Polity Author Articles

David Williams shares the story of Africa's most extensive rail network, enriched with his own anecdotes and being a lifelong rail enthusiast.

This book examines Africa’s strategic partnerships with emerging powers, focusing on insights from the global South, such as BRICS countries, Iran, Turkey, Japan, and South Korea.

Journey Kwantu is inspired by Vusumzi Ngxande’s popular podcast of the same name that delves into South African spiritual identity and beliefs and shows how it has evolved over hundreds of years.

Attacking the Heart of Apartheid: The ANC's MK Special Operations Unit – Yunus Carrim

Since the Zuma presidency weakened crime intelligence, violent crime surged, with murder rates rising over 75%.

Peter Auf Der Heyde unpacks his book 'Death in Pretoria: Untold Stories of Political Activists Executed During Apartheid'

An inspiring personal story that traverses politics, business and personal triumphs, Corporate Newsman reveals the complex layers of a man who dared to dream.

Part 2

Part 1 of the interview

Making a Life explores the dynamic life-making strategies of young men in Zandspruit, an informal settlement in Johannesburg. It offers insights into issues such as urban work, citizenship, un(der)employment and inequality in South Africa, and contributes to a global understandin

In the heart of a village untouched by the world’s chaos, five-year-old Popina took solace in the simple joys of childhood – climbing mango trees, chasing baby baboons, and exploring the fields.

The High Treason Club is the story of the Boeremag, the investigation that brought them down and the subsequent trial, the first of its kind in democratic South Africa. Based on exclusive interviews, as well as thousands of pages of court transcripts and documentary evidence...

This biography of photographer Omar Badsha, who was intimately involved in documenting the struggle against apartheid, is also an intellectual history of protest in South Africa.

'That summer afternoon, I had no way of knowing the book would radically alter my existence. Yet that proved to be the case. A wind that had begun to blow from a faraway place a long time ago had finally caught up with me.'

In 1856, a teenage girl led 40 000 to their deaths in the Eastern Cape. When Treive Nicholas arrived in the 1980s to teach, he was captivated by the Wild Coast. Treive's quest spans continents, from South Africa to England, ending with a shocking revelation closer to home

No Last Place to Rest: Coal Mining and Dispossession in South Africa is an exploration of the ongoing struggles faced by families whose lives have been upended by the relentless expansion of coal mining operations in the Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.

Discover the gripping tale of Together Apart: The Story of Living in Apartheid, that explores South Africa’s struggle against one of history’s most notorious systems of racial segregation. Through the reflections of an elder who lived through it, this book invites readers to dive

In 1913, a secretive American millionaire, who lived on the top floor of the famous Carlton Hotel, had a crazy idea: to make movies in Johannesburg. And not just any movies but the biggest in the world, huge spectacles with elaborate sets, thousands of extras and epic story lines

White supremacy is on the rise in the world once again, often finding expression in acts of extreme violence by young white men.

God’s Waiting Room: Racial Reckoning at Life’s End is a poignant and immersive exploration of life in a South African nursing home, built atop a graveyard left behind by the forced removals of apartheid.

John Stewart unpacks the biography of Sir Herbert Baker

An essential introduction to Fanon’s remarkable life and philosophy. Connecting his writing, psychiatric practice and lived experience in the Caribbean, France and Africa, Gibson highlights Fanon’s philosophical commitments and the vision of revolution that he stood for. Fanon’

When I’m dead, you make sure that ordinary people, ordinary rural women, must be at the forefront of my funeral. I want my rural women to be there at the forefront: people that know me well.’ With great care and meticulous research, Kally Forrest brings us the life of Lydia Komape, also known as Mam Lydia Kompe. Kally travels in Lydia’s footsteps, with family, friends, comrades and ancestors from...

A groundbreaking account that tells the remarkable, untold story of the early days of uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) and the critical international alliances that armed and trained South Africa’s freedom fighters, by a participant. Through vivid and detailed recollections, Sijake transports readers from Sudan and Egypt to Tanganyika and Tashkent, offering a glimpse into the heart of the Pan-African and Sov...