Showing 1–16 of 97 results

  • 20 Battles: Searching for the South African Way of War (1913-2013)

    R330

    In 20 Battles, military historians Evert Kleynhans and David Brock Katz investigate how South Africa’s way of war evolved over a 100-year period. They track the evolution of the doctrine and structure of the South African defence forces, rediscovering historical continuity, if any, and the lessons learned in past battles and operations such as Otavifontein, Delville Wood, Southern Ethiopia, Tobruk, Chiusi, Savannah, Cassinga, Cuito Cuanavale and Boleas.

  • A Long Way Home-Migrant Worker Worlds

    R400

    A Long Way Home captures the humanity, agency and creative modes of self-expression of the millions of workers who helped to build and shape modern South Africa.

    The book spans a three-hundred-year history beginning with the exportation of slave labour from Mozambique in the eighteenth century and ending with the strikes and tensions on the platinum belt in recent years. It shows not only the age-old mobility of African migrants across the continent but also, with the growing demand for labour in the mining industry, the importation of Chinese indentured migrant workers.

    Contributions include 18 essays and over 90 artworks and photographs that traverse homesteads, chiefdoms and mining hostels, taking readers into the materiality of migrant life and its customs and traditions, including the rituals practiced by migrants in an effort to preserve connections to “home” and create a sense of “belonging”. The essays and visual materials provide multiple perspectives on the lived experience of migrant labourers and celebrate their extraordinary journeys.

    A Long Way Home was conceived during the planning of an art exhibition entitled ‘Ngezinyawo: Migrant Journeys’ at Wits Art Museum. The interdisciplinary nature of the contributions and the extraordinary collection of images selected to complement and expand on the text make this a unique collection.

  • A womb that beats all over the world – Sunday mornings at the river

    R300

    A truly unique anthology of poems from various African voices.

  • Africa Meets Africa: The Power to Speak

    R150

    An educational resource about using ancient art and current cultural artifacts to teach Sub-Saharan African civilization to the young. This resource consisting of a video and an interactive resource book, offers teachers and learners a means of exploring creativity by introducting museums and galleries as rich educational resources that expose the wealth of African cultural…

  • Andrie Gouws

    R100

    Pedestrian Paintings (2006-2011), Andries Gouws’s travelling exhibition combines the interiors and still-lifes known from Gouws’ previous shows with a series of paintings of feet on which he has been working since 2006.

  • Beadwork, Art and the Body

    R380

    South African beadwork has a rich and diverse history and is abundantly represented in the beaded art pieces in the Wits Art Museum (WAM) collection. Some works date back to the 4th century CE but most date from the 19th to the 21st centuries. Currently numbering over 9 000 items, the three major collecting areas of classical, historical and contemporary African artworks are broad in their geographical range and deep in some local areas of specialisation.

    Paying homage to this collection, Beadwork, Art and the Body is a compilation of essays by scholars who have researched and written about the traditions, practices and aesthetic forms of beadwork in southern Africa. The book covers an expansive history of beadwork in South Africa from the 19th century to the contemporary moment. The artists and the beadwork featured range from Sotho-, Tsonga-, Xhosa- and Zulu-speakers, ending with a focus on fashion designer Laduma Ngxokolo, whose work has been inspired by Xhosa beadwork. Questions of ethnic affiliation and beadwork patterns are explored in relation to the different aesthetic forms of beadwork and its use as a marker of identity and status within and beyond communities.

     

  • Being Chris Hani’s Daughter

    R250

    When Chris Hani was assassinated in his driveway in April 1993, he left a shocked and grieving South Africa, teetering on the precipice of civil war. But to 12-year-old Lindiwe Hani, it was the love of her life, her daddy, who had been brutally ripped from her world. While the nation continued to revere her father’s legacy, for Lindiwe, being Chris Hani’s daughter became an increasingly heavy burden to bear, propelling her into a downward spiral of cocaine and alcohol addiction in a desperate attempt to avoid the pain of his brutal parting.

  • Bella

    R80

    Bella is an illustrated collection of striking yet subtle poems. Motadinyane died in 2003, and was one of the founder members of the Botsotso Jesters poetry performance group; her surreal and multi-lingual work offers a sharp female perspective on South Africa.

  • Beyond the Readymade

    R180
  • Black Bull, Ancestors and Me: My Life as a Lesbian Sangoma

    R105

    Describing the dichotomy of being both revered and reviled, this memoir traces the story of a sangoma—a traditional healer—who is also a lesbian. Descriptions of traditional African healing practices and rituals are provided alongside the personalized account of one woman acting as a mirror to the daily hardships and indignities felt by members of the gay…

  • Bruce Murray Arnott: Into the Megatext

    R790

    BRUCE MURRAY ARNOTT: INTO THE MEGATEXT provides the first comprehensive overview of one of South Africa’s most significant sculptors. His influence as an artist, scholar, designer, curator, and educator runs deep; intuited through the work of many of South Africa’s leading contemporary scholars and practitioners in the visual arts.

  • Coach – The life and soccer times of Clive Barker

    R240

    Coach offers a first-class glimpse into the life of this extraordinary South African, Clive Barker. Author Michael Marnewick details everything from his pre-coaching days and how he avoided bankruptcy by driving taxis, to his early coaching jobs and making it into the professional ranks, and ultimately to the position of national soccer coach. The book is not only an in-depth look at Clive Barker the coach, but also gives insight into Clive Barker the man, the husband, the father, and the patriot.

  • Cooked in South Africa

    Cooked in South Africa is an initiative of Wish Upon a Star, a non-profit fund-raising charity, and all proceeds from the sales of this book will be donated to children living with disability.

  • Curating Johannesburg

    R250

    In 2019 Fadzai Muchemwa, a curator from Zimbabwe, completed a three-month residency at the Bag Factory in Johannesburg. This collection of essays on the role of art and arts organisations grew out of her experience of living and working in Johannesburg.

  • Doing Hair: Art and Hair in Africa

    R170

    Catalogue of the Exhibition, Wits arts Museum, 2014 This publication accompanies an exhibition of the same title at Wits art Museum, 20 August – 2 November 2014.

  • Elon Musk : Risking It All

    R225

    AN ABSOLUTE MUST-READ: A BRAND NEW ELON MUSK BIOGRAPHY**In 2022 Elon Musk – one of the richest and best-known people on earth – made headlines worldwide with his bid to buy Twitter, and he is often in the news for his entrepreneurial exploits and his controversial tweets. Who is this boundary-pushing billionaire with grand plans of inhabiting Mars, and what lies at the heart of his vision? Why is he so utterly unafraid of risk?As an awkward Pretoria schoolboy who loved comics and science fiction, Musk’s early years and singular family background were crucial in forming his stellar ambitions. Journalist and author Michael Vlismas, who attended the same high school as Musk, knows well the environment that shaped him and offers new insights into Musk’s development, including his troubled relationship with his father.