Bøger udgivet af Wits University Press

In Tin Bucket Drum, Neil Coppen achieves a small miracle. Through his lyrical script and the creative use of lighting and sound, one woman, the Narrator, succeeds in evoking a host of characters as this allegorical tale of oppression and liberation plays itself out. It is a story that offers a host of lessons for many places and many times.

A collection of essays on what it meant to be black during apartheid. While the essays are situated in the material and social conditions of that time, they also have a timelessness that speaks to our contemporary concerns.

A lyrical, philosophical and poetic treatise on practising African psychology in a decolonised world view. Employing a style common in philosophy but rarely used in psychology, the book offers thoughts about the ideas, contestation, urgency and desire around a psychological praxis in Africa for Africans.

Provides a textured analysis of a contested urban space that will resonate with other contested urban spaces around the world and challenges researchers involved in such spaces to work in creative and politicised ways.

Performance art is transgressive and interdisciplinary. Acts of Transgression, an illustrated collection of 15 essays by respected researchers, critically probes where live art and socio-political turbulence intersect in post-apartheid South African society. Focusing on work by 25 contemporary artists, it adds significantly to the field.

Why were depictions of animals a crucial trigger for the birth of art? And why did animals dominate that art for so long? To answer these questions, Renaud Ego examined the rock art of the San of southern Africa. This collection of essays is beautifully illustrated with the author's photographs from across southern Africa.

To dress is a uniquely human experience, but practices and meanings of dress vary greatly among people. In Dress as Social Relations Vibeke Maria Viestad provides an interdisciplinary study of Bushman dress, as it is represented in the archives and material culture of historical Bushman communities.

This intriguing memoir details in a quiet and restrained manner what it meant to be a committed black intellectual activist during the apartheid years and beyond. Few autobiographies exploring the "life of the mind" and the "history of ideas" have come out of South Africa, and N. Chabani Manganyi's reflections are a refreshing addition to the genre of life writing.

How is "race" determined? Is it your DNA? The community that you were raised in? The way others see you or the way you see yourself? In Race Otherwise Zimitri Erasmus questions the notion that one can know race with one's eyes, with racial categories and with genetic ancestry tests.

The transition from apartheid to the post-apartheid era has highlighted questions about the past and the persistence of its influence in present-day South Africa. This is particularly so in education. Between Worlds scrutinises the experience of a hitherto unexplored German mission society, probing the complexities and paradoxes of social change in education.

Provides the first in-depth study of one of the leading trade unions in South Africa. Deftly navigating through workerist, social movement and political terrains that shape the South African labour landscape, this book sheds light on the path that led to the unprecedented 2012 Marikana massacre, the dissolution of the Cosatu federation and to fractures within the African National Congress itself.

An illuminating and unusual biography of the Kowie River in the Eastern Cape. As well as being a social history, this is also a natural history of the river and its catchment area, where dinosaurs once roamed and cycads still grow.

This classic text, first published in 1999, is Rusty Bernstein's remarkable memoir of a life in South African resistance politics from the late 1930s to the 1960s. Recalling the events in which he participated, and the way in which the apartheid regime affected the lives of those involved in the opposition movements.

Guides the reader from a history of global political secularism through an exploration of the roles played by religion and traditional authority in apartheid South Africa to the position of religion in the post-apartheid state.

The 2017 publication of Betrayal of the Promise, the report that detailed the systematic nature of state capture, marked a key moment in South Africa's most recent struggle for democracy. Shadow State is an updated version of that original, explosive report that changed South Africa's recent history.

In 2013, Edward Snowden leaked secret documents revealing that state agencies had spied on the communications of millions of innocent citizens. Jane Duncan assesses the relevance of Snowden's revelations for South Africa. In doing so she questions the extent to which South Africa is becoming a surveillance society governed by a surveillance state.

The Gordonia region of the Northern Cape Province has received relatively little attention from historians. Martin Legassick explores aspects of the generally unknown "brown" and "black" history of the region. Emphasising the lives of ordinary people, his writing is also in part an exercise in "applied history" - historical writing with a direct application to people's lives in the present.

This collection of essays and talks by activist and former judge Albie Sachs is the culmination of more than 25 years of thought about constitution-making and non-racialism. We, the People offers an intimate insider's view of South Africa's Constitution by a writer who has been deeply entrenched in its historical journey.

This story of an ANC elder is a rigorously researched historical record overlaid with intensely personal reflections which intersect with the political narrative. Above all, it is one man's story, set in the maelstrom of the liberation struggle.

Takes stock of the Zuma-led administration and its impact on the African national Congress (ANC). Combining hard-hitting arguments with astute analysis, Booysen shows how the ANC has become centered on the personage of Zuma, and how defense of his flawed leadership undermines the party's capacity to govern competently and protect its long-term future.

Climate change affects us all, but it can be a confusing business. Three leading South African scientists who have worked on the issue for over two decades help you to make sense of this topic. Climate Change: Briefings from Southern Africa takes the form of 55 "frequently-asked questions", each with a brief, clear scientifically up-to-date reply.

The Mpumalanga escarpment, stretching from Ohrigstad in the north via Lydenburg and Machadodorp to Carolina in the south, saw massive changes in precolonial times.

Explores aspects of the experience of the Batswana in the thornveld and bushveld regions of the North-West Province, shedding light on defining issues, moments and individuals in this lesser known region of South Africa. Written in a direct and accessible style, and illustrated with photographs and maps, the book provides an understanding of the region and its recent history.

Examines the tumultuous and often fractious politics in Kroonstad's black townships. In spite of the town's relative obscurity, the author demonstrates a rich tradition of civic and political life in its townships and provides a persuasive explanation for the violence unleashed in the 1990s after decades of relative political "quiescence".

The death of Nelson Mandela on 5 December 2013 was in a sense a wake-up call for South Africans, and a time to reflect on what has been achieved since 'those magnificent days in late April 1994' (as the editors of this volume put it) 'when South Africans of all colours voted for the first time in a democratic election'.

Illustrates how this rapidly growing, underfunded but surprisingly effective institution found the niche that allowed it to exist, to provide medical care to a massive patient body and at times even to flourish in the apartheid state. The book offers new ways of exploring the history of apartheid, apartheid medicine and health care.

Richard Moore Rive (1930-1989) was a writer, scholar, literary critic and college teacher in Cape Town, South Africa. He is best known for his short stories written in the late 1950s and for his second novel, 'Buckingham Palace', District Six, in which he depicted the well known cosmopolitan area of District Six, where he grew up.

This is the first biography of Solomon Plaatje written in his mother-tongue, Setswana, and the only book-length biography written by someone who actually knew him. In this account, Molema balances Plaatje's public and political persona - as a pioneer black politician and man of letters - with an intimate account of Plaatje, the human being.

Nuruddin Farah is widely regarded as one of the most sophisticated voices in contemporary world literature. Michel Foucault is revered as one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century, with his discursive legacy providing inspiration for scholars working in a range of interdisciplinary fields.

Charts new directions in the study of African-language literatures generally, and isiZulu fiction in particular. Mhlambi proposes that African popular arts and culture models be considered as a logical solution to the debates and challenges informing discourses about expressive forms in African languages.