AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Academics and students interested in history, current affairs and politics. General readers with an interest in autobiographies/ biographies
Size: 230mm x 150mm
Page Extent: 342 (Plus 24pages of photographs)
Format: Soft Paperback
Price: 320.00 (VAT Incl)
ISBN: 978-0-6399024-4-9
Publication Date: 22 June 2022
Rights: World
Scattered: A personal story of the 1976 generation.
AUTHOR: Khulu Mbatha
In this memoir, Khulu Mbatha weaves the stories of friends he grew up and comrades he was in exile with into his personal narrative as a student youth leader who left the country at the time of the June 1976 uprising. Scattered across the globe as if fragmented by a powerful explosion, Mbatha and the 1976 generation he writes about, adopted new cultures and identities depending on the circumstances they found themselves in. With searing honesty, Mbatha describes the intense vulnerability of youth who left the country in 1976.
Arriving in unfamiliar territories, where liberation movements and foreign governments, overwhelmed by the number of youth streaming out of South Africa, often had no clear strategy for dealing with them, they tried to find their way collectively and alone. In Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Tanzania, they landed up in ANC or PAC houses where they were given a choice between military training and studying in foreign institutions in countries where they couldn’t speak the language. In this context of confusion and ambiguity, with no idea of where their choices would take them, they journeyed into the unknown. Mbatha pulls no punches about the leadership gaps, endless waiting, financial hardships, the suicides and assassinations.
The names of families, school and university friends, mentors and comrades are recollected like a refrain, a litany of remembrance throughout the book. A returning exile, Mbatha questions his ability to choose his own path rather than following the trajectory dictated by the ANC. The decision is made for him. For Mbatha, like many of his generation, June 16 1976 dictated the direction his life would take.
Author Information
Dr Mbatha is an accomplished professional, academic, diplomat, columnist, exhibitor and author (Unmasked: how the ANC failed to govern). He has over 45 years’ experience in the field of international relations and earned his Master’s degree and PhD in Philosophy from the Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena, Germany.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
General readers with an interest in autobiographies/ biographies
Page Extent: 120 (including photographs)
Format: Soft Paperback
Price: 190.00 (VAT Incl)
ISBN: 078-0-9922329-5-5
Publication Date: April 2016
Rights: World
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AUTHOR: Jestina Mukoko
FOREWORD: Elinor Sisulu
The abduction and trial of Jestina Mukoko; the fight for human rights in Zimbabwe tells the story of Jestina Mukoko, former broadcast journalist, who parted ways with the Zimbabwean state broadcaster in 2000 after becoming concerned about the level of editorial interference. In 2002, while she was working for an independent radio station, she became a human rights activist.
Mukoko poignantly describes how, at the crack of dawn, in her night clothes and in front of her teenage son, she was bundled into an unmarked vehicle and abducted. In flashbacks combined with narratives related to her childhood, her family, and her work at the Zimbabwe Peace Project, Jestina documents what happened to her between 3 December 2008 and her first appearance in court on Christmas Eve of the same year.
During her many appearances in court and, continued persecution, Jestina challenged her abduction, torture and the fact that she was not protected by the law. Jestina’s family also suffered in their desperation to find her, visiting government offices for assistance and getting none, searching hospitals and morgues and feeling hope and despair whenever the body of a woman was found – even visiting the much-feared Goromonzi prison.
Mukoko’s recollections provide a gripping and chilling account of one of the most turbulent and repressive periods marred by a wave of massive human rights abuses and violations in Zimbabwe’s history. In doing so, the book is a testament to the power of the human spirit and the will to survive.
Jestina has garnered many local and international accolades for her work as an activist, among them the United States Secretary of State Women of Courage Award. Jestina Mukoko is based in Harare and grew up in the high density suburb of Mambo in Gweru and attended the University of Zimbabwe. An award winning peace and human rights campaigner, she is currently the National Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project
“ It is my hope that Jestina’s memoir will sensitise citizens of this region to the dangers of enforced disappearances and encourage all of us to adopt the approach that an injury to one is an injury to all.” Elinor Sisulu
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
General readers with an interest in autobiographies/ biographies
Size: 230mm x 155mm
Page Extent: 174 (including photographs)
Format: Soft Paperback
Price: 181.57 (VAT Incl)
ISBN: 978-0-620-56285-0
Publication Date: 31 October 2013
Rights: World
For the Fallen: honouring the unsung heroes and heroines of the liberation struggle
AUTHOR: Mzwakhe Ndlela
While South Africa has many stories about the struggle years, yet many more remain untold. For the Fallen; honouring the unsung heroes and heroines of the liberation struggle was inspired by a radio interview with the late Govan Mbeki. In that interview Mbeki emphasised the need for South Africans to tell their stories and spread knowledge. It took a while for Ndlela to heed those words and tell his story in this book.
This book is as much about the author’s concerns that a generation who have only known freedom will forget or never even understand the great price it took to gain that freedom, as it is about the often forgotten heroes and heroines who showed their ultimate commitment to their ideals. The book chronicles the author’s journey from Bedford in the Eastern Cape as a young boy, fearful and yet defiant of the police who harassed him and his friends, to the young militant who became an MK soldier whose exile took him to Lesotho, Zambia, Angola and Swaziland. He describes the inspiration he gained from the heroes and heroines he encountered on this journey. These heroes and heroines included the primary school teacher who encouraged parents to broaden their thinking and who stressed the importance of education; the radical high school teacher who defied the “system “and the school curriculum to teach real, “current” history and the man of God who was required to save souls in more ways than one.
As the reader accompanies Ndlela on this retrospective journey, one will encounter individuals who would later play a pivotal role in the establishment and concretisation of the democratic South Africa, people such as Thenjiwe Mtintso, Chris Hani, Jeff Radebe, Rev Makhenkesi Stofile, Mvuyo Tom and many others. For the Fallen is above all, a reminder that our freedom was not lightly gained and that we should keep telling these stories, lest we forget.
“ He (Ndlela) evokes as never before, the atmosphere of living every day with the real possibility of imminent death, the strong sense of brotherhood and motivation which this engendered among the cadres, the painful memory of good lives lost, and the challenges their sacrifices still pose to the conscience of the new South Africa.” Jeff Peires
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Readership:
General readers with an interest in autobiographies/ biographies
Page Extent: 224 (including photographs)
Format: Soft Paperback
Price: 270.00 (VAT Incl)
ISBN: 978-0-620-51260-2
Publication Date: October 2011
Rights: World
AUTHOR: Dr. Sam Motsuenyane
A Testament of Hope is an uplifting story about one man's dream to succeed and achieve, despite severe political and socio-economic obstacles. The book traces Dr Motsuenyane's humble beginnings in a village in the North West Province and reveals how he reached the highest echelons of black business. Dr Motsuenyane was National Secretary and organiser of the African National Soil Conservation Association and National President of the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce (NAFCOC) for 24 years. Under his tenure numerous NAFCOC sponsored businesses and companies were formed including the African Bank, Black African Development and Construction Company amongst others.
After 1994, Dr Motsuenyane became involved in the political and diplomatic sphere, serving in the Senate from 1994 to 1996 and later as Ambassador to the Gulf States. He also headed the Motsuenyane commission of Enquiry into human rights abuses in ANC camps in exile. He is currently involved in the Winterveld United Farmers' Association which he helped establish.
Author information.
His interest is in Twentieth Century Southern African History. He is also the co-author of A Social History of A plant in the Eastern Cape (2011) and Umbutho Wesizwe: The African National Congress of the Eastern Cape (2012). He is also the author of A Socio-Political History of Resettlement and Change in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, 1960 -2005(2015)
“He is a black business pioneer, a banker and business leader with the heart of a farmer; he believes black South Africans should go out and liberate themselves by becoming job creators instead of waiting around for the government to take the lead. Had Dr Sam Motsuenyane been a British subject, he would long ago have been knighted for his service to entrepreneurship.” Stef Terreblanche