First People (Paperback)

The Lost History of the Khoisan

Andrew Smith

An illuminating exploration of early Southern African hunters and herders.

In First People, archaeologist Andrew Smith examines what we know about Southern Africa's early people, drawing on evidence from archaeological sites and rock art, the observations of colonial-era travellers, linguistics, and the study of the human genome.

Smith has studied the history and prehistory of the Khoisan throughout his long and distinguished career. These communities represent the early groups of hunter-gatherers and herders and the oldest human lineages of Africa, some migrating from as far as East Africa to settle in countries like Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa.

Fully illustrated and including the latest academic research, First People is an invaluable and accessible work that reaches from the Stone Age and travels through time to the most recent history of the Khoisan. It paints a knowledgeable and fascinating portrait of their land occupation, migration, survival, culture, and practices.

Professor Andrew Smith is an archaeologist, excavator and researcher who has spent the last 50 years researching and working closely with African herders and hunters. He has travelled around the globe, joined expeditions to Egypt, and excavated at some of the richest prehistoric herding sites.

Children of Sugarcane (Paperback)

Joanne Joseph

Vividly set against the backdrop of 19th century India and the British-owned sugarcane plantations of Natal, written with great tenderness and lyricism, Children of Sugarcane paints an intimate and wrenching picture of indenture told from a woman's perspective.

Shanti, a bright teenager stifled by life in rural India and facing an arranged marriage, dreams that South Africa is an opportunity to start afresh. The Colony of Natal is where Shanti believes she can escape the poverty, caste, and the traumatic fate of young girls in her village. Months later, after a harrowing sea voyage, she arrives in Natal and realises life there is full of hardship and labour.

Spanning four decades and two continents, Children of Sugarcane illustrates the lifegiving power of love, the indestructible bonds between family and friends, heroism, and how the ultimate sacrifice becomes Shanti's greatest redemption.

Joanne Joseph is an established South African media personality and bestselling author of Drug Muled: Sixteen Years in a Thai Prison. She has hosted prominent radio and television shows for major broadcasters, including the South African Broadcasting Corporation and Primedia House. Children of Sugarcane is her first work of fiction.

The Ground Breaking (Paperback)

The Tulsa Race Massacre and an American City's Search for Justice

Scott Ellsworth

** Chosen by Oprah Daily as one of the Best Books to Pick Up in May 2021 **

'Fast-paced but nuanced … impeccably researched … a much-needed book' The Guardian

''[S]o dystopian and apocalyptic that you can hardly believe what you are reading. … But the story [it] tells is an essential one, with just a glimmer of hope in it. Because of the work of Ellsworth and many others, America is finally staring this appalling chapter of its history in the face. It's not a pretty sight.' Sunday Times

A gripping exploration of the worst single incident of racial violence in American history, timed to coincide with its 100th anniversary.

On 31 May 1921, in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a mob of white men and women reduced a prosperous African American community, known as Black Wall Street, to rubble, leaving countless dead and unaccounted for, and thousands of homes and businesses destroyed.

But along with the bodies, they buried the secrets of the crime. Scott Ellsworth, a native of Tulsa, became determined to unearth the secrets of his home town. Now, nearly 40 years after his first major historical account of the massacre, Ellsworth returns to the city in search of answers. Along with a prominent African American forensic archaeologist whose family survived the riots, Ellsworth has been tasked with locating and exhuming the mass graves and identifying the victims for the first time. But the investigation is not simply to find graves or bodies – it is a reckoning with one of the darkest chapters of American history.

'[A] riveting, painful-to-read account of a mass crime that, to our everlasting shame … has avoided justice. Ellsworth's book presents us with a clear history of the Tulsa massacre and with that rendering, a chance for atonement … Readers of this book will fervently hope we take that opportunity.' Washington Post

Scott Ellsworth is an award-winning author and professor of history at the University of Michigan. His most recent book, The World Beneath Their Feet (John Murray, 2020) – described as 'gripping' by the Sunday Times – is the story of the international race to conquer the Himalayas.