying. Smith's gently ironic tone is full of good humor towards his lively, intelligent heroine and towards her fellow Africans, who live their lives with dignity and with cautious acceptance of the confusions to which the world submits them. Precious Ramotswe is a remarkable creation." Available in paperback. Be careful, you may become addicted. Plays: Boesman and Lena by Athol Fugard Master Harold and the Boys by Athol Fugard  And for your viewing pleasure: Video/DVD:   1. A DVD/VHS: Amandla!: A Revolution in Four Part Harmony.  From Amazon again: “This stunning documentary tells the story of protest music in South Africa--but as it does so, it tells the story of the struggle against apartheid itself, for the music and the revolution are inseparable. Through archival footage and interviews with musicians, freedom fighters, and even members of the former government police, Amandla! creates a vivid and powerful portrait of how music was crucial not only to communicating a political message beyond words, but also to the resistance itself--how songs bonded communities, buoyed resistance in the face of bullets and tear gas, and sowed fear in the ruling elite. Part history, part musical exploration, part sheer force of life, Amandla! captures both the sorrow and the triumph of life in South Africa from the 1950s to 1990, when Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress came into power. --Bret Fetzer” Great stuff easy on the ears and the eyes. Wow! Side comment of note, the title is so misleading and so obviously written by marketers who just don’t understand. There’s no such thing as four part harmony in South African music; it’s more like fourteen-twenty-one part harmony. 2. Videos recommended by sources who have taken similar trips in the past: Mandela: Son of Africa, Father of a Nation and Nelson Mandela: Journey to Freedom (A&E).   3. On the all-Africa front, a gorgeous set of DVDs from the BBC series: Geldof in Africa (2005). Rock musician and philanthropist travels and comments on the highs and lows of central sub-Saharan Africa. Amazon… "If Bob Geldof had never seen news footage of the horrific famine in Ethiopia back in the mid-'80s, he might have carried on in relative obscurity, making so-so records with his band the Boomtown Rats. But see it he did, which led to Band Aid (and "Do They Know It's Christmas"), Live Aid, Live 8, knighthood, and now Geldof in Africa, a profound, provocative, beautifully made six-part series that aired in 2005 on Britain's BBC. Sir Bob, who narrates both on and offscreen, visited many parts of what he calls "the Luminous Continent" (as opposed to the "Dark Continent" moniker that was ironically bestowed on Africa by Europeans whose own countries were often gray and grim)....But Geldof and producer-director John Maguire's film is not a travelogue. Nor is it a scientific documentary, although we learn something about geography, anthropology, meteorology, geology, agriculture, history, religion, and, inevitably, politics. What distinguishes Geldof in Africa is the presence of Geldof himself. An excellent writer and articulate speaker, he brings a decidedly subjective point of view to the work....he says exactly what he thinks, and expresses his wonder, fascination, rage, grief, sympathy, blame, and hope with a quiet passion that compels the viewer to feel those things as well. The camera work is flawless throughout, with shot after shot of breathtaking beauty, and Pete Briquette's music provides graceful accompaniment." 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