Books

PALACES OF STONE: UNCOVERING ANCIENT SOUTHERN AFRICAN KINGDOMS BY MIKE MAIN AND THOMAS HUFFMAN — PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE, 2021

Across southern Africa there are more than 566 remarkable stone palaces – some small, others rambling, but many are astonishing. In "Palaces of Stone", Professor Thomas Huffman, Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at Wits, teamed up with lay archaeologist and management consultant Mike Main, to bring the legacy of past kingdoms to life.

Although some are famous world heritage sites, the majority are unsung and unappreciated. The history of various early African societies, from AD 900 to approximately 1850, are highlighted in an accessible manner, covering regions such as the Great Zimbabwe, Khami in Botswana and Mapungubwe in South Africa.

The authors explore not only how these settlements originated, but the reasons behind the specific patterns as well as why they might have been abandoned. They explain that there were a succession of sophisticated trading city-states with connections to Arab scholarship, and trade ports of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Orient: “It is an extraordinary tale of impressive feats of architecture, long-distance travel, global trade and complex political and administrative forms of organisation. But above all, it offers another perspective on what we once assumed were the vast empty spaces of Africa past, revealing instead a hinterland that hummed with activity – mining, commerce, transportation, farming and hunting”.

Mapungubwe was first visited by academics in the 1930s and made a World Heritage Site in 2003. It has proven to be the “Rosetta Stone” to unlocking the secrets of a fabulous past. Mapungubwe is significantly earlier than Great Zimbabwe. Flourishing in the early 1200s, it was located at the confluence of two rivers, the Shashe and the Limpopo. The district was welcoming and home to vast herds of both plains game and elephant. The work at Mapungubwe revealed it to be the earliest – “type specimen” – in a succession of entirely new, highly organised communities ruled over by hierarchical kingly figures operating efficient, labour-divided societies. Collectively known as “Zimbabwe Culture” city-states, these complex societies were eventually destabilised by internal strife, the advent of the colonial presence, and climate change.

"Palaces of Stone" offers a practical guide to historical method and uses researched evidence to explore architecture, pre-colonial governance and the links of these amazing African kingdoms that held sway across southern Africa with Europe. It is a must for those interested in Africa’s ancient history and its earliest civilisations.

THE ECONOMY ON YOUR DOORSTEP BY AYABONGA CAWE — TRACEY MCDONALD PUBLISHERS, 2021

During a TEDx Johannesburg talk in 2016, Ayabonga Cawe (BCom 2012, BCom Hons 2013, MCom 2014) shared why he was drawn to economics: “It helped me to understand how public policy and collective decisions influenced three things that framed my curiosity: how we understand authority; how we understand identity and race; and how we understand power.”

He shared his discomfort at being a speaker, knowing that a ticket to the event was equivalent to the average wage of a domestic worker. His grandmother was a domestic worker in Orange Grove in Johannesburg for three decades until she “retired in the early 2000s with a brown bag which had R10 000 in it and a few hand-me-downs”.

Cawe is interested in the unacknowledged “invisible work” and the many people who have shouldered the costs of expansions in a specific economy. His book is dedicated to the “African workers – ‘the handlers of machines, drillers of rock, the mantshing’ilane of conveyor belts, merchants of life, restoration and death’ ”.

Cawe is a respected Johannesburg-based development economist, columnist and broadcaster. He is the managing director of Xesibe Holdings (Pty) Ltd, a platform involved in advisory, facilitation and content development across a wide range of fields. His experience in economic research, policy and supply chain analysis, labour markets, advocacy and development programme design has earned him membership of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council, chaired by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Cawe writes that if we are serious about confronting inequality, then we have to understand that “inequality is a structural, endemic and baked-in feature of economic and social life in South Africa. And growth will never be sustainable until the policies aimed at boosting it overcome the reasons for continued low reservation wages and the cheap labour habits of industry.”

In "The Economy on Your Doorstep", he draws on the places he grew up in the Eastern Cape, using this “native reserve” as an entry point for a systemic enquiry into how we promote the economic evolution of these places. It’s a picture of an untapped economy, with the potential to evolve with a different future. He says that “economic history reminds us in multiple episodes that development is closely linked to such shifts to higher value-added activities in the global matrix of production”.

He gives an example of how realising value-added potential in, for instance, the Eastern Cape, could change it from a dominant raw milk producer to a dominant processed cheese and powdered milk producer for export, unlocking capital investment, employment and productivity improvements. He is at pains to stress that this does not happen automatically but through incentives that encourage investment in productive and value-adding activities.

This book has been praised for the articulate explanation of why the South African economy misfires and it offers possible remedies, but more importantly it provides a new understanding of the economy right where you are.

THE GREAT PRETENDERS: RACE AND CLASS UNDER ANC RULE BY EBRAHIM HARVEY — JACANA MEDIA, 2021

Dr Ebrahim Harvey (MM 2004, PhD 2008), well-known political analyst, says the title of his new book alludes to the gulf between the Constitutional promise and the realities confronting many South Africans today. He delivers a stinging critique of the ANC and its inability to address the race and class divide.

He says a walk down any street in any township in South Africa proves the party’s dismal record in office. “A serious combination of problems has prevailed – illiteracy, lack of political and formal education, tribalism, cultural backwardness and, related to those matters, a conspicuous lack of class consciousness, in the revolutionary Marxist sense.” As a former Cosatu trade unionist, he published a biography of former president and deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe in 2012 and completed his master’s and doctoral degrees on water and sanitation in Soweto.

Dr Harvey argues that a series of events – including HIV/AIDS denialism, the Marikana shootings, the Nkandla funding scandal, mass student protests, the Esidimeni tragedy, systemic corruption and state capture – are rooted in policy choices made by the ANC during negotiations and in power.

“It is full of uncomfortable insights on race and racism. It raises tough questions that need to be urgently addressed if we are to create the shared society that we proclaim. An essential read on a neglected perspective,” writes Edward Webster, Professor Emeritus at Wits and Distinguished Research Professor at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies.

PRISONERS OF THE PAST: SOUTH AFRICAN DEMOCRACY AND THE LEGACY OF MINORITY RULE BY STEVEN FRIEDMAN — WITS UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2021

South Africa’s democracy is often seen as a story of bright beginnings gone astray. In "Prisoners of the Past" Professor Steven Friedman (BA 1974, BA Hons 1975), who is a political scientist, public commentator, and former trade unionist, argues that this is a misreading of the nature of contemporary South Africa.

He shows that the difficulties of South Africa’s democracy are legacies of the pre-1994 past. The settlement which ushered in majority rule left core features of the apartheid economy and society intact. Although South Africa’s democracy supports free elections, civil liberties and the rule of law, it also continues past patterns of exclusion and domination.

Professor Friedman, a research professor attached to the Department of Politics at the University of Johannesburg, says that this “path dependence” is not the result of constitutional compromises in 1994. This bargain was flawed because it brought too little compromise. Compromises extended political citizenship to all but there were no similar bargains on economic and cultural change. Using the work of the radical sociologist Harold Wolpe, Professor Friedman shows that only negotiations on a new economy and society can free South Africans from the past. He calls for new thinking: “Change needs, firstly, new thinking – an approach which seeks a society which works for all its people. This is unlikely to come from elites, who are wedded to the present, but could be the product of campaigning by citizens. It is this path, not the constant search for the perfect political leader who will solve all problems, which could enable South Africa to bury its past and create a better future.”

SCATTERLING OF AFRICA: MY EARLY YEARS BY JOHNNY CLEGG — PAN MACMILLAN SOUTH AFRICA, 2021

As South Africa moved from legislated oppression to democratic freedom, the music of Johnny Clegg (BA 1976, BA Hons 1977, DMus honoris causa 2007) formed the backdrop to the lives of many Witsies growing up during the late 70s and tumultuous 1980s. It was music that crossed borders, boundaries and generations.

"Scatterling of Africa" (Pan Macmillan South Africa, 2021) is a posthumous memoir “as he wrote it and wanted it told”. It traces the less known story of his birth in England in 1953 – the son of an unconventional mother and grandson of Jewish immigrants – growing up in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and a formative year in Zambia.

The 14-year-old Clegg, recalls hearing Zulu street music as plucked on the strings of a guitar by Charlie Mzila one evening outside a corner café in Bellevue, Johannesburg:

“There are moments in life that are pure, and which seem to hang in the air, unhitched from the everyday world as we know it. Suspended for a few seconds, they float in their own space and time with their own hidden prospects. For want of a better term, we call these moments ‘magical’ and when we remember them, they are cloaked in a halo of special meaning.”

The memoir is filled with anecdotes and extraordinary stories from a legendary life. Music remains central: “For me the magic of music is that it can amplify hope. Like all art. It is something that offers a new way of seeing and experiencing the moment you are in,” Clegg writes.

At the age of 17 he and Sipho Mchunu formed the band Juluka, which toured the length and breadth of South Africa, performing in township halls and at music festivals, including the first Free People’s Concert at Wits in 1971. The song "Scatterlings of Africa" became a hit in 1979 and launched the band’s international career.

He writes fondly about his time at Wits, even though he failed his first year. “I found a community of discourse, of critical reflection and a new alternative worldview. It was a heady and inspiring time.”

SHUDU FINDS HER MAGIC BY SHUDUFHADZO MUSIDA — JACANA MEDIA, 2021

July 2021 was a busy month for Miss South Africa 2020 Shudufhadzo Musida (BA Hons 2021). In the same week she celebrated her 25th birthday, she was awarded an honours degree in international relations and released her first children’s book, "Shudu Finds Her Magic" (Jacana, 2021). The book features illustrations by Chantelle and Burgen Thorne and is available in six languages: Afrikaans, English, Sesotho, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu.

Musida, who is known to be outspoken on issues related to mental health and gender-based harm, says the book is inspired by her childhood and the bullying she experienced when she moved to a new province and a new school. “The book is aimed at children aged between four and 12 years of age and deals with bullying and the power of friendship. I hope that youngsters will be able to see themselves reflected in the storyline and be able to take something positive away from it. Remember that being bullied is not your fault. There is nothing wrong with you. Nobody should have to go through what I went through,” she says.

Musida was born in the village of Ha-Masia, Limpopo, South Africa and she obtained a bachelor of social science degree in philosophy, politics and economics from the University of Pretoria.

She will represent South Africa at the 70th edition of the Miss World pageant on 16 December 2021 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

ALGORITHMS AND THE END OF POLITICS: HOW TECHNOLOGY SHAPES 21ST-CENTURY AMERICAN LIFE BY SCOTT TIMCKE —BRISTOL UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2021

Computer code is ubiquitous in everyday life, oftentimes shaping political-economic questions of “who gets what and why” well below the threshold of awareness. With a new book aiming to analyse the politics of digital capitalism, Dr Scott Timcke (BA Hons 2005, MA 2008) applies many of the skills he learnt at Wits to outline the economic sociology of digital media, social networks and technology giants such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft.

While their activities have made them among the most valuable firms in the world, Timcke looks at the impact of these platforms and technologies on social life. Although there is much to celebrate in these networking achievements, more caution should be exercised on how these digital technology companies are not only shaping everyday perception and designing the future of work without substantive democratic oversight, but also cooperating with state security forces and turning into weapons system manufacturers themselves. These quick developments are upending decades of established democratic norms.

Effectively, algorithms of oppression are poised to automate inequality.

This trajectory is of utmost concern because it leaves the US ripe for plutocracy. And because of the central place of the US in the international political economy, this dynamic has spillover effects for places like South Africa and other societies regardless of the aspirations of their local regulatory environments.

THE LOST LANGUAGE OF THE SOUL BY MANDLA LANGA — PICADOR AFRICA, 2021

"The Lost Language of the Soul" (Picador Africa, 2021) is the personal journey of a 15-year-old Zambian boy called Joseph Mabaso. It originated as part of Dr Mandla Langa’s (DLitt honoris causa 2019, MA 2020) Master of Arts in Creative Writing at Wits, with Ivan Vladislavic (BA 1978, BA Hons 1979) as his supervisor.

Joseph is familiar with his father’s long absences from the family home, but when his mother disappears Joseph sets out on a perilous journey to find her and meets unlikely guides along the way.

In a radio interview Dr Langa said: “The title derives from the fact that all of us on the African continent are all somehow connected. You find linguistic patterns of South Africans in varied places... Our souls are caught up in some of these unexpressed things that are carried in our language.” Joseph’s quest is essentially a search for what makes us human and what many strive to find – “a place in his soul that feels like home”.

“I had to do a lot of research,” says Dr Langa. “I had to understand the idiomatic expression of his mother tongue (chi-Nyanja) and find expressive elements of the language that connect him to the language of his father. As with all young people, Joseph was able to straddle both worlds.”

Dr Langa was born in Durban. He won the Drum story contest for “The Dead Men Who Lost Their Bones” and in 1991 was awarded the Arts Council of Great Britain Bursary for creative writing, the first for a South African.

Dr Langa’s published works include "Tenderness of Blood" (1987), "A Rainbow on a Paper Sky" (1989), "The Naked Song and Other Stories" (1997), "The Memory of Stones" (2000), the award-winning "The Lost Colours of the Chameleon" (2008) and the bestselling "The Texture of Shadows" (2014). In 2007 he was awarded South Africa’s National Order of Ikhamanga (Silver) for his literary, journalistic and cultural achievements. In 2019 Wits awarded Dr Langa an honorary doctorate in literature for “presenting us with textured narratives that act as catalysts for readers to embark on journeys of self-introspection, self-knowledge and renewed commitment to continue with the tasks of imagining a better life and world.”

GO WITH THE SLOW

The Sunday Times CNA Literary Awards recognise the finest contemporary writers in South Africa and two Wits alumni were among the shortlisted candidates. "Safari Nation: A Social History of the Kruger National Park" (Jacana, 2021) by Jacob Dlamini (BA 2002, BA Hons 2003) was shortlisted in the non-fiction category, while "Breaking Milk" (Karavan Press, 2019), the novel by Dr Dawn Garisch (DOH 1986), was shortlisted for the Fiction Award.

"Breaking Milk" is Dr Garisch’s seventh novel, and she is no stranger to awards. Her poem "Blood Delta" was awarded the DALRO prize in 2007; "Trespass" was shortlisted for the Commonwealth prize for fiction in Africa in 2010, and in 2011 her poem "Miracle" won the EU Sol Plaatje Poetry Award. In 2013 her short story “What To Do About Ricky” won the Short.Sharp.Story competition.

Set on a farm in the Eastern Cape, and taking place over one day, "Breaking Milk" is described as “a meditation on motherhood”.

Dr Garisch says she job shadowed a cheesemaker to write the novel and discovered the painstaking process of transporting milk along a rutted gravel farm road.

“He explained that if the fresh milk is shaken up too much, it will start turning into butter by the time he reaches home and will be useless for cheesemaking. This is called breaking the milk. I realised this is a great metaphor for the themes of the novel, which explores the ties that bind and those that break, particularly between parents and their children, but also in other relationships, in our attitude to the natural world and in our creative lives.”

As a practising general practitioner and founding member of the non-profit Life Righting Collective (LRC), Dr Garisch says she started writing in primary school. “It felt like a calling. Once I qualified as a doctor, writing became a way to debrief from trauma, increase my capacity for pleasure, and explore aspects of the world and myself.”

The LRC courses assist participants to grow confidence, and to experiment and play through writing. “Through writing different characters, and through hearing and reading diverse participants’ lived experience during courses, I have become more curious and compassionate, which are valuable attributes when working with people as patients or as writing students,” she says.

“We are all born creative – it is a resource to assist us explore and process difficulties. Too often the story we tell ourselves about our lives is too small. We can feel like victims of our situation. Even the act of picking up a pen confers some agency, and the creative mind can lead us away from hopes and fears that trap us, into an attitude of curiosity and possibility.”

This work is part of a growing international medical humanities movement where the arts and social sciences are having conversations about wellbeing. The significance of this is profound in a country such as South Africa.

Dr Garisch says a qualitative research paper, which will verify the anecdotal experience of “the healing power of writing” is almost complete and the preliminary results “are very encouraging”.

To find out more visit www.liferighting.com