Books

Great books about South Africa:

A Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela by Nelson Mandela

No Future Without Forgiveness by Desmond Tutu

The Crucible of Fire: The Church Confronts Apartheid, edited by Jim Wallis

I Write What I Like by Steven Biko

The Bondage of Fear: A Journey Through the Last White Empire by Fergal Keane

A People On The Boil: Reflections on June 1976 and Beyond by Harry Mashabela

Cry The Beloved Country by Alan Paton

Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa by Mark Mathabane

Movies
Some great movies about South Africa:

Cry Freedom (1987)

Starring: Kevin Kline, Denzel Washington, Director: Richard Attenborough Sir Richard Attenborough (Gandhi) directs this semi-successful drama about the real life relationship between South African black activist Steven Biko and sympathetic newspaper editor Donald Woods (later to become Steve Biko's biographer).

Cry, the Beloved Country (1995)

Starring: James Earl Jones This moving adaptation of Alan Paton's celebrated novel stars James Earl Jones as a beloved, rural minister in South Africa who makes his first trip to Johannesburg in search of his son. Directed by the same director of Sarafina!

A Dry White Season (1989)

Starring: Donald Sutherland, Janet Suzman, Zakes Mokae, Marlon Brando Director: Euzhan Palcy "A Dry White Season" is set in the 1970s, at the time when the schoolchildren of Soweto, an African township outside Johannesburg, held a series of protests which culminated in the June 16, 1976 Soweto Uprising and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of children. They wanted to be educated in English, not Afrikaans (a language spoken only in South Africa and mostly by whites).

Long Night's Journey Into Day: South Africa's Search for Truth and Reconciliation (2000)

Directors: Frances Reid and Deborah Hoffmann An excellent just-released documentary which focuses on four of the hundreds of cases brought before the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This is a very intimate and moving film - highly recommended.

Nelson Mandela - Journey to Freedom (1996)

The A&E Biography of Nelson Mandela tells, in clear, complete, and exciting detail, the story of the man who dedicated his life to the struggle to end the domination of the black race by the whites in South Africa. Through interviews with colleagues and scholars and wonderful historical footage, we learn both about Mandela's amazing life story and the sweeping transformation that his nation has undergone.

Frontline: The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela

The prestigious PBS series Frontline has produced a stirring and comprehensive document of the extraordinary life of Madiba ñ as Africans refer to him. In-depth interviews with central figures of 20th-century South Africa, such as former presidents P.W. Botha and F.W. DeKlerk, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and ANC members Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki.