Many South Africans are struggling to come to terms with the new conditions in their country, in a world increasingly finding its way forward through the precepts of global capitalism. The majority of South Africans are contributing more than ever before to structuring their society, forging and assuming a multiplicity of  new identities which together form what has come to capture much of the potential and many of  the  pitfalls facing the vision of a much-needed new, broader South African identity. They touch upon and reinterpret from a fresh perspective a wide variety of South African society relevant to identity formation.

Many South Africans are struggling to come to terms with the new conditions in their country, in a world increasingly finding its way forward through the precepts of global capitalism. The majority of South Africans are contributing more than ever before to structuring their society, forging and assuming a multiplicity of  new identities which together form what has come to capture much of the potential and many of  the  pitfalls facing the vision of a much-needed new, broader South African identity.

This collection of photographic essays captures another important, and in many ways unique, aspect of contemporary South African photography - the power of a highly contested, yet fundamentally cumulative, tradition of photographic practice from the 1950s to the present. Presently, four distinct generations of photographers continue to produce work, exhibit, publish, and significantly influence one another.
Reciprocity and engagement, rather than journalistic or aesthetic compulsion, animates some of the most compelling photographic storytelling in the Bonani Africa Exhibition.

Soft cover, 168 pages

ISBN978-0-620-48014-7

Publisher: SAHO

This much-awaited volume uncovers the long-lost pages of the major African multi-lingual newspaper, abantu-Batho. Founded in 1912 by African National Congress (ANC) convener Pixley Seme, with assistance from the Swazi Queen, it was published up until1931, attracting the cream of African politicians, journalists, and poets Mqhayi, Notsisi Mgqwetho, and Grendon. In its pages burning issues of the day were articulated alongside cultural by-ways.

The People’s Paper – comprising both essays and an anthology – explores the complex movements and individuals that emerged in the almost twenty years of its publications. The essays contribute rich, new material to provide clearer insights into South African politics and intellectual life. The anthology unveils a judicious selection of never-before-published columns from the paper spanning every year of its life and drawn from repositories on three continents. Abantu-Butho had a regional and disciplines, The People’s Paper transcends established historiographical frontiers to fill a lacuna that scholars have long lamented.

The African National Congress is light years beyond the liberation movement of old. It remains a juggernaut, but its control and dominance are no longer watertight. The ANC lives the contradictions of weakness, cracks and factions while retaining its colossal status. As a party-movement it draws on its liberation credentials, and extracts immense power from its deep anchorage in South Africa’s people. It is immersed in electoral politics that marks the state of its overwhelming power cyclically. As government the ANC is the object of protest, but not protest designed to bring the ruling party to its knees. The ANC is in command of the state, yet fails to definitively counter the deficits that make South Africa’s democracy seem so diluted. Its incredulous and thus far trusting supporters condemn but only rarely punish deployees who do not ‘pass through the eye of the needle’.

The ANC and the Regeneration of Political Power unpacks those contradictions. It focuses on four faces of the ANC’s political power – the organization, the people, political parties and election, and policy and government – and explores how the ANC has acted since 1994 to continuously regenerate its power.

By 2011-12 the power configurations around the ANC were converging to a conjuncture holding vexing uncertainties. This book presents insight into how South African politics – in many ways synonymous with the politics of the ANC – is likely to unfold in years and possibly decades to come.