Description
Essays on race and transition in South Africa
Forthcoming: This book will be published on 9 May 2016. Preorder now, and the first 100 orders will receive a copy personally signed by the author. Preorders are only available in South Africa.
The last year in South Africa has seen an upsurge of protests and public debates around issues of institutional racism and exclusion, language and culture and their role in lack of social cohesion as well as questioning concepts such as reconciliation and the rainbow nation.
The 3 essays deal with different aspects of these issues in a frank, incisive and well- argued manner. It will therefore be a welcome intervention in these debates when they resume in 2016. But the book does not simply analyse the problems, it also posits solutions about how we can truly become a nation. Both the protagonists and opponents in these debates will therefore find the book of interest. The 3rd essay is a personal account of the author’s experiences practicing law at the dawn of democracy and the battles and triumphs as a Black woman in a profession dominated by men especially in the area of corporate law. It is filled with anecdotes of a few high profile national events interspersed with humour.
The topics she deals in with in the essays are not new. They are topical and intractable. Yet In her skillful hands, fresh perspectives are introduced thus enriching their understanding beyond the sometimes loud and circular debates generated in public spaces. This makes the book unique.The author is a well-known attorney and former newspaper columnist. She is direct, insightful and elevates these issues in a manner that everyone can understand. It will create lots of talk, some discomfort, even controversy but it will also be regarded as a seminal contribution to the important debates of the nation not only for the present but in future.
About the author
Christine Qunta is an attorney and author. She was an activist in the Black Consciousness Movement during the 1970s and spent 17 years in exile returning in 1993. She obtained a BA LLB from the University of New South Wales in Sydney Australia in 1981. She has served on several public and private boards and was a member of the Competition Tribunal in its early years. She has been a columnist for various newspapers. Her first literary works were published during her years in exile, a poetry collection Hoyi Na! Azania: Poems of an African Struggle in 1979. She edited the prose anthology Women in Southern Africa on the legal and socio- political status of women in 1987. Her volume, Heroes & Other Treasures: A Collection of Poems followed in 1990. Her book Who’s Afraid Of Affirmative Action: A Survival Guide For Black Professionals was published in 1995 by Kwela Books.
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