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The Encyclopedia of South Africa

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The Encyclopedia of South Africa

By
Sean Jacobs

The Nelson Mandela Capture Site in Howick, South Africa (Photo: Ashim D'Silva, via Unsplash).

The Encyclopedia of South Africa, a three-year-long project with many delays–contributors for long essays (1000-2000 words) often missing deadlines, new jobs, children for both editors, etcetera, is finally coming out next year. It is only the second such encyclopedia published by Lynne Rienner. The first of these encyclopedias from this publisher was on the European Union. Our Encyclopedia of South Africa will be the second. The only other Encyclopedia in the series in production is on Israel/Palestine. I am very proud of myself and my co-editor, Krista Johnson, assistant professor of African studies at Howard University.

Here’s the publisher’s description:

This authoritative, comprehensive reference work covers South Africa’s history, government and politics, law, society and culture, economy and infrastructure, demography, environment, and more, from the era of human origins to the present.

Nearly 300 alphabetically arranged entries provide information in a concise yet thorough way. In addition, a series of appendixes present a wealth of data, including: a chronology of key events, key racial and apartheid legislation since 1856, heads of state (with party affiliation) since 1910, provinces and major cities, current government structures, and current political parties and representation in parliament. Photographs enhance the text.

Members of the encyclopedia’s International Advisory Board are R. Hunt Davis, Jr., Sandra Klopper, Shula Marks, Dominique Malaquais, Barney Pityana, Zine Magubane, and Peter Limb.

Coming out Spring 2011.

 

Further Reading

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After Paul Biya

Cameroon’s president has ruled for over four decades by silence and survival. Now, with dynastic succession looming and no clear exit strategy, the country teeters between inertia and implosion.

Leapfrogging literacy?

In outsourcing the act of writing to machines trained on Western language and thought, we risk reinforcing the very hierarchies that decolonization sought to undo.

Repoliticizing a generation

Thirty-eight years after Thomas Sankara’s assassination, the struggle for justice and self-determination endures—from stalled archives and unfulfilled verdicts to new calls for pan-African renewal and a 21st-century anti-imperialist front.

The king of Kinshasa

Across five decades, Chéri Samba has chronicled the politics and poetry of everyday Congolese life, insisting that art belongs to the people who live it.

Drip is temporary

The apparel brand Drip was meant to prove that South Africa’s townships could inspire global style. Instead, it revealed how easily black success stories are consumed and undone by the contradictions of neoliberal aspiration.