South African War

The Great Boer War (1899-1902) - more properly the Great Anglo-Boer War - was one of the last romantic wars, pitting a sturdy, stubborn pioneer people fighting to establish the independence of their tiny nation against the British Empire at its peak of power and self-confidence. It was fought in the barren vastness of the South African veldt, and it produced in almost equal measure extraordinary feats of personal heroism, unbelievable examples of folly and stupidity, and many incidents of humor and tragedy.

It is December 1878, and war looms on the horizon in South Africa. British high commissioner Sir Henry Bartle-Frere seeks to dismantle the powerful neighboring kingdom of the Zulus and uses an incursion along the disputed border as his justification for war. He issues an impossible ultimatum to the Zulu king, Cetshwayo, demanding he disband his armies and pay massive reparations. With a heavy heart, the king prepares his nation for war against their former allies.

The story of the Confederate States of America, the proslavery, antidemocratic nation created by white Southern slaveholders to protect their property, has been told many times in heroic and martial narratives. Now, however, Stephanie McCurry tells a very different tale of the Confederate experience. Confederate Reckoning is the startling story of this epic political battle in which women and slaves helped to decide the fate of the Confederacy and the outcome of the Civil War.

“I don’t know if it was the shouts, the gunfire, the dogs barking or a combination of all three which woke me, but the shock was such that I almost fell out of bed in my haste to rejoin the conscious. I was naked, save for the pair of shorts I always wore in bed, and had no time to dress. I didn’t bother with the light. As I awkwardly pushed my feet into the pair of flip-flops, I grabbed for the pistol belt. I heard my father shout something while I was fumbling to fasten the belt around my waist. My bedroom door suddenly opened. My god! The terrs are in the house?! I was reaching, ...

New York Times best-selling author Kristen Green draws on years of research to tell the extraordinary and little-known story of young Mary Lumpkin, an enslaved woman who blazed a path of liberation for thousands. She was forced to have the children of a brutal slave trader and live on the premises of his slave jail, known as the “Devil’s Half Acre”. When she inherited the jail after the death of her slaveholder, she transformed it into “God’s Half Acre”, a school where Black men could fulfill their dreams.

Growing up in suburban Pretoria, Steve Joubert dreamed of a career as a pilot. After undergoing SAAF pilot training, a freak injury put an end to his hopes of flying fighter jets. Instead he learned to fly the versatile Alouette helicopter. He had barely qualified as a chopper pilot when he was sent to the border, where he flew missions over Namibia and southern Angola to supply air cover to troops on the ground.

Most Australians have heard of the Boer War of 1899 to 1902 and of Harry 'Breaker' Morant, a figure who rivals Ned Kelly as an archetypal Australian folk hero. Born in England and emigrating to Queensland in 1883 in his early 20s, Morant was a charming but reckless man who established a reputation as a rider, polo player and writer. He submitted ballads to The Bulletin that were published under the name 'The Breaker' and counted Banjo Paterson as a friend.

Bongani is the enchanting story of a young Zulu boy who loses his father in a tribal battle. He is entrusted to deliver a sacred half lion's tooth to a distant relative. The setting is over a 100 years ago during the bitter Anglo-Boer war that raged across the scorched plains of South Africa. On Bongani's journey he meets up with three friends, a Boer, an American and an Irish lass, each with their own agendas. Together, they face the might of the British forces in the Boer/English conflict and share in many incredible adventures. There is also an endearing love triangle, only revealed in ...

Cows wandering on roads are an everyday hazard in rural South Africa. They appear suddenly, and their movements are unpredictable. Hitting them can have dire consequences. Dodging Cows is one man's journey from carefree childhood to lazy student to conscripted soldier to passionate farmer, buffeted by the fault lines in South Africa’s history. Gritty and uncompromisingly authentic, this thought provoking novel stirs all the emotions. Part One Follow the adventures of a young boy, Luke Ayres growing up on a farm in southern Natal barely aware of a country divided along racial lines. Part ...

James Anderson critically reinterprets the history of southern Black education from Reconstruction to the Great Depression. By placing Black schooling within a political, cultural, and economic context, he offers fresh insights into Black commitment to education, the peculiar significance of Tuskegee Institute, and the conflicting goals of various philanthropic groups, among other matters.

In January 1879, three columns of British soldiers under the command of Lord Chelmsford, commenced the invasion of the Zulu Kingdom. The southern No. 1 Column led by Colonel Charles Pearson advances on the old mission station at Eshowe. Their intent is to establish a fort and supply depot from which to support the centre No. 3 Column’s advance on the Zulu royal kraal at Ulundi. As the vast column of British soldiers and their African allies slogs its way across the coastal hills, the incessant rain and threat of typhoid promise to be as fearful a nemesis as the lurking armies of Zulu warriors.

The Boer War was the defining conflict of South African history and one of the most important conflicts in the history of the British Empire. Naturally, complicated geopolitics underscored it, going back centuries. In fact, the European history of South Africa began with the 1652 arrival of a small Dutch flotilla in Table Bay, at the southern extremity of the African continent, which made landfall with a view to establishing a victualing station to service passing Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) ships.

In the aftermath of the Battles of Khambula and Gingindlovu, a lull fell over the war-torn Zulu Kingdom. Though British forces under Lord Chelmsford emerged victorious during both encounters, earlier defeats, casualties, and supply shortages required them to withdraw back into Natal. Now with waves of long-awaited reinforcements arriving, Chelmsford prepares to launch a second invasion of Zululand. Death and destruction have taken their toll on the Zulu people. Thousands of families mourn for their loved ones, while refugees flee from the devastation of the border regions.

From the author of The Power of One comes a new novel about Africa. The time is 1939. White South Africa is a deeply divided nation with many of the Afrikaner people fanatically opposed to the English. The world is also on the brink of war, and South Africa elects to fight for the Allied cause against Germany. Six-year-old Tom Fitzsaxby finds himself in The Boys Farm, an orphanage in a remote town in the high mountains, where the Afrikaners side fiercely with Hitler's Germany.

Freedom and Opportunity is a narrative about the remarkable life and times of Robert Smalls. Born a slave in Low Country South Carolina, Smalls managed to plan and orchestrate a daring escape from involuntary servitude aboard a purloined Confederate steamship in May 1862. For the duration of the Civil War, Smalls served the Union military as a pilot and ship Captain. After the Civil War, Smalls became an affluent businessman and community leader. Through rigorous study the former slave achieved full literacy and developed polished oratorical skills. Smalls eventually entered the world of ...

Jacobus van der Merwe was a covert operative for apartheid South Africa, but now works as a private military contractor. When a ruthless arms dealer threatens to unleash chaos across Africa, Jacobus must confront the demons of his past to stop him. Utilizing his elite skills, Jacobus goes undercover to infiltrate the arms network, leading him on a globe-trotting mission from the streets of Johannesburg to the jungles of the Congo. However, the deeper he goes, the more Jacobus uncovers a shocking conspiracy that will push him to the limits of his abilities. To save countless lives, he must ...

In January 1942 19 year old Ronald is in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) training to become a pilot at the Elementary Training Flying School Induna, near Bulawayo. He is very homesick for his girlfriend Joyce (who he marries in 1943) & his family. Ultimately unsuccessful, he is discharged from the RAF in December 1942 after returning via troop ship to Glasgow in late June.Three other diaries, 1937, 1944, 1945 have survived (but are not currently published) which show he was still residing in Port Sunlight, Wirral both before and subsequent to this diary.

The modern history of Africa was, until very recently, written on behalf of the indigenous races by the white man, who had forcefully entered the continent during a particularly hubristic and dynamic phase of European history. In 1884, Prince Otto von Bismarck, the German chancellor, brought the plenipotentiaries of all major powers of Europe together to deal with Africa's colonization in such a manner as to avoid provocation of war.

The State of Jones is a true story about the South during the Civil War, the real South. Not the South that has been mythologized in novels and movies, but an authentic, hardscrabble place where poor men were forced to fight a rich man's war for slavery and cotton. In Jones County, Mississippi, a farmer named Newton Knight led his neighbors, white and black alike, in an insurrection against the Confederacy at the height of the Civil War.

Sweet Drop in Africa: Charity shows Emily Hobhouse's determination to ameliorate some of the cruelty the army has perpetrated in South Africa. She uses her writing skills to motivate relatives and friends to support the relief effort for the women and children who experience the horrendous living conditions in the concentration camps. The letters she receives from South Africa show the conditions in the camps are deteriorating faster than Emily had imagined. Emily decides to go to the camps. She travels to Cape Town and finds that getting to the camps is extremely difficult. Emily finally ...