A record of all races and history of South Africa, featuring notable personalities and pivotal events.

This updated version of the 1988 edition strips away the curtain of myths and misconceptions that surround South Africa. Much has happened and is still happening in this troubled land, so to better understand the events of recent years, the final two chapters have been revised and three new chapters have been added. 1,000 color photos, maps and illustrations.

The Hidden History of South Africa's Book and Reading Cultures shows how the common practice of reading can illuminate the social and political history of a culture. This ground-breaking study reveals resistance strategies in the reading and writing practices of South Africans; strategies that have been hidden until now for political reasons relating to the country's liberation struggles. By looking to records from a slave lodge, women's associations, army education units, universities, courts, libraries, prison departments, and political groups, Archie Dick exposes the key works of fiction and non-fiction, magazines, and newspapers that were read and discussed by political activists and prisoners. Uncovering the book and library schemes that elites used to regulate reading, Dick exposes incidences of intellectual fraud, book theft, censorship, and book burning. Through this innovative methodology, Dick aptly shows how South African readers used reading and books to resist unjust regimes and build community across South Africa's class and racial barriers.

This authoritative work examines 500 years of interaction between the races in a country that during the apartheid era became a byword for racial disharmony. Nelson Mandela's release from prison in February 1990 was the defining moment in South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy. But as this fascinating study shows, the racial history of South Africa is much more complex than a simple struggle between black and white. How did South Africa become a crossroads for peoples as diverse as the Zulu, the Xhosa, the Dutch, and the Chinese? Did the end of apartheid really herald a new dawn in race relations, or have the scars of those years yet to truly heal? To answer these questions, this timely volume examines South Africa's ethnic history over 500 years. From the earliest contacts between Europeans and Africans to the country's changing role in the post-apartheid era, this reference work traces the fascinating racial history of South Africa before, during, and after the apartheid years.