It is the mid-1980s in South Africa. The white minority of this black nation is fighting--politically and physically--to maintain its leadership. Into this unstable environment comes Shaka II, the descendant of a feared nineteenth-century warrior and Zulu king of the same name. Like his ancestor, this twentieth-century militant and charismatic leader has assembled an army of ferocious, loyal fighters that embarks on a bloody campaign to topple white rule. Shaka's warriors began an uprising by slaughtering a prominent South African family. Yury Isakov, a KGB agent posing as a hydroelectric engineer, offers Shaka the Soviet Union's clandestine support for the uprising. Mark van Rooyan, son of the slaughtered family, vows to avenge his family's death. Ensues a battle against time between van Rooyan and his supporters against Shaka's warriors and an impending Soviet nuclear intervention. This story of a farmer and a few friends clashing head on with the fearsome power of primitive warriors and the threat of Soviet military might portrays a classic conflict between good and evil.

A bold and innovative social history, The Seed Is Mine concerns the disenfranchised blacks who did so much to shape the destiny of South Africa. After years of interviews with Kas Maine and his neighbors, employers, friends, and family – a rare triumph of collaborative courage and dedication – Charles van Onselen has recreated the entire life of a man who struggled to maintain his family in a world dedicated to enriching whites and impoverishing blacks, while South Africa was tearing them apart.

A new edition of one of the most practical and authoritative botanical dictionaries available.