From roughly 1815 to 1867, Faku was the ruler of the Mpondo kingdom, which was located in what is now the northeast section of the Eastern Cape of South Africa. In this biography of the African ruler, Stapleton (history, Trent U., Ontario) assesses Faku's role in state formation and his diplomatic skill in negotiating with the colonial powers of the British and the Boers. Stapleton concludes that Faku was one of the most effective rulers of a Xhosa-speaking population. The ruler's pragmatic approach, in a period of intruding alien beliefs and serious threats to his sovereignty, was one of the main reasons the Mpondo kingdom was the last African state in the sub-continent to come under colonial rule some 30 years after his death. c. Book News Inc.

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The South Africa Reader is an extraordinarily rich guide to the history, culture, and politics of South Africa. With more than eighty absorbing selections, the Reader provides many perspectives on the country's diverse peoples, its first two decades as a democracy, and the forces that have shaped its history and continue to pose challenges to its future, particularly violence, inequality, and racial discrimination. Among the selections are folktales passed down through the centuries, statements by seventeenth-century Dutch colonists, the songs of mine workers, a widow's testimony before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and a photo essay featuring the acclaimed work of Santu Mofokeng. Cartoons, songs, and fiction are juxtaposed with iconic documents, such as "The Freedom Charter" adopted in 1955 by the African National Congress and its allies and Nelson Mandela's "Statement from the Dock" in 1964. Cacophonous voices—those of slaves and indentured workers, African chiefs and kings, presidents and revolutionaries—invite readers into ongoing debates about South Africa's past and present and what exactly it means to be South African.

The classic reference work that provides annually updated information on the countries of the world.

This book offers an account of this understudied conflict dating from the early stage of European colonialism in Africa, and unpacks the complex regional relationships between different communities in the first half of 19th century.