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The Bram Fischer Waltz: A play
Par Harry Kalmer. 2016
Although widely known as the Afrikaner communist who saved Nelson Mandela from the gallows, very little is known about Bram…
Fischer the man. Fischer was a respected Senior Advocate at the Johannesburg Bar who chose to side with the oppressed and went underground to join the armed struggle. He was arrested on 5 November 1965 after almost ten months on the run. ‘I owed it to the political prisoners, to the banished, to the silenced and to those under house arrest not to remain a spectator, but to act.’ These words spoken by Bram Fischer in his statement from the dock during his treason trial were followed by a life sentence. Scion of a proudly Afrikaner family that included a prime minister and a judge president of the Orange Free State, he would seem to be an unlikely hero of the liberation movement. Uncompromising in his political beliefs and driven by an unshakeable integrity and a commitment to the dream of a non-racial democracy, Fischer was also humorous, fun-loving and a family man, devoted to his wife and children. The many facets of this remarkable man are reflected in The Bram Fischer Waltz, Harry Kalmer’s lyrical tribute. A brief and intense work, with the protagonist as narrator, this one person play takes the audience through a roller coaster of emotions as it tells Fischer’s story. The play won The Standard Bank Silver Ovation Award when it premiered in English at 2013 the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and was awarded the Adelaide Tambo Award for Human Rights in the Arts in 2014. The text is supplemented by a foreword by George Bizos and an introduction by the playwright, reflecting on the path that led him to write the play, and an afterword by Yvonne Malan, entitled ‘The Power of Moral Courage’.Missing: A play
Par John Kani. 2015
Missing is the story of Robert Khalipa, an ANC cadre living in exile, who is very senior in the organisation…
but is left out of the negotiations and almost forgotten in Sweden. Robert has a wealthy Swedish wife, Anna, and they have a daughter who is a practising doctor in a hospital in Stockholm. There is also Robert’s protégé Peter Tshabalala, junior in the organisation, yet he gets the call to return to South African to join the democratic government. What follows is a story of conspiracies, lies, back stabbing and disappointments. Robert and his family are faced with the challenges of a South Africa that has changed radically from the one he remembers from more than thirty years ago. The government, in his opinion, does not seem to uphold the principles enshrined in the Freedom Charter. There is also conflict within his own family. Robert wants to stay in South Africa, while his wife and daughter want to go back to Sweden. Their love is tested to breaking point and difficult decisions have to be made by every individual. As with Kani’s very successful and often-performed previous play, Nothing but the Truth, the ambiguities of freedom and of personal commitment are explored in this play.Ulwembu: A play
Par Empatheatre, The Big Brotherhood. 2018
An empathetic theatrical journey through the spider's web of addictionDanger stalks the township of KwaMashu, near Durban. It comes in…
the form of whoonga (known as nyaope elsewhere), a toxic mix of B-grade heroin, rat poison and other chemical components that almost immediately sucks its users into a vortex of addiction and the crime, deception and personal tragedy that goes with it. Caught up in the web, the ulwembu of the title (spider’s web in isiZulu), presided over by the dealer, Bongani Mseleku, are Lieutenant Portia Mthembu, a police officer in the frontline of the fight against the scourge; her son Sipho; his friend, Andile Nxumalo, and Emmanuel Abreu, a Mozambique-born spaza shopkeeper. As it traces Sipho’s descent from talented scholar and aspirant poet and songwriter to suicidal addict, Ulwembu explores the effects of addiction not only on those who suffer from it but on communities, families and the police, both those who try to control the murderous trade and those who benefit from it. Using a process they have dubbed Empatheatre, The Big Brotherhood, Neil Coppen, Dylan McGarry and Mpume Mtombeni, aim to share ‘people’s real-life stories, with the intention to inspire and develop a greater empathy and kindness in spaces where there is conflict or injustice’. Ulwembu is the dramatic result of their efforts.Mooi Street and Other Moves
Par Paul Slabolepszy. 2017
Tin Bucket Drum: A play
Par Neil Coppen. 2016
Through a lyrical script and the creative use of lighting and sound, one woman, the Narrator, succeeds in evoking a…
host of characters as this allegorical tale of oppression and liberation plays itself out. On a 'cold and starless night' a young pregnant widow, Nandi, arrives in Tin Town, a bleak, drought-stricken place ruled by silence and fear. Little do the inhabitants know that Nandi is carrying the baby who will, in time, change that. Taken in by Umkhulu (grandfather), whose father established the tin bucket factory that gave the town its name, Nandi gives birth to Nomvula, the Little Drummer Girl. Umkhulu remembers a past when 'people were free to sing and dance', when the rain came and the townsfolk held up their tin buckets to catch the precious, life-giving drops. And then came the Silent Sir and his spokesman, the Censor, and the town went silent. As the singing and dancing and drumming dried up, so did the rain. The tin bucket factory closed, taking with it the life and purpose of Tin Town?s inhabitants. Only the Little Drummer Girl can bring back that life, but at enormous personal cost. In Tin Bucket Drum, Neil Coppen achieves a small miracle. Through his lyrical script and the creative use of lighting and sound, one woman, the Narrator, succeeds in evoking a host of characters as this allegorical tale of oppression and liberation plays itself out. It is a story that offers a host of lessons for many places and many times.Acts of Transgression: Contemporary Live Art in South Africa
Par Catherine Boulle. 2019
Fifteen writers explore the experimental, interdisciplinary and radically transgressive field of contemporary live art in South Africa, focusing on a…
wide range of perspectives, personalities and theoretical concerns Contemporary South African society is chronologically ‘post’ apartheid, but it continues to grapple with material redress, land redistribution and systemic racism. Acts of Transgression represents the complexity of this moment in the rich potential of a performative art form that transcends disciplinary boundaries and aesthetic conventions. The contributors, who are all significantly involved in the discipline of performance art, probe its intersection with crisis and socio-political turbulence, shifting notions of identity and belonging, embodied trauma and loss. Narratives of the past and visions for the future are interrogated through memory and the archive, thus destabilising entrenched colonial systems.Collectively analysing the work of more than 25 contemporary South African artists, including Athi-Patra Ruga, Mohau Modisakeng, Steven Cohen, Dean Hutton, Mikhael Subotzsky, Tracey Rose and Donna Kukama, among others, the analysis is accompanied by a visual record of more than 50 photographs. For those working in the fields of theatre, performance studies and art, this is a must-have collection of critical essays on a burgeoning and exciting field of contemporary South African research.Suddenly the Storm: A play
Par Paul Slabolepszy. 2017
A smouldering dark comedy that suddenly leads to startling revelations, rage and recrimination. Combative, volatile, constantly on the verge of…
exploding, Dwayne and Shanell Combrink are two halves of a white South African working-class couple, living an uneasy truce as they struggle with the day-to-day trials of scraping together a living and dreaming competing dreams. But beneath Dwayne's angry, violent exterior lies the heartbreak that governs his attitude to life. Dwayne is a man in mourning. Shanell believes his current level of despair was sparked by the death of his childhood friend and recent work partner, Jonas, but the source of his mourning and anger lies much further back. When the elegant and self-contained Namhla Gumede, born on 16 June 1976, arrives on their doorstep seeking answers to questions that have remained buried for 40 years, Dwayne and Shanell finally find out the truth. What starts as a smouldering dark comedy suddenly turns into a roller-coaster ride of startling revelations, rage and recrimination, before the storm finally breaks.Smart Grid Security: An End-to-End View of Security in the New Electrical Grid
Par Gilbert N. Sorebo, Michael C. Echols. 2012
The Smart Grid has the potential to revolutionize electricity delivery systems, and the security of its infrastructure is a vital…
concern not only for cyber-security practitioners, engineers, policy makers, and utility executives, but also for the media and consumers. Smart Grid Security: An End-to-End View of Security in the New Electrical Grid exTargeted Violence: A Statistical and Tactical Analysis of Assassinations, Contract Killings, and Kidnappings
Par Glenn P. McGovern. 2010
Drawn from case examples of incidents from around the world, Targeted Violence: A Statistical and Tactical Analysis of Assassinations, Contract…
Killings, and Kidnappings is the most complete resource of information on the attack methodologies, tactics used, and groups responsible for targeted killings and kidnappings. The author, a former SWAT andChina's Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy
Par Peter Martin. 2021
The untold story of China's rise as a global superpower is chronicled through the diplomatic shock troops that connect Beijing…
to the world. China's Civilian Army charts China's transformation from an isolated and impoverished communist state to a global superpower from the perspective of those on the front line: China's diplomats. They give a rare perspective on the greatest geopolitical drama of the last half century. In the early days of the People's Republic, diplomats were highly-disciplined, committed communists who feared revealing any weakness to the threatening capitalist world. Remarkably, the model that revolutionary leader Zhou Enlai established continues to this day despite the massive changes the country has undergone in recent decades. Little is known or understood about the inner workings of the Chinese government as the country bursts onto the world stage, as the world's second largest economy and an emerging military superpower. China's Diplomats embody its battle between insecurity and self-confidence, internally and externally. To this day, Chinese diplomats work in pairs so that one can always watch the other for signs of ideological impurity. They're often dubbed China's "wolf warriors" for their combative approach to asserting Chinese interests. Drawing for the first time on the memoirs of more than a hundred retired diplomats as well as author Peter Martin's first-hand reporting as a journalist in Beijing, this groundbreaking book blends history with current events to tease out enduring lessons about the kind of power China is set to become. It is required reading for anyone who wants to understand China's quest for global power, as seen from the inside.The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World
Par Patrick Wyman. 2021
The creator of the hit podcast series Tides of History and Fall of Rome explores the four explosive decades between…
1490 and 1530, bringing to life the dramatic and deeply human story of how the West was reborn. In the bestselling tradition of The Swerve and A Distant Mirror, The Verge tells the story of a period that marked a decisive turning point for both European and world history. Here, author Patrick Wyman examines two complementary and contradictory sides of the same historical coin: the world-altering implications of the developments of printed mass media, extreme taxation, exploitative globalization, humanistic learning, gunpowder warfare, and mass religious conflict in the long term, and their intensely disruptive consequences in the short-term.As told through the lives of ten real people—from famous figures like Christopher Columbus and wealthy banker Jakob Fugger to a ruthless small-time merchant and a one-armed mercenary captain—The Verge illustrates how their lives, and the times in which they lived, set the stage for an unprecedented globalized future.Over an intense forty-year period, the seeds for the so-called "Great Divergence" between Western Europe and the rest of the globe would be planted. From Columbus's voyage across the Atlantic to Martin Luther's sparking the Protestant Reformation, the foundations of our own, recognizably modern world came into being.For the past 500 years, historians, economists, and the policy-oriented have argued which of these individual developments best explains the West's rise from backwater periphery to global dominance. As The Verge presents it, however, the answer is far more nuanced.How the World Hunger Problem Was not Solved (Routledge Studies in Modern History)
Par Christian Gerlach. 2024
The world food crisis (1972–1975) gave rise to new development concepts. To eradicate world hunger, small peasants were supposed to…
use ‘modern’ inputs like high-yielding seeds, fertilizer, pesticides and irrigation. This would turn subsistence producers into business owners, transform rural areas, invigorate national economies and the crisis-stricken world economy and thus stabilize capitalism.Together with an in-depth account of the world food crisis, this book analyses how this global scheme largely failed. It shows its diverse initiators, their reasoning and motives, its political breakthrough, the degrees to which it was implemented globally and nationally in the following decades and its socioeconomic effects in rural areas. Despite internationally coordinated policies and coercive means, the scheme failed on all levels: situation analysis, design, policies, incapable institutions (including big business), implementation and peasants’ responses. Selective realization in certain regions and for certain crops and the appropriation of funds by local elites often aggravated inequality and hunger. Case studies are about Bangladesh, Indonesia, Tanzania and Mali. The book shows limits to global social engineering, imperialism and state control.It is aimed at students, scholars, activists and non-specialists interested in development and the world food problem.Cecily N. Zander’s The Army under Fire is a pathbreaking study focusing on the fierce political debates over the size…
and use of military forces in the United States during the Civil War era. It examines how prominent political figures interacted with the professional army and how those same leaders misunderstood the value of regular soldiers fighting to reunify the fractured nation.This book presents a comprehensive narrative and historical analysis of the political and economic relations between China and Italy from…
the Treaty of Friendship and Commerce signed in October 1866 to the Second World War. Utilizing primary sources found in public and private archives, the volume acknowledges the relevance of eminent figures and their roles and contributions in developing the relations between Italy and China. It provides an extensive presentation of the close relations between the Chinese nationalist and Italian fascist regimes and their interaction in the interwar period. The Italian and Chinese governments had a prolonged political and economic dialogue, which lasted for almost a decade and involved the active mediation of politicians, economists, academics, and professionals at different levels and in diverse fields. International historiography mostly neglects the relevance of this period in broader historical contexts. This work overcomes the unjustified oversight and examines, with reliable primary sources, the relevance of this extraordinary season of international relations. With a valuable exploration of a wealth of sources, this book provides a new opportunity of reflection for scholars and students interested in Sino-European relations and international history.Taking Berlin: The Bloody Race to Defeat the Third Reich
Par Martin Dugard. 2022
From Martin Dugard, #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Bill O'Reilly's Killing series, comes a nonfiction thriller about the…
race between the Allies and Soviets to conquer the heart of Nazi Germany.&“Gripping, popular history at its page-turning best.&”—Alex Kershaw • &“With the precision of a smart bomb, Martin Dugard puts the reader directly into the campaign to destroy Hitler.&”—Bill O&’Reilly • &“Spectacular . . . Taking Berlin is certain to be a massive hit with fans of both history and thrillers alike.&”—Mark Greaney, bestselling author of the Gray Man series Fall, 1944. Paris has been liberated, saved from destruction, but this diversion on the road to Berlin has given the Germans time to regroup. The American and British armies press on from the west, facing the enemy time and again in the Hurtgen Forest, during the Market Garden invasion, and at the Battle of the Bulge, all while American general George Patton and British field marshal Bernard Montgomery vie for supremacy as the Allies&’ top battlefield commander. Meanwhile, the Soviets begin to squeeze Hitler&’s crumbling Reich from the east. Led by Generals Zhukov and Konev, the Red Army launches millions of soldiers, backed by tanks, artillery, and warplanes, against the Germans, leaving death and scorched earth in their wake, pushing the Wehrmacht back toward their fatherland. As both the Anglo-American alliance and the Soviets set their sights on claiming the capital city of Nazi Germany, Churchill seeks to ensure Britain&’s place in a new world divided by Roosevelt&’s America and Stalin&’s Soviet Union. With a sweeping cast of historical figures, Taking Berlin is a pulse-pounding race into the final, desperate months of the Second World War and toward the fiery destruction of the Thousand-Year-Reich, chronicling a moment in history when allies become adversaries.Geronimo's Story of His Life: As Told to S. M. Barrett
Par Geronimo, S. M. Barrett. 1906
A pivotal piece of nineteenth-century Native American history from a tireless warrior seeking justice for his people. Storied leader of…
the Bedonkohe band of the Chiricahua Apache tribe, Geronimo led resistance against Mexican and American troops seeking to drive the Apache from their land during the 1850s through the 1880s. In 1886, he finally surrendered to the US Army and became a prisoner of war. Although he would never return to his homeland, Geronimo became an iconic figure in Native American society and even had the honor of riding with President Theodore Roosevelt in his 1905 inaugural parade. That same year, he agreed to share his story with Stephen M. Barrett, a superintendent of education from Lawton, Oklahoma. In Geronimo&’s own words, this is his fascinating life story. Beginning with an Apache creation myth, he discusses his youth and family, the bloody conflicts between Mexico and the United States, and his two decades of life as a prisoner. Revered by his people and feared by his enemies, Geronimo narrates his memoir with a compassionate and compelling voice that still resonates today.Drama: A Pocket Anthology
Par R. S. Gwynn. 2006
The perfect alternative to lengthy drama anthologies, this brief, affordable collection of the discipline's most widely taught plays provides a…
concise, but complete, introduction to the study of drama. In keeping with the objectives of the Penguin Academics series, Drama: A Pocket Anthology offers highly respected playwrights and a quality trade-format book at a very affordable price. This expanded edition features five new selections--including plays by Paula Vogel and Athol Fugard--and a revised, updated section on "Writing about Drama."Smoke And Ashes: Opium's Hidden Histories
Par Amitav Ghosh. 2024
'The writing is sublime, the research thorough, the eye for story superb' Sunday TelegraphWhen Amitav Ghosh began the research for…
his monumental cycle of novels the Ibis Trilogy, he was startled to find how the lives of the 19th century sailors and soldiers he wrote of were dictated not only by the currents of the Indian Ocean, but also by the precious commodity carried in enormous quantities on those currents: opium. Most surprising at all, however, was the discovery that his own identity and family history was swept up in the story.Smoke and Ashes is at once a travelogue, memoir and a history, drawing on decades of archival research. In it, Ghosh traces the transformative effect the opium trade had on Britain, India, and China, as well as the world at large. The trade was engineered by the British Empire, which exported Indian opium to sell to China and redress their great trade imbalance, and its revenues were essential to the Empire's financial survival. Yet tracing the profits further, Ghosh finds opium at the origins of some of the world's biggest corporations, of America's most powerful families and prestigious institutions (from the Astors and Coolidges to the Ivy League), and of contemporary globalism itself.Moving deftly between horticultural histories, the mythologies of capitalism, and the social and cultural repercussions of colonialism, in Smoke and Ashes Amitav Ghosh reveals the role that one small plant had in making our world, now teetering on the edge of catastrophe.Jingjiao: The Earliest Christian Church in China
Par Glen L. Thompson. 2024
A balanced, accessible, and thorough history of Jingjiao, the first Christian church in China Many people assume that the…
first introduction of Christianity to the Chinese was part of nineteenth-century Western imperialism. In fact, Syriac-speaking Christians brought the gospel along the Silk Road into China in the seventh century. Glen L. Thompson introduces readers to the fascinating history of this early Eastern church, referred to as Jingjiao, or the &“Luminous Teaching.&” Thompson presents the history of the Persian church&’s mission to China with rigor and clarity. While Christianity remained a minority and &“foreign&” religion in the Middle Kingdom, it nonetheless attracted adherents among indigenous Chinese and received imperial approval during the Tang Dynasty. Though it was later suppressed alongside Buddhism, it resurfaced in China and Mongolia in the twelfth century. Thompson also discusses how the modern unearthing of Chinese Christian texts has stirred controversy over the meaning of Jingjiao to recent missionary efforts in China. In an accessible style, Thompson guides readers through primary sources as well as up-to-date scholarship. As the most recent and balanced survey on the topic available in English, Jingjiao will be an indispensable resource for students of global Christianity and missiology.Poet-Monks: The Invention of Buddhist Poetry in Late Medieval China
Par Thomas J. Mazanec. 2024
Poet-Monks focuses on the literary and religious practices of Buddhist poet-monks in Tang-dynasty China to propose an alternative historical arc…
of medieval Chinese poetry. Combining large-scale quantitative analysis with close readings of important literary texts, Thomas J. Mazanec describes how Buddhist poet-monks, who first appeared in the latter half of Tang-dynasty China, asserted a bold new vision of poetry that proclaimed the union of classical verse with Buddhist practices of repetition, incantation, and meditation.Mazanec traces the historical development of the poet-monk as a distinct actor in the Chinese literary world, arguing for the importance of religious practice in medieval literature. As they witnessed the collapse of the world around them, these monks wove together the frayed threads of their traditions to establish an elite-style Chinese Buddhist poetry. Poet-Monks shows that during the transformative period of the Tang-Song transition, Buddhist monks were at the forefront of poetic innovation.