A study of how the production of history is part of a global process forged by the struggle between colonialism and resistance. The author looks at the 1952 celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the landing of Jan van Riebeeck and the founding of Cape Town. Examining newspapers brochures and pamphlets, the author looks at how history and historical figures were reconstructed and how the ANC and others mounted opposition to it. Index, bib, notes, xii, 324pp, USA. INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS, 0253216133

From the team that produced 'African Renaissance', this book traces the vibrant artistic practices and traditions of the people from Botswana who settled in South Africa's Mpumulanga province in the early 20th century. Many col ill, large format, index, 144pp, SOUTH AFRICA. NEW HOLLAND, 1868725642

An exploration of Afrikaner society ten years after the end of apartheid, discussing the embattled language and culture, and whether the Afrikaner people can overcome the past and begin again to flourish. 256pp, SOUTH AFRICA. JACANA MEDIA.

The diversity of the craft produced in the Eastern Cape is astounding and ranges from historic indigenous items of Xhosa culture (traditional ceramics, woodcarving, grass-weaving, beadwork and attire) to contemporary beadwork, spinning and knitting, glass blowing, wire work and sewing. This full-colour catalogue aims to bring exposure to the crafters and showcase their wares to the international community. 96pp, SOUTH AFRICA. NISC.

Who is 'black' in South Africa today? And who is 'coloured'? Who is in charge of the definitions? And why does it matter? Notes, bib, index, 224pp, SOUTH AFRICA. KWELA BOOKS, 0795701365

2001 paperback

As apartheid crumbled in South Africa, racial identity was thrown into question. Based on a year-long ethnographic study of a multiracial high school in Durban, this book explores how youth make meaning of the still powerful, yet changing, idea of race. Ref., index, 156pp. USA. State University of New York Press, 0791450821

Dhlomo, one of the most outstanding African intellectuals in the New African Movement, engaged the notion of the construction of modernity in South Africa in the first half of the 20th century. His principal concern, following a root tradition of the Xhosa Intellectuals of the 19th century, was with the problem of how to transform European, Christian-informed modernity into a true African modernism that embraced the powerful political currents of Ethiopianism, Pan-Africanism, the ANC, New Africanism and Shembeism. This book considers his influence. 282pp, USA. AFRICA WORLD PRESS.

An inclusive and substantial introduction to South African history and cultures from Afrikaner to Indian and Zulu. Highlighted topics include oral history, multireligious traditions, communal ties, conjugal arrangements and British and Boer influences. Includes a chronology, glossary and bibliographic essay. Index, b/w illus, 301pp, USA. GREENWOOD PUBLISHING GROUP, 0313320187

A wide range of South African forms of cultural expression is covered, among them language, the media and the intellectual climate, the theatre, rural wall decora-tion, literature, film, music and the globally relevant phenomenon of biennales. Notes, index, 334pp, SOUTH AFRICA. KWELA BOOKS.

Many of the findings of this study break new ground in Southern African anthropology and history. For example, the original stock of the Bantu peoples arose from a cradle-land between the Orange and Vaal rivers in South Africa; the word `Guinea' is identical with the Xhosa `ebu Nguni' (Nguniland). Bib, b/w illus, 463pp, GERMANY. LIT VERLAG.

Explores how an African 'people' came into being in the first place, particularly in the South African context, as a collectivity organised in pursuit of a political, and not simply cultural, end. Argues that the nation is a political community whose form is given in relation to the pursuit of democracy and freedom, and that if democratic authority is lodged in 'the people', what matters is the way that this 'people' is defined, delimited and produced. Index, bib, notes, 261pp, SOUTH AFRICA. WITWATERSRAND UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Twelve ethnographic studies of post-apartheid South Africa, which focus on the emergence of new South African identities with both strong local characteristics and powerful global influences. They show how, in different ways, through adoption, adaptation, avoidance and resis-tance, South Africans are responding to the forces and connections of globalisation. All these studies show how globalisation constitutes and is constituted by the spreading of localised interests and identities, a transition from the intense national politicisation associated with the anti-apartheid struggle. Index, bib, 360pp, SOUTH AFRICA. JACANA MEDIA.

Using archive and contemporary photographs, this volume sketches the long histories of nine families of different cultural, economic, social and geographical backgrounds, and in doing so, exposes the complexities of contemporary South African society. Notes, sources, 240pp, SOUTH AFRICA. KWELA BOOKS, 079570139X

Reissue of a ground-breaking study. Incorporating their own oral and written testimony into a modern historical and ethnographic framework, the author examines the response of the Xhosa to the successive challenges of contact with whites; the adaptation of Xhosa cosmology to Christianity; the increasing dependence of the Xhosa on military technology in defense of their lands. 278pp, JONATHAN BALL. SOUTH AFRICA.

An exploration of so-called Indian identity in South Africa and its transformations after apartheid. Maps, notes, bib, index, 248pp, SOUTH AFRICA. KWELA BOOKS.

A survey of the history, environment, and society of the Lobedu of South Africa. Richly illustrated with colour photographs. Includes a guide to further reading and a glossary. Index, map, 64pp, USA. ROSEN PUBLISHING COMPANY, 0823919897

As one of the largest black cities on the continent, Soweto is an eclectic mix of ethnic groups, the modern and the traditional. The authors capture the spirit of the place using photographs of the people and their vibrant fashions, music and homes. Also included are recipes capturing the distinctive flavours of Sowetan food. 159pp, SOUTH AFRICA. STRUIK, 1868728447

2003 Hardback

'In this book I tell a story, arising from a decade-long friendship, about a young man named Madumo struggling to free himself from the curse of witchcraft in Soweto, South Africa, at the close of the twentieth century. It is based upon our shared experiences and taped conversations; interviews and discussions with others; journals and letters (both Madumo's and mine); together with my own observations, recollections, and speculations leavened with a good measure of gossip deriving from times in Soweto since 1990 - not to mention books I have read and things I've forgotten. These materials have here been edited and translated, shaped and reshaped, in an effort to present an accessible narrative for an English-speaking reader. vii, 255pp. USA. CHICAGO UNIVERSITY PRESS.

This ethnographic study reveals how financial self-help groups (burial societies and credit groups) are islands of hope for Xhosa migrants living in the townships and squatter camps of Cape Town, South Africa. Many are caught up in a sea of insecurity, unemployment, murder, rape, AIDS, and social conflict, entangled with apartheid politics as well as post-apartheid development. Particularly women create these de-politicized social spaces to feel secure and trusted, and know that money is subject to their control. This intimate account challenges romanticized views on urban poverty and solidarity groups. It explores the anxiety among members, the fragility of trust and solidarity, as well as the emergence of conflicts with kin, household members, and neighbours, over desperately needed money. Index, 194pp, NETHERLANDS. EJ BRILL.

A survey of the society, history, homestead decoration, youth activities and customs of the Ndebele of South Africa. Richly illustrated with colour photographs. Includes a guide to further reading and a glossary. Index, map, 64pp, USA. ROSEN PUBLISHING COMPANY, 0823920097

The first systematic study of Coloured identity, its history, and its relevance to South African national life. Mohamed Adhikari engages with the debates and controversies thrown up by the identity's troubled existence and challenges much of the conventional wisdom associated with it. 264pp, USA. OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Rethinks the key question, posed by Albie Sachs, what does it mean to be a South African? away from its familiar ontological and epistemological habitat, what is identity?, the better to embrace its ethical and political rider, what are identities for?, and its more pragmatic possibility, what can identities do? These qualifications question existing presumptions about South Africa’s history, its present moment and its future. Attempts to qualify the conflicting and contiguous drives of fatalism, positivism, and relativism, which are the dominant claimants upon the South African cultural imaginary. Jamal calls for an urgent reappraisal of the absence of love, of 'lovelessness', which he sees as the infected root of South Africa’s inability to create a positively affirmative cultural imaginary. Index, bib, 171pp, SOUTH AFRICA. UNISA PRESS.

Interviews by a former editor of the Cape Times, with a variety of South Africans on what race 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. As Fisher says, I too am obsessed with race, but only because race has always been obsessed with me. Interviewees include the 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. Bib, 250pp, SOUTH AFRICA. JACANA MEDIA.

A survey of South Africans: `Who we are, how we live and what we want from life in the new South Africa'. Nearly 15,000 South Africans were interviewed during the period 1997-2001. From the poorest Xhosa-speakers in the Eastern Cape to wealthy Sandton executives, representatives from every strata of this country's diverse populace have been questioned- thought-provoking and groundbreaking. Index, bib, notes, x, 160pp, SOUTH AFRICA. DAVID PHILIP.

The description of South Africa as a 'rainbow nation' has always been taken to embrace the black, brown and white peoples who constitute its population. But each of these groups can be sub-divided and in the white case, the Scots have made one of the most distinctive contributions to the country's history. hey were exceptionally active in such areas as exploration, botanical and scientific endeavour, military campaigns, the emergence of Christian missions, Western education, intellectual institutions, the professions as well as enterprise and technical developments, business, commerce and journalism. This book is the first full-length study of their role from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries. It highlights the interaction of Scots with African peoples, the manner in which missions and schools were credited with producing 'Black Scotsmen' and the ways in which they pursued many distinctive policies. It also deals with the interweaving of issues of gender, class and race as well as with the means by which Scots clung to their ethnicity through founding various social and cultural societies. 304pp, UK. MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS.

As a political sociology of whites in the last years of apartheid, it provides an analysis of the social origins and social context of political attitudes among a sample of middle-class, English-speaking whites in selected Johannesburg suburbs in the context of acute and continuing political polarisation, principally between black and white. This study adds another dimension to the interpretation of class dynamics in apartheid South Africa. In contrast to other studies that have concentrated on the working class, and on very restricted political and economic elites, this considers the impact of the middle classes in shaping the history of apartheid South Africa. Index, bib, tables, 214pp, SOUTH AFRICA. UNISA PRESS.

Eclectic introduction to emerging forms of popular and youth cultures in South Africa. B/w illus, refs, index, xiii, 558pp, SOUTH AFRICA. OXFORD UNIV. PRESS SOUTH AFRICA, 0195718399

2000 Paperback

A collection of essays investigating the politically and socially contested terrain of mass media, art and cultural practices. The authors look at power relations, both local and international, and how they impact on media representations and the creation of identities within a new South Africa. Index, refs, b/w illus, 340pp, SOUTH AFRICA. KWELA BOOKS.

Essays and perspectives on the need for a new South African identity, reinterpreting colonialism, ethnicity, collective violence in a changing political and social climate. Refs, index, 360pp, SOUTH AFRICA. KWELA.

Collection of critical essays about culture and identity through the lens of post apartheid South Africa. First published as a special issue of the journal Poetics Today, these essays set up a dialectic between South Africa's heterogeneous literary traditions and its position as a cultural symbol in Europe and the First World, revealing why South African culture is a matter of global interest. Contains a new article by David Attwell on the experimental turn in black South African fiction. Index, 286pp, SOUTH AFRICA. UNISA PRESS.

Groundbreaking study of the politics of hunger under apartheid. B/w ill, notes, bib, index, xiv, 319pp, USA. UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA PRESS.

Monograph defining the term 'intangible heritage' before reviewing the legal and financial instruments developed by countries and international bodies to manage these resources and analyses how they relate to instruments that deal with intangible heritage. The authors recommend ways that communities can safeguard their intellectual property rights as well as how cultural policy-makers within government and donor agencies can support communities by linking development initiatives with arts and heritage. Bib, 76pp, SOUTH AFRICA. HUMAN SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL.

Takes for granted that 'race' is a social and not a biological category. The concept of 'race' is therefore open to construction, deconstruction, reconstruction, resistance, subversion and challenge. Through the genres of cartoon, performance art, photography, poetry, short story, dialogue, discourse analysis and academic essay, the contributors including Zapiro, Sandile Dikeni, Ashraf Jamal and Anton Kannenmeyer attempt to answer questions about lived experiences in contemporary South Africa and the challenge and hopes which these experiences embody. Illus, col & b/w photos, 213pp, SOUTH AFRICA. HEINEMANN SOUTH AFRICA.

Reflections on what it means to be white in a post-Apartheid South Africa. The author interviews over fifty white South Africans who are faced with reinterpreting their identities in light of new knowledge and the realities and horrors of the past. Index, notes, refs, apps, xvii, 228pp, USA. STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, 0791450805

Argues that the transition to democracy in South Africa enfranchised blacks politically but without raising most of them from poverty. It shows in detail how the continuing strength of the white establishment forces the leaders of the African National Congress (ANC) to compromise plans for full political and economic transformation. Deferring the economic transformation, the new dispensation nurtures a small black elite. The new elite absorbs the economic interests of the established white elites while continuing to share racial identities with the majority of their countrymen, muffling the divisions between rich whites and poor blacks, thus ensuring political stability in the new South Africa. Ironically, racial identities, which ultimately proved the undoing of apartheid, have come to the rescue of contemporary democratic capitalism. 256pp, USA. HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS.

A survey of the society and history of the Zulu people of South Africa. Richly illustrated with colour photographs. Includes a guide to further reading and a glossary. Index, map, 64pp, USA. ROSEN PUBLISHING COMPANY.

1997 0823920143 Hardback

Children's picture book. Found mostly in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, the Zulu have a long tradition of horticulture and cattle breeding. Led by the warlord Shaka Zulu at the turn of the nineteenth century, the Zulu gained power and territory until the arrival of the British. Full-Colour Photographs, Maps, Index, Glossary, Further Reading List, Website resources, 48pp, USA. LERNER PUBLISHING GROUP.