Religion and worldview -- Literature and the media -- Arts and architecture -- Cuisine and dress -- Gender roles, marriage, and family -- Social customs and lifestyle -- Music, dance and performance -- Tourism and the natural environment.

The Namibian constitution makes full provision for education as a fundamental human right and freedom. Three years into independence, as part of the governments educational policy, the Education for All Policy was launched as a stepping stone to free quality education. However, inequities have become widely pronounced within the Namibian educational system. Democracy and Education in Namibia and beyond debates the educationdemocracy nexus in Namibia and the southern African context. It defines and explores the meaning of democracy and related concepts. It also looks at what democracy means in the context of human rights and access to education. The ten chapters in this collection interrogate the strengths and limitations of education as an instrument of social change and question whether or not the Namibian educational objectives and practices do develop and help to sustain a democratic culture in Namibia. The authors in the collection have drawn material from their own teaching and research experience across the fields of education and social science in Namibia and beyond, and present their findings in a pedagogical framework suitable as a challenging text for tertiary students. At a time when education is in crisis, especially in South Africa where strident calls for free tertiary education and Africanisation of the curriculum are spreading like wildfire, this book gives scholarly insight into the history and social conditions that gave rise to our current predicament.

Indigenous knowledge is the dynamic information base of a society, facilitating communication and decision-making. It is the cornerstone of many modern-day innovations in science and technology. It is also a ready and valuable resource for sustainable and resilient livelihoods, and attracts increasing public interest due to its applications in bio-technology, health, bioprospecting, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, food preparation, mathematics and astronomy. INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE OF NAMIBIA is a fascinating compendium aimed at a wide readership of academics and students, government officials, policy makers, and development partners. The 17 chapters examine the indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants for treating HIV/AIDS, malaria, cancer, and other microbial infections of humans and livestock; indigenous foods; coping and response strategies in dealing with human-wildlife conflicts, floods, gender, climate change and the management of natural resources. A new rationalisation of adolescent customary and initiation ceremonies is recommended in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic; and a case study of the San people of Namibia speaks to the challenges of harmonising modern education with that of indigenous people.

Writing Namibia: Literature in Transition is a cornucopia of extraordinary and fascinating material which will be a rich resource for students, teachers and readers interested in Namibia. The text is wide ranging, defining literature in its broadest terms. In its multifaceted approach, the book covers many genres traditionally outside academic literary discourse and debate. The 22 chapters cover literature of all categories in Namibia since independence: written and performance poetry, praise poetry, Oshiwambo orature, drama, novels, autobiography, women’s writing, subaltern studies, literature in German, Ju|’hoansi and Otjiherero, children’s literature, Afrikaans fiction, story-telling through film, publishing, and the interface between literature and society. The inclusive approach is the book’s strength as it allows a wide range of subjects to be addressed, including those around gender, race and orature which have been conventionally silenced.

Women Screenwriters is a study of more than 300 female writers from 60 nations, from the first film scenarios produced in 1986 to the present day. Divided into six sections by continent, the entries give an overview of the history of women screenwriters in each country, as well as individual biographies of its most influential.

The Ju/’hoan San, or Ju/’hoansi, of Namibia and Botswana are perhaps the most fully described indigenous people in all of anthropology. This is the story of how this group of former hunter-gatherers, speaking an exotic click language, formed a grassroots movement that led them to become a dynamic part of the new nation that grew from the ashes of apartheid South West Africa. While coverage of this group in the writings of Richard Lee, Lorna Marshall, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, and films by John Marshall includes extensive information on their traditional ways of life, this book continues the story as it has unfolded since 1990. Peopled with accounts of and from contemporary Ju>/’hoan people, the book gives newly-literate Ju/’hoansi the chance to address the world with their own voices. In doing so, the images and myths of the Ju/’hoan and other San (previously called “Bushmen”) as either noble savages or helpless victims are discredited. This important book demonstrates the responsiveness of current anthropological advocacy to the aspirations of one of the best-known indigenous societies.