This profound and deeply compassionate study aims to reach into the complexities of political violence in South Africa between 1960 and 1994, and to expand our understanding of the patterns of conflict that almost drew South Africans into a vortex of total disintegration during the apartheid era.

The struggle to free South Africa from its apartheid shackles was long and complex. One of the many ways in which the apartheid regime maintained its stranglehold in South Africa was through controlling the freedom of speech and the flow of information, in an effort to silence the voices of those who opposed it. United by the ideals of freedom and equality, but also nuanced by a wide variety of persuasions, the voices of liberation were many: African nationalists, communists, trade-unionists, pan-Africanists, English liberals, human rights activists, Christians, Hindus, Muslims and Jews, to name but a few.

This biography commemorates Ruth First, journalist, political activist and member of the Communist Party. The story of her life and untimely death is told primarily through her writings, which were banned in South Africa during the apartheid era.

The Voices of Liberation series celebrates the lives and writings of South African and African liberation activists and heroes. The human, social and literary contexts presented in this series have a critical resonance and bearing on where we come from, who we are and how we can choose to shape our destiny.

This series celebrates the lives and writings of South African and African liberation activists and heroes. The human, social and literary contexts presented in this series have a critical resonance and bearing on where we come from, who we are and how we can choose to shape our destiny.

Unique from his contemporaries, Frantz Fanon examined the dangers of post-colonial power. His monumental contribution was posing questions and explaining the curse which national liberation would become for the developing world. Voices of Liberation: Frantz Fanon gives insight into the extraordinary thought and ideas of the man hailed as the 20th centurys most important revolutionary.

Lauretta Ngcobo’s death in November 2015 robbed South Africa and the African continent of a significant literary talent, freedom fighter, and feminist voice. Born in 1931 in Ixopo in the then Natal Province, South Africa Ngcobo was one of three pioneering black South African women writers – the first to publish novels in English from the particular vantage point of black women.

This is the story of one mans single-minded, unremitting, always creative, campaign to provide material support to South Africas liberation struggle, assisting leaders like Nelson Mandela and ordinary township and rural activists, as well as families who suffered because their loved ones were political prisoners, had fled into exile or been killed by the apartheid regime.

In this fascinating collection, full of different textures, narratives and nuances, sixteen authors have begun to tackle the task of writing South Africas history from an overtly feminist perspective, giving readers an opportunity to understand and reflect on debates about real womens power in completely new and fresh ways.

From the perspective of the connections between this history and current conditions, Chinese naval voyages to the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia today are a continuation and development of Zheng He’s voyages to Africa, highlighting China’s status in solving contemporary international issues and safeguarding global maritime security.