Written in 1997, following what sounds to be an extensive oral history data collection effort, Charles van Onselen wrote "The Seed is Mine". The book brings to life the experiences of one, and one who might otherwise not have any other record in the written historical documents (exception on legal note). This book is an exemplary of oral history. It is heavy and presents immense detail, which at times can be slightly overwhelming as a reader, but nonetheless an important contribution and a product of exceptional work and detail. What I enjoyed about the book was the detail, where the dominant narratives are made complex, complicated or turned around with the lived experiences of Kas. In so doing, the book provides many new windows into seeing, and vicariously experiencing, South Africa of another time. Some examples from the book:

"The foreman lured Kas within his reach, caught hold of him by the arm and then-while he and the stable hand danced his disciplinary jig-called for his wife to remove the leather strap that he had hidden in his back pocket. Before the lady could oblige Kas, inspired by the need for improvisation in a novel such setting, sank his teeth into a conveniently situated white finger, which promptly spurted enough blood to elect a chorus of shouting and swearing from a clearly impressed Mrs. van der Walt. A half-dozen blacks, suspecting that oaths and cries on such a scale could only be summons for their services, suddenly appeared from nowhere to witness some deeply concerned Maine kinsmen persuading Kas to release the hapless foremans finger." (p. 42)

"Kas had reason to feel proud. At a time when most white farmers-who had enjoyed privileged access to commercial banks and the state's services to organised agriculture-where producing maize harvests of around three hundred bags, his family, with far more limited financial resources at their disposal, has matched their efforts. Nevertheless. The price of maize was disappointing-something that the Triangle's deeply suspicious populists ascribed to the functioning of the state's newly introduced Maize Control Board. At eight shillings and sixpence per bag, nobody was going to get rich, but Kas was grateful to have exceeded his target." (p. 194)

"After a careful inspection and much discussion, Kas agreed to purchase plots thirty-one and thirty-four for seven hundred pounds. he put down two hundred pounds as a deposit and agreed to pay the balance in smaller installments over an unspecified period. Phitise, equally impressed, bought himself a plot on basically the same terms. These two open-ended transactions conducted beneath the summer sun on a stretch of stone-strewn veld outside Ventersdrop were the outcome of thirty years labour on the land and a lifetime's ambition to own property." (p. 344)

"The odyssey which had begun in hope at Kommissierust in 1921 and ended in resignation at Varkenskraal in 1956. It took thirty-five years and fifteen farms for the likes of Hendrik Verwoerd and his supporters to get to the Maines where the Nationalists wanted them. The trekpas did not show how a man who but six years earlier had possessed 8 horses, 12 donkeys, 60 cattle, and 220 sheep had now been reduced to owning less than 40 animals. The Mains, who had entered the Mooi river valley on a ford truck with the chance of acquiring freehold property of their own, were leaving on an ox-wagon for a residential stand on a communal farm in a 'black spot.' Kas was on his knees." (p. 387) 

Ohio University Press has a series of "Short Histories of Africa". I recently decided to pick up most of the collection for potential use as reading materials for classes. This post covers "Chris Hani" (2014) by Hugh MacMillan. Like others in this series, this book helps provide accessible and concise materials on leading figures that otherwise are sometimes challenging to find appropriate student readings on. This one fills that gap. In addition to the biography, the book tells a lot of the history of the ANC and uMkhonto we Sizwe. A few notes:

"We must make apartheid expensive and costly in terms of financial resources and in terms of lives. It must be made painful. At the moment it is very sweet for them but it must be made painful and bitter, especially for the whites. It is bitter for the blacks. For the whites it must be made very painful and bitter… apartheid won't just be destroyed through talking, but, since it is a violent system, it will be destroyed by revolutionary violence." (p. 102)

"I am an implacable enemy of oppression. I am a soldier for democracy and justice. Negotiations are a product of all our sacrifices – those who went to jail, those into exile, those in camps in strange countries. What is happening is the fruit of this hard worthwhile labor … We need to build strong grass roots structures. We must build a popular democracy." (p. 126)

"… the ANC will have to fight a new enemy. That enemy would be another struggle to make freedom and democracy worthwhile to ordinary South Africans. Our biggest enemy would be what we do in the field of socio-economic restructuring. Creation of jobs; building houses, schools, medical facilities; overhauling our education; eliminating illiteracy; building a society which cares; and fighting corruption … " (p. 128) 

Ohio University Press has a series of "Short Histories of Africa". I had one book from this series previously, on Thomas Sankara, and recently decided to pick up most of the collection for potential use as reading materials for classes. This post covers "Steve Biko" by Lindy Wilson, published in 2011. I found this book useful as there are relatively fewer materials on Steven Biko, compared to others in the series (e.g., Fanon). The author also adds unique perspectives having done some interviews with people who knew Biko. A few notes:

"Biko was appalled at what he saw all around him in South Africa at the time: "the black man has become a shell, a shadow of man … bearing the yoke of oppression with sheepish timidity," he said. He challenged black people not to be a part of their own oppression, believing that "the most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed'. He defined Black Consciousness as 'an inward-looking process' to 'infuse people with pride and dignity'. 'We have set out on a quest for a true humanity,' he said." (p. 14)

"No Saso president, for example, was in office for more than a year, a precedent set by Biko. This capacity to stand back, to put others forward, to initiate new ideas, get something going and make it practical, meant that although Biko was present, he managed not to be dominant." (p. 49)

"Biko's work was to awaken the people: first, from their own psychological oppression through reorganizing their inferiority complex and restoring their self-worth, dignity, pride and identity; secondly, from a mental and physical oppression of living in a white racist society." (p. 54)

"His message was simple and clear: Do not be a part of your oppression." (p. 148)

Similar to other giants of the struggle against apartheid, we do not have a book written by Steve Biko that pens his ideas. For Robert Sobukwe, a biography was written, while for Steve Biko, we have a collection of his writings and transcripts, first published in 1978. The book contains powerful ideas, some of which are shared below, but also contains writings that are audience- and time-specific, making it a sometimes less than relevant read. I share some of Biko's ideas:

• "Basically the South African white community is a homogenous community. It is a community of people who sit to enjoy a privileged position that they do not deserve, are aware of this, and therefore spend their time trying to justify why they are doing so. Where differences in political opinion exist, they are in the process of trying to justify their position of privilege and their usurpation of power." (p. 19)

• "We are concerned with that curious bunch of nonconformists who explain their participation in negative terms: that bunch of do-gooders that goes under all sorts of names – liberals, leftists etc. These are the people who argue that they are not responsible for white racism and the country's "inhumanity to the black man". These are the people who claim that they too feel the oppression just as acutely as the blacks and therefore should be jointly involved in the black man's struggle for a place under the sun… It is rather like expecting the slave to work together with the slave-master's son to remove all the conditions leading to the former's enslavement." (p. 20-21)

• "The myth of integration as propounded under the banner of liberal ideology must be cracked and killed because it makes people believe that something is being done when in actual fact the artificial integrated circles are a soporific on the blacks and provide a vague satisfaction because it is difficult to bring people from different races together in this country, therefore achievement of this is in itself a step forward towards the total liberation of the blacks. Nothing could be more irrelevant and therefore misleading. Those who believe in it are living in a fool's paradise." (p. 22)

• "We must learn to accept that no group, however benevolent, can ever hand over power to the vanquished on a plate. We must accept that the limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. As long as we go to Whitey begging cap in hand for emancipation, we are giving him further sanction to continue with his racist and oppressive system. We must realise that our situation is not a mistake on the part of whites but a deliberate act, and that no amount of moral lecturing will persuade the white man to "correct" the situation." (p. 90-91)

• "I think there is no running away from the fact that now in South Africa there is such an ill distribution of wealth that any form of political freedom which does not touch on the proper distribution of wealth will be meaningless." (p. 149)