SOUTH AFRICA: FORGING A NATION : SOUTH AFRICA: A TALE OF SIX FAMILIES : Sources for More Information

An enormous number of books, movies and organizations deal with South Africa. Here is a small sampling:

NONFICTION

An African-American in South Africa: The Travel Notes of Ralph J. Bunche tells of a three-month visit Bunche made in 1937 on a Howard University grant.

After Apartheid: The Future of South Africa by Marxist Basil Davidson analyzes current problems in South Africa.

Apartheid’s Rebels: Inside South Africa’s Hidden War by Stephen M. Davis, a policy analyst, is an account of the African National Congress.

Ethnicity and Politics in South Africa by Gerhard Mare, a South African sociologist, analyzes the politicization of ethnicity, specifically the “Zulu nation.”

A History of South Africa by historian Leonard Thompson tells South Africa’s story from the earliest inhabitants to the present day, focusing mainly on blacks.

No Easy Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela is a collection of speeches and statements by the African National Congress leader.

One Hundred Seventeen Days by Ruth First, a white who aided striking black miners, is an account of her imprisonment and the abuse of political prisoners.

Reporting South Africa by Rich Mkhondo, a Reuters reporter and a black South African, explores the “reluctant but inevitable transition to democracy.”

Sophiatown: Coming of Age in South Africa by Don Mattera is a memoir of area that went from a “demographic quilt” to a crime-ridden slum before it was bulldozed.

Winnie Mandela is a biography of the anti-apartheid activist by white, South African-born journalist Nancy Herrigan.

FICTION AND POETRY

Age of Iron by J. M. Coetzee tells of an aging white woman’s first encounters with the violence of apartheid.

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton is the tale of a black country pastor whose son is arrested for the murder of a white man.

Johannesburg and Other Poems by Sterling Plumpp is about the black experience in America and South Africa, forging connections between the two.

My Children! My Africa! by Athol Fugard was first produced in 1990. The play portrays racial tension through the story of two student debaters and their teacher.

My Son’s Story by Nadine Gordimer follows a married black man who is imprisoned for his political beliefs and falls in love with a white anti-apartheid activist. Gordimer won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1991.

A Question of Power, written in 1973, was Bessie Head’s third book. Considered her masterpiece, the novel concerns a young woman undergoing a breakdown.

FOR YOUNG READERS

Beyond Safe Boundaries by Margaret Sacks tells of a family whose daughter is arrested for protesting apartheid.

Crocodile Burning, by Michael Williams, is the story of a South African teen-ager who expresses his fears and anger by performing in a musical that makes it to Broadway.

Kaffir Boy is Mark Mathabane’s story of his childhood in South Africa, from 1960 to 1978. Kaffir is an epithet used to refer to black South Africans.

RECENT FILMS

“Bopha!,” directed by Morgan Freeman and set in the 1980s, centers on a conflict between a white South African police officer and his son, who has radical anti-apartheid politics.

“Cry Freedom,” directed by Richard Attenborough, chronicles the friendship between a white South African newspaper editor, Donald Woods, and Bantu activist Steven Biko, who was beaten to death in prison in 1977.

“Sarafina,” directed by William Nicholson, is a musical set amid riots in Soweto township in the 1970s. A young black student, inspired by her teacher, survives the daily oppression by submerging herself in the school musical.

“Saturday Night at the Palace,” a South African film directed by Robert Davies, is about a black man terrorized by a bigot at a restaurant as he is about to close the place.

“Tokoloshe,” a South African film directed by Peter Prowse, centers on a boy rescued from a witch doctor’s curse who must travel to the city for protection.

ORGANIZATIONS

Embassy of South Africa

3051 Massachusetts Ave. N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20008

(202) 232-4400

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Consulate General of the Republic of South Africa

50 N. La Cienega Blvd., Suite 300

Beverly Hills, Calif. 90211

(310) 657-9200

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South African Council of Churches

Khotso House

P.O. Box 4921

Johannesburg 2000

South Africa

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South African Foreign Trade Organization

P.O. Box 782702

Sandton, 2146

South Africa

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Congress of South African Trade Unions

P.O. Box 1019

Johannesburg, 2000

South Africa

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Compiled by Times researchers JACCI CENACVEIRA, JULIA FRANCO, ANN GRIFFITH, JANET LUNDBLAD

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SOURCES: Africa: South of the Sahara 1994, 23rd edition (Europa Publications Ltd); Encyclopedia of Associations, 28th edition, 1994