So you want to buy books related to genealogy in South Africa ? this is my list of recommendations for you. Many of these books I have my own copy of and are invaluable to my research and are either factual or historical books based on facts or they are collectors items that would be of immense use to anyone tracing their family history in South Africa. Buying books is not only a passion of mine but also a great investment if you can get signed copies or first editions then its even better to buy books.
Genealogy books are in great demand in South Africa and are sometimes like hens teeth to find, but I am here to help you source those books and provide you with sometimes you entire family tree in one book or just finding that missing gem that you might have missed. Some of these books are available in electronic format but not always.
Children of Hope: The Odyssey of the Oromo Slaves from Ethiopia to South Africa Kindle Edition
In Children of Hope, Sandra Rowoldt Shell traces the lives of sixty-four Oromo children who were enslaved in Ethiopia in the late nineteenth century, liberated by the British navy, and ultimately sent to Lovedale Institution, a Free Church of Scotland mission in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, for their safety. Because Scottish missionaries in Yemen interviewed each of the Oromo children shortly after their liberation, we have sixty-four structured life histories told by the children themselves.
n the historiography of slavery and the slave trade, first passage narratives are rare, groups of such narratives even more so. In this analytical group biography (or prosopography), Shell renders the experiences of the captives in detail and context that are all the more affecting for their dispassionate presentation. Buy the book
Dr James Barry: A Woman Ahead of Her Time
A Sunday Times Book of the Year As featured on the BBC Radio 2 Book Club Dr James Barry: Inspector General of Hospitals, army surgeon, duellist, reformer, ladykiller, eccentric. He performed the first successful Caesarean in the British Empire, outraged the military establishment and gave Florence Nightingale a dressing down at Scutari. At home he was surrounded by a menagerie of animals, including a cat, a goat, a parrot and a terrier. Long ago in Cork, Ireland, he had also been a mother. This is the amazing tale of Margaret Anne Bulkley, the young woman who broke the rules of Georgian society to become one of the most respected surgeons of the century. In an extraordinary life, she crossed paths with the British….. read more and buy the book
Children of Bondage: A Social History of the Slave Society at the Cape of Good Hope, 1652–1838
The Dutch East India Company’s introduction of the first slave into the region known as the Cape of Good Hope in 1653 established an institution whose legal status ended in 1838 but whose social and political reverberations are still felt today. Children of Bondage is the story of the social, cultural, and biological progeny of that slave society. Robert Shell examines the complex and highly stratified hierarchies that evolved in South Africa, and outlines how its multiracial system of slavery was distinct from the biracial system that arose in the New World.
Shell argues that while frontier and class interests were significant factors in South Africa’s history, these influences were secondary manifestations of a more universal force, namely, the family as the fundamental unit of subordination. He explores the history of oceanic and domestic slave trades, sexual and gender relations within the slave hierarchy, religious and ethnic identities among slaves, and the promises and realities of manumission. By viewing the institution of South African slavery from many levels he concludes, “Not only slaves were in bondage; in a profound sense, the owners were as well.” Buy the book
Group Portrait South Africa: Nine Family Histories
More than five generations of nine South African families are profiled in this social history that reflects the complexity, challenges, and strengths of post-apartheid South African society. Oral accounts are combined with photographs that trace the histories of these families over the 20th century and further back in cases where records exist. Different cultural, economic, social, and geographical backgrounds are represented, including those of urban blacks in the 1950s, a Zulu royal family, a founding member of the African National Congress, and the last Afrikaner president of the Orange Free State.
Empire, War & Cricket in South Africa: Logan of Matjiesfontein
Cecil John Rhodes once said he had only met two creators in South Africa: himself and James Douglas Logan, the Scottish-born founder of Matjiesfontein. Logan immigrated to South Africa in 1877 at the age of nineteen and almost immediately began amassing a fortune through business, politics and his high-profile association with that most favoured of imperial pastimes – cricket.
Empire, War & Cricket in South Africa explores in detail how Matjiesfontein was created and how Logan developed this little Karoo town into a renowned health resort, attracting the rich and famous – including South African novelist Olive Schreiner and England cricketer George Lohmann. But, above all, this is the untold story of how James Logan was instrumental in developing the game of cricket in South Africa at a time when the country was heading towards war with the British Empire.
In Empire, War & Cricket in South Africa, readers will learn how one of the first international cricket matches between South Africa and England took place at Matjiesfontein; explore the controversial 1901 South African cricket tour to England in the midst of the Anglo-Boer War; read the amazing story of how Logan once had the captain and manager of England’s cricket team arrested as they boarded their ship home; and discover Logan’s close relationship with Rhodes and how their ‘shady dealings’ brought down the premier’s first government. Buy the book
The Voortrekkers: The story of the Great Trek and the making of South Africa
Buy the book
