This is a list I have compiled, in random order, of books I recommend for you to learn more about South Africa (or often, Africa in general). None of these are textbooks or guides but rather enjoyable novels that will give you a greater understanding of life here, of the people, the culture, and the history. My still-to-read list for this category is long and growing by the day, and I've attached it at the bottom of this page. If you are interested in contributing a review in a guest post, please contact me!
Cry The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
A must-read for anyone with an interest in South Africa, its history, and its race relations. Set in a time before apartheid was conceived, it is about the culture clash between rural blacks and their counterparts in the cities, about the conflicts stemming from a lost way of life that cannot be replaced and the inevitable tragedy this loss of values brings about. What I most love about this book is the almost poetic style of the prose, incorporating the essence of the Zulu language very well even though it is written in English. Read more...
Kindle version: Cry, the Beloved Country
West With The Night by Beryl Markham
This memoir is set in 1930s British East Africa (today's Kenya). I love this book for so many reasons. It's beautifully written, for one, and it describes Africa so accurately, even though it was written such a long time ago. A timeless classic. Read more...
The New Global Student by Maya Frost
This book has nothing to do with Africa per se but I consider it a must read for expats with children. It explores the virtues of an international education and diverging from the traditional or "old-school" path of learning. Read more...
Kindle version: The New Global Student: Skip the SAT,
Save Thousands on Tuition, and
Get a Truly International Education
The Power Of One by Bryce Courtenay
If you could only read one book about South Africa, then I would say read this one. It was also made into a movie with Morgan Freeman, but it’s not nearly as good as the book. It’s comparable to the Kite Runner, revealing key aspects of a country’s history and culture through a compelling story you won’t be able to put down until the end.
Movie: The Power of One
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
You have to be an ambitious reader to get through over 700 pages of this, but if you are, it is well worth the time to gain more insights into the anti-apartheid struggle and Nelson Mandela's life. I wonder if this would be a good book to get from the library as an audio book for your car. Read more...
Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
This haunting memoir offers good insights about township life and what it was like for a black kid to grow up during the apartheid years. I feel a special connection to it because it is set in Alexandra and features a youth’s involvement in sports as the ticket to a better life.
Kindle version: Kaffir Boy: The True Story
of a Black Youth's Coming of Age
in Apartheid South Africa
Spud by John van de Ruit
I was made aware of this book by our two boys, who absolutely loved it. It’s actually a series of three books, all set in a South African boys’ boarding school shortly after the end of apartheid. It resembles the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, and, apart from its hilarity, makes you understand not only boarding school life but coming of age in this country. This is actually a rare instance where I think the movie (starring John Cleese) is at least as good or even better than the book, although it seems to be impossible to find in the U.S.
Kindle version: Spud
Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa by Peter Godwin
Another great read about growing up in Southern Africa. The setting for this excellent memoir is actually Rhodesia up until 1980, which of course is now Zimbabwe. But in those days Rhodesia and South Africa resembled each other in many ways and their history is intertwined. This book makes you sad about what was lost in Zimbabwe due to years of civil war and brutal crackdown, and hopeful that South Africa (so far, as some will fret) has chosen a different path.
Kindle version: Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa
Invictus: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation by John Carlin
I actually haven't read this book yet, but put it on my list after reading the reviews, which all agree that the book is much more powerful than the movie (which I did see and liked). The story of the Rugby World Cup is just a thread linking various characters in this account of how South Africa managed to emerge intact from the dangerous years after the end of apartheid to become what it is today. I imagine reading it will further enhance (if that is even possible) my enormous respect for Nelson Mandela and his power not only to forgive but to convince others to do the same and come together as one nation.
Kindle version: Invictus
Movie: Invictus
The Bang Bang Club by Greg Marinovich
Again a book I'm only recommending based on the excellent movie I've seen. There is no better way to understand what South Africa went through in the early 1990s after Nelson Mandela's release before elections were held. Where Invictus shows the "good" side of that process, this book shows the "bad" side of it, through the eyes of a group of photographers who chronicled the violence. It's a haunting story.
Kindle version: The Bang-Bang Club, movie tie-in:
Snapshots From a Hidden War
Movie: The Bang Bang Club
The Native Commissioner by Shaun Johnson
Hauntingly beautiful, this story pretty much picks up where Cry the Beloved Country left off, when racial segregation is formalized into the policy of apartheid. It shows the struggle of someone who is trying to do good while working for an evil regime, becoming more and more conflicted about its morality and his own role in it. Read more...
The Covenant by James Michener
I read this in a previous lifetime, it seems, whenever it was that I was reading all the Michener books, so I can't recall that much detail. But like all Michener's, it was a compelling narrative with lots to learn about South Africa's history, so it should definitely be on this list.
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin
A sequel of sorts to Mukiwa - White Boy in Africa, chronicling Zimbabwe's decline after the end of the Rhodesian civil war, all the way from the hopeful beginnings of majority rule to the bloody brutality of a dictator holding on to the last shreds of power, whatever the cost. Godwin's writing once again is superb, interweaving bits of historic background with his personal story and that of his parents, who refuse to leave the country despite all the horrors engulfing them. Told without rancor or bitterness, it is nevertheless a tale of warning, especially for those in power in South Africa. Read more...
Kindle Version: When a Crocodile Eats the Sun
Twenty Chickens for a Saddle by Robyn Scott
A very charming account of the author's childhood in Botswana during the 1980s and 1990s, and a stark contrast to Mukiwa. Botswana, in those years and even now, is everything Zimbabwe is not - safe, peaceful, harmonious, a success story among African nations. But the story is a good read regardless of the locale, as the family Robyn grows up in is rather eccentric, with a mother who insists on home schooling the children so as not to stifle their creativity and a father who runs a series of flying doctor clinics throughout the countryside. Read more...
Kindle Version: Twenty Chickens for a Saddle
The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam by Lauren Liebenberg
This is also a story about growing up in Rhodesia, though much darker than Mukiwa. It's a fictional account of two sisters, little girls, the older of whom is the protagonist, and the magic of this book lies in the storytelling, the foreboding inevitability of this particular family's decline moving along parallel to the decline of Rhodesia itself. It's not a long read at all and will give you an excellent snapshot of this time and place in history.
Kindle Version: The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam
The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony
If you love the wild and if you love animals, this is a great book for you, but it is also a very interesting story regardless of those attributes. Among much else, it also shows yet another angle from which to better understand South Africa's tribal culture. It's set in the Kwa-Zulu Natal province of South Africa, where the author runs a game reserve in which he introduced a "troubled" herd of elephants some time back. The story of how he brought those elephants back from the brink to peacefully coexist with humans, as well as all the other challenges you face when running a game reserve, is nothing short of amazing.
Kindle Version: The Elephant Whisperer
The Fear by Peter Godwin
Last in the trilogy following Mukiwa and When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, this is by far the most chilling account of what's been happening in Zimbabwe, as it is the most recent, and the most brutal. It's not easy to read this frank description of all the atrocities perpetrated by the murderous regime of Robert Mugabe, but it is nonetheless a must-read if you want to gain more insight into African race relations and politics. It's all interconnected, and to me South Africa bears a great responsibility for what is happening to their neighbor in the North, something you can't just close your eyes to if you live here. Read more...
Kindle Version: The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe
We Are All Zimbabweans Now by James Kilgore
We Are All Zimbabweans Now, unlike When a Crocodile Eats the Sun or The Fear, is a work of fiction. It's a thrilling story about Zimbabwe in the early 80s, how Mugabe managed to hoodwink most of the West into believing he was great, how African politics is even murkier than the usual morass of politics, how it is impossible to know whom to trust, and how the choice between right and wrong is not always an easy one.
Books I have yet to read:
A Traitor's Heart by Riaan Malan
Country of my Skull by Antje Krog
On the Back Roads by Dana Shyman
Mma Ramotse series by Alexander McCall Smith
Dance with a Poor Man's Daughter by Pamela Jooste
Red Dust by Gillian Slovo
A Child Called Freedom by Carol Lee
Call me Woman by Ellen Kuzwayo
Bloodlines by Elleke Boehmer
The World Unseen by Shamim Sarif
The Smell of Apples by Mark Behr
Eggs to Lay Chickens to Hatch Shirley by Chris van Wyk
Goodness and Mercy by Chris van Wyk
Diepsloot by Anton Harber
More than Just a Game by Chuck Korr
...and anything by Nadine Gordimer, J.M. Coetzee, Andre Brink, Marlene van Niekerk, Malla Nunn, Jassy Mackenzie, and Deon Meyer
Search for these books on Amazon:
A must-read for anyone with an interest in South Africa, its history, and its race relations. Set in a time before apartheid was conceived, it is about the culture clash between rural blacks and their counterparts in the cities, about the conflicts stemming from a lost way of life that cannot be replaced and the inevitable tragedy this loss of values brings about. What I most love about this book is the almost poetic style of the prose, incorporating the essence of the Zulu language very well even though it is written in English. Read more...
Kindle version: Cry, the Beloved Country
West With The Night by Beryl Markham
This memoir is set in 1930s British East Africa (today's Kenya). I love this book for so many reasons. It's beautifully written, for one, and it describes Africa so accurately, even though it was written such a long time ago. A timeless classic. Read more...
This book has nothing to do with Africa per se but I consider it a must read for expats with children. It explores the virtues of an international education and diverging from the traditional or "old-school" path of learning. Read more...
Kindle version: The New Global Student: Skip the SAT,
Save Thousands on Tuition, and
Get a Truly International Education
If you could only read one book about South Africa, then I would say read this one. It was also made into a movie with Morgan Freeman, but it’s not nearly as good as the book. It’s comparable to the Kite Runner, revealing key aspects of a country’s history and culture through a compelling story you won’t be able to put down until the end.
Movie: The Power of One
You have to be an ambitious reader to get through over 700 pages of this, but if you are, it is well worth the time to gain more insights into the anti-apartheid struggle and Nelson Mandela's life. I wonder if this would be a good book to get from the library as an audio book for your car. Read more...
This haunting memoir offers good insights about township life and what it was like for a black kid to grow up during the apartheid years. I feel a special connection to it because it is set in Alexandra and features a youth’s involvement in sports as the ticket to a better life.
Kindle version: Kaffir Boy: The True Story
of a Black Youth's Coming of Age
in Apartheid South Africa
Spud by John van de Ruit
I was made aware of this book by our two boys, who absolutely loved it. It’s actually a series of three books, all set in a South African boys’ boarding school shortly after the end of apartheid. It resembles the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, and, apart from its hilarity, makes you understand not only boarding school life but coming of age in this country. This is actually a rare instance where I think the movie (starring John Cleese) is at least as good or even better than the book, although it seems to be impossible to find in the U.S.
Kindle version: Spud
Another great read about growing up in Southern Africa. The setting for this excellent memoir is actually Rhodesia up until 1980, which of course is now Zimbabwe. But in those days Rhodesia and South Africa resembled each other in many ways and their history is intertwined. This book makes you sad about what was lost in Zimbabwe due to years of civil war and brutal crackdown, and hopeful that South Africa (so far, as some will fret) has chosen a different path.
Kindle version: Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa
I actually haven't read this book yet, but put it on my list after reading the reviews, which all agree that the book is much more powerful than the movie (which I did see and liked). The story of the Rugby World Cup is just a thread linking various characters in this account of how South Africa managed to emerge intact from the dangerous years after the end of apartheid to become what it is today. I imagine reading it will further enhance (if that is even possible) my enormous respect for Nelson Mandela and his power not only to forgive but to convince others to do the same and come together as one nation.
Kindle version: Invictus
Movie: Invictus
Again a book I'm only recommending based on the excellent movie I've seen. There is no better way to understand what South Africa went through in the early 1990s after Nelson Mandela's release before elections were held. Where Invictus shows the "good" side of that process, this book shows the "bad" side of it, through the eyes of a group of photographers who chronicled the violence. It's a haunting story.
Kindle version: The Bang-Bang Club, movie tie-in:
Snapshots From a Hidden War
Movie: The Bang Bang Club
The Native Commissioner by Shaun Johnson
Hauntingly beautiful, this story pretty much picks up where Cry the Beloved Country left off, when racial segregation is formalized into the policy of apartheid. It shows the struggle of someone who is trying to do good while working for an evil regime, becoming more and more conflicted about its morality and his own role in it. Read more...
The Covenant by James Michener
I read this in a previous lifetime, it seems, whenever it was that I was reading all the Michener books, so I can't recall that much detail. But like all Michener's, it was a compelling narrative with lots to learn about South Africa's history, so it should definitely be on this list.
A sequel of sorts to Mukiwa - White Boy in Africa, chronicling Zimbabwe's decline after the end of the Rhodesian civil war, all the way from the hopeful beginnings of majority rule to the bloody brutality of a dictator holding on to the last shreds of power, whatever the cost. Godwin's writing once again is superb, interweaving bits of historic background with his personal story and that of his parents, who refuse to leave the country despite all the horrors engulfing them. Told without rancor or bitterness, it is nevertheless a tale of warning, especially for those in power in South Africa. Read more...
Kindle Version: When a Crocodile Eats the Sun
A very charming account of the author's childhood in Botswana during the 1980s and 1990s, and a stark contrast to Mukiwa. Botswana, in those years and even now, is everything Zimbabwe is not - safe, peaceful, harmonious, a success story among African nations. But the story is a good read regardless of the locale, as the family Robyn grows up in is rather eccentric, with a mother who insists on home schooling the children so as not to stifle their creativity and a father who runs a series of flying doctor clinics throughout the countryside. Read more...
Kindle Version: Twenty Chickens for a Saddle
This is also a story about growing up in Rhodesia, though much darker than Mukiwa. It's a fictional account of two sisters, little girls, the older of whom is the protagonist, and the magic of this book lies in the storytelling, the foreboding inevitability of this particular family's decline moving along parallel to the decline of Rhodesia itself. It's not a long read at all and will give you an excellent snapshot of this time and place in history.
Kindle Version: The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam
If you love the wild and if you love animals, this is a great book for you, but it is also a very interesting story regardless of those attributes. Among much else, it also shows yet another angle from which to better understand South Africa's tribal culture. It's set in the Kwa-Zulu Natal province of South Africa, where the author runs a game reserve in which he introduced a "troubled" herd of elephants some time back. The story of how he brought those elephants back from the brink to peacefully coexist with humans, as well as all the other challenges you face when running a game reserve, is nothing short of amazing.
Kindle Version: The Elephant Whisperer
Last in the trilogy following Mukiwa and When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, this is by far the most chilling account of what's been happening in Zimbabwe, as it is the most recent, and the most brutal. It's not easy to read this frank description of all the atrocities perpetrated by the murderous regime of Robert Mugabe, but it is nonetheless a must-read if you want to gain more insight into African race relations and politics. It's all interconnected, and to me South Africa bears a great responsibility for what is happening to their neighbor in the North, something you can't just close your eyes to if you live here. Read more...
Kindle Version: The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe
We Are All Zimbabweans Now, unlike When a Crocodile Eats the Sun or The Fear, is a work of fiction. It's a thrilling story about Zimbabwe in the early 80s, how Mugabe managed to hoodwink most of the West into believing he was great, how African politics is even murkier than the usual morass of politics, how it is impossible to know whom to trust, and how the choice between right and wrong is not always an easy one.
Books I have yet to read:
A Traitor's Heart by Riaan Malan
Country of my Skull by Antje Krog
On the Back Roads by Dana Shyman
Mma Ramotse series by Alexander McCall Smith
Dance with a Poor Man's Daughter by Pamela Jooste
Red Dust by Gillian Slovo
A Child Called Freedom by Carol Lee
Call me Woman by Ellen Kuzwayo
Bloodlines by Elleke Boehmer
The World Unseen by Shamim Sarif
The Smell of Apples by Mark Behr
Eggs to Lay Chickens to Hatch Shirley by Chris van Wyk
Goodness and Mercy by Chris van Wyk
Diepsloot by Anton Harber
More than Just a Game by Chuck Korr
...and anything by Nadine Gordimer, J.M. Coetzee, Andre Brink, Marlene van Niekerk, Malla Nunn, Jassy Mackenzie, and Deon Meyer
Search for these books on Amazon:
