National Identity and Democracy in Africa

This paper presents a quantitative overview of the South African independent schooling sector. Some popular myths about the sector being largely white and elitist are dispelled by the study. However, there is also evidence of poor performance and new forms of inequity emerging of which role-players in the sector should be aware.

One of the greatest challenges South Africa faces is rural poverty and education. This book graphically illustrates the conditions that make the dreams of a better life for all virtually unrealisable in rural areas. Through the voices of rural people themselves, the reader is told not only what the problems are but also what can and should be done. Emerging Voices is a richly documented portrait of the lives of communities in selected rural areas, and specifically their thoughts and feelings about education. It is a book that can come at no better time as South Africa is poised to launch a major offensive against poverty in rural areas. Education, this book shows, must be a central component of such an initiative. Collectively, the chapters illustrate the complexity, interconnectedness and intractability of the challenges that face rural communities and education in South Africa in particular and less developed countries more generally.

In the form of personal essays, some of South Africa's top Journalists and journalism practitioners spell out the do's and don'ts of their particular speciality, gained by a lifetime of trial and error.

Wangari Maathai was a scholar, writer, environmental activist, human rights champion, and Nobel Prize laureatte. In her life and thought, she tenaciously sought to expose the precarious lives of people across a variety of communities: women, rural communities, political prisoners, Kenyans, Africans, and citizens of the global South saddled with the burdens of international debt.