Each essay is preceded by a short biography of the author, a description of his life in prison, and a pencil sketch by a leading black South African artist. The collection begins with a foreword by Desmond Tutu and a contextualising introduction by Mac Maharaj. These essays are far more than historical artefacts. They reveal the thinking that contributed to the South African ‘miracle’ and address issues that remain burningly relevant today.
ISBN: 978 1 86872 354 6 (print)
ISBN: 978 1 77020 131 6 (ePub)
ISBN: 978 1 77020 132 3 (PDF)
Also published by Zebra Press
Red in the Rainbow
Lynn Carneson
Red in the Rainbow is a story of humanity in the face of political turmoil. Fred and Sarah Carneson were fiercely committed members of the Communist Party from the 1930s onwards.
Dedicated activists in brutal times, theirs is a story of political persecution, prolonged separation and enduring love.
Lynn Carneson, their daughter, candidly narrates the terror, the pain and the joy of her extraordinary life as the child of such dedicated freedom fighters, revealing how, despite endless campaigning, financial difficulty, emotional breakdown, banning, torture and imprisonment, the family managed to stay together.
Based on personal recollection as well as letters, official records and newspaper articles, Lynn describes her parents’ underground work and their involvement in watershed events such as the Treason Trial and the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe. She evokes the tension of secretive operations and the family’s constant surveillance by security police, as well as the trauma of her father’s trial and prison sentence. Lynn vividly recounts their life as exiles in London and their long-awaited return to South Africa in 1991.
Red in the Rainbow not only invokes Fred and Sarah’s lifelong political struggles and triumphs in gripping detail, but also tells a poignant human story of endurance, courage and the survival of a marriage against all odds.
ISBN: 978 1 77022 085 0 (print)
ISBN: 978 1 77022 281 6 (ePub)
ISBN: 978 1 77022 282 3 (PDF)
Also published by Zebra Press
Dancing to a Different Rhythm
Zarina Maharaj
Despite many volumes being written about South Africans involved in the struggle for democracy, few are first-hand accounts by the women who stood side by side with their men on the front lines. This book is a woman’s perspective on what life was like in the struggle as she simultaneously raised a family and pursued a career, while striving to retain an identity of her own.
Zarina Maharaj’s story takes us from her childhood in Johannesburg, which set the tone for the rest of her unconventional life, to self-imposed exile in London, Mozambique and Zambia. It tells of her struggle to raise her children alone while her husband led a top-secret underground operation in South Africa, her concerns for his safety, her efforts to have him freed after his capture by Special Branch police, and her approach to the controversies that continue to surround her family today.
Dancing to a Different Rhythm is not only an eyewitness account of life with the ANC-in-exile, but a bittersweet love story set against almost insurmountable odds, and a testimony to the fact that in liberation, freedom can remain as elusive as ever. Above all, it is the story of a woman who, despite numerous sacrifices and continuing adversity, always dances to a rhythm of her own.
ISBN: 978 1 77007 108 7 (print)
ISBN: 978 1 77022 102 4 (ePub)
ISBN: 978 1 77022 103 1 (PDF)
Winnie Mandela Page 40