The Special Collections Book of the Week this week is:

Women in Southern Africa edited by Christine Qunta.

By and about African women, this is a unique first-hand account, in essays, interviews and life stories, of the achievements and struggles of women in Southern Africa, and an informed examination of women’s role in African society before, during and after colonialism.

In her contextual essay, South African exile Christina Qunta discusses theories of the origins of female oppression in the context of the dominance matriarchy as a long-standing tradition in Africa. She also gives fascinating biographical portraits of some of the outstanding women, such as Nehanda of Zimbabwe and Queen Nzinga of Angola, who were rulers and social catalysts in the African continent in the 19th and 16th centuries, respectively.

Published in 1978, women who were still under colonial rule at the time, in South Africa and Namibia, explain their perception of belonging to an oppressed race and an oppressed sex and their role in the liberation movement.

This book fills an important gap in African and women’s literature and gives a fresh perspective to various issues from a region of the world constantly in the news.

Catalogue Access: https://UnivofPretoria.on.worldcat.org/oclc/17614255

This book is available at Special Collections, housed on level 5 of the Merensky 2 Library, and is part of our Africana (ZA) Collection.

The Special Collections unit of the Department of Library Services plays a stewardship role in the acquisition and preservation of the Library's rare and valuable information resources, making them accessible to students, staff and researchers, as well as safeguarding them for future generations.