The most recommended books about Southern Africa

Some motorcycle travel books say little about the motorbike itself but I like the nuts and bolts in a story of this genre. This book is very much about the bike. Steve’s Ariel was fifty-five years old and he was sixty-six when he embarked on his trip from Capetown to South Luangwa. I identified with Steve; neither of us had any modern gadgetry nor much in the way of mechanical expertise, therefore we both discovered new levels of patience and were blessed with experiencing people’s generosity in a different culture together with spectacular scenery. Like me, he thought of himself and his motorbike as ‘we’; when you travel solo, it is like a partnership. There’s nothing like travelling with a classic motorcycle as your (sometimes frustrating!) companion. 

This is the true story of a game ranger who worked with African Wildlife in the early part of the history of the Kruger National Park. It is a well-written account of a bygone error where the heroic deeds of one man could make a difference. I loved this book because it evoked in me a sense of the dramatic history of the Southern African Game Reserves and the struggle to attain recognition during the early days when animals were a resource only to be hunted. There were a few brave men who recognized the value of conservation and preservation of wildlife, leading to the wildlife game reserve industry as we know it today. If not for the efforts of these few brave souls our world today would be a poorer place.

The fact that the author lives close to my own little boho surfing suburb on Cape Town’s False Bay coastline might have swayed me. But I assure you this is a very fine and engaging tale of a woman seeking insight into and escape from a childhood overshadowed by a brilliant but alcoholic father. The title, at least, should grab you.

The story is set about between Cape Town and England, from where the father hails. The crocodile tamer works in a circus, where and how the poor young man falls from grace. What sets this book apart from most is that the author weaves her own real and imagined misgivings about writing while she is writing. For any writer-reader, it’s one of the best aspects of the book. Example: “Catholicism taught me three things: I’ve done something wrong, I’ve done something wrong, I’ve done something wrong.” It really is… show more.

This book, which was published in 1952, is about a young white woman living in what was then the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). I loved the way in which it captured the rather trapped feelings of a very young woman eager to escape the constraints of what she was experiencing as a highly restricted and narrow life. I always looked at Doris Lessing’s writings in a rather personal way because her daughter, Jean Wisdom, was in my class at school in Cape Town. Although we knew that her mother was a writer of some note, we had no inkling that she would ultimately win a Nobel prize for literature

This South African classic, written in the 19th century, is set on an isolated farm in the Eastern Cape. It masterfully portrays the hardy existence and rugged mountain landscape of the region, but is also a sophisticated (and surprisingly modern) take on issues such as conservation, ecology, racism, and gender equality. Schreiner has a deep love for the fauna and flora of the region, which shines through in her writing.

I have included When The Lion Feeds because it is the first “grown up” book that I read as a young person.

It was many years ago, but Wilbur Smith’s novel had a big impact on me with his descriptive writing drawing me into the South African setting. The characters in Smith’s novel make for a strong and powerful narrative, and his imagery is captivating.

In many ways, When The Lions Feed is what could be described as a page-turner. I had mentioned in another review that an indicator of a good story is when the reader feels that they know the character(s), and it is certainly the case with this book.

Move Your Shadow is a masterpiece of reportage. Lelyveld, a former executive editor of the New York Times, spent considerable periods in apartheid South Africa in both the 1960s and the 1980s. The sixties was the period of “baaskap”—“bosshood” apartheid, when the perverse racist cruelties of the system were imposed with a sledgehammer. I would call the eighties the era of “facelift” apartheid—why, the word was hardly used by the regime anymore. 

To paraphrase Gramsci, the old world was dying, a new one struggled to be born. Monsters abounded. Nobody captured the period better than Lelyveld. The chapter on Philip Kgosana, the idealist who led Cape Town demonstrations in 1960—at age 19—was betrayed by the state, and wound up in exile in Sri Lanka—is worth the price of the book.

A beautifully intertwined story of the decline of a man and the parallel decline of a nation, Zimbabwe, which pivots into an entirely new story: the author’s dying Christian British father was actually a Polish Jew, born Kazimierz Goldfarb, whose family was killed in Treblinka concentration camp.

Godwin’s story is ultimately inspiring and uplifting as he comes to terms with his family’s past while building his own future in his new country.

A brand-new gripping, revealing history of German colonialism, focused on the brutal diamond trade in Southwest Africa on the eve of World War I. With pellucid prose, Press tells how the Germans cordoned off a so-called “forbidden zone,” behind which rapacious explorers, colonial authorities, miners, and businessmen carted off these precious, if largely useless rocks, for which there was a huge, artificially created demand, especially in the United States.

This is another story that has been parodied out of any semblance of the magnificently foolish endeavor that ended up becoming almost noble. While today the idea would be risible, this book contextualizes the time and culture that created a national hero of the Reverend Livingstone, a clergyman traveling to “darkest Africa” to spread the Good Word to the savages and why finding him became a Western obsession. The insights into the day-to-day life and difficulties of the many and varied characters, tribes, and nations are balanced nicely against the struggles of the main characters to find their way through Africa and life itself.