Bøger udgivet af Wits University Press

Despite the transition from apartheid to democracy, South Africa is the most unequal country in the world. This collection of essays demonstrate how the consequences of inequality extend throughout society and the political economy, crippling the quest for social justice, polarising the politics, skewing economic outcomes and bringing devastating environmental consequences in their wake.

Explores the effects of addiction not only on those who suffer from it but on communities, families and the police, both those who try to control the murderous trade and those who benefit from it. This book shares "people's real-life stories, with the intention to inspire and develop a greater empathy and kindness".

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.

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

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.

What does friendship have to do with racial difference, settler colonialism and post-apartheid South Africa? While histories of apartheid and colonialism in South Africa have often focused on the ideologies of segregation and white supremacy, Ties that Bind explores how the intimacies of friendship create vital spaces for practices of power and resistance.

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 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.

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.

The Soweto Student Uprising of 1976 was a decisive moment in the struggle against apartheid. Drawing on research and writing by leading scholars and prominent activists, Students Must Rise takes Soweto `76 as its pivot point, but looks at student and youth activism in South Africa more broadly by considering what happened before and beyond the Soweto moment.

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.

Although widely known as the Afrikaner Communist who saved Nelson Mandela from the gallows, very little is known about Bram Fischer the man. Fischer was a respected Senior Advocate at the Johannesburg Bar who chose to side with the oppressed and went underground to join the armed struggle.

Examines the way in which various strands of left thought have addressed the National Question, especially during the apartheid years, and goes on to discuss its relevance for South Africa today and in the future. Contributors have defined the question as they believe appropriate, which has resulted in a rich tapestry of interweaving perceptions about the unresolved National Question.

The global economic crisis is far from over and has been considered the worst in the history of modern capitalism.

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.

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.

Missing is the story of Robert Khalipa , an ANC Cadre living in exile, who is very senior in the Organisation but is left out of the negotiations and almost forgotten in Sweden. Robert has a wealthy Swedish wife, Anna, and they have a daughter who is a practising doctor in a hospital in Stockholm.

Siyakha Mguni narrates his personal journey, over many years, to discover the significance of a hitherto enigmatic theme in San rock paintings known as "formlings". This book offers an innovative methodological approach for understanding subject matter in San rock art that is not easily recognisable, and will be an invaluable reference book to students and scholars.

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".

As the dynamo of South Africa's economy, Johannesburg commands a central position in the nation's imagination, and scholars throughout the world monitor the city as an exemplar of urbanity in the global South.

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'.

This takes the reader on a journey through the sensitive and often painful realities of contemporary South African life. Offering a fresh and innovative perspective on psychodynamic psychotherapy, it captures the possibilities of using psychodynamic theory in service of progressive and socially relevant application.

Percival Kirby was one of the greatest South African musicologists and ethnomusicologists. Born in Scotland in 1887, after completing his studies at the Royal College of Music in London he came out to South Africa as the Music Organiser to the Natal Education Department.

Gaze Regimes is a bricolage of essays and interviews showcasing the experiences of women working in film, either directly as practitioners or in other areas as curators, festival programme directors or fundraisers. It does not shy away from questioning the relations of power in the practice of filmmaking and the power invested in the gaze itself. Who is looking and who is being looked at, who is telling women's stories in Africa and what governs the mechanics of making those films on the continent?The interviews with film practitioners such as Tsitsi Dangarembga, Taghreed Elsanhouri, Jihan El-Tahri, Anita Khanna, Isabel Noronhe, Arya Lalloo and Shannon Walsh demonstrate the contradictory points of departure of women in film - from their understanding of feminisms in relation to lived-experiences and the realpolitik of women working as cultural practitioners. The disciplines of gender studies, postcolonial theory, and film theory provide the framework for the book's essays. Jyoti Mistry, Antje Schuhmann, Nobunye Levin, Dorothee Wenner and Christina von Braun are some of the contributors who provide valuable context, analysis and insight into, among other things, the politics of representation, the role of film festivals and the collective and individual experiences of trauma and marginality which contribute to the layered and complex filmic responses of Africa's film practitioners.

This is the first publication in the Democratic Marxism Series , which seeks to elaborate the social theorising and politics of Democratic Marxism. This edited volume introduces some contemporary approaches to Marxism and explores some of the ways in which Marxism has been used in Africa.

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.

Notions of land and agrarian reform are now well entrenched in post-apartheid South Africa. But what this reform actually means for everyday life is not clearly understood, nor the way it will impact on the political economy.