Apartheid isn't over—so Malaika Wa Azania boldly argues in Memoirs of a Born Free, her account of growing up black in modern-day South Africa. Malaika was born in late 1991, as the white minority government was on its way out, making her a "Born Free"—the name given to the generation born after the end of apartheid. But Malaika's experience with institutionalized racism offers a view of South Africa that contradicts the implied racial liberation of the so-called Rainbow Nation. Re...

From the serious to the lighthearted, this book presents a snapshot of what smart young South Africans think about living in South Africa today. From black tax, whitesplaining and colourism, all the way to hip hop and kinky sex, it is provocative, fearlessly honest and often very funny. Shaka Sisulu tackles being black and privileged, Simphiwe Dana pleads for mother tongue education, Yolisa Qunta shares lessons learnt from taking the taxi, while David Kau, Loyiso Gola and Sivuyile Ngesi pr...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The highly acclaimed, provocative essay on feminism and sexual politics—from the award-winning author of Americanah"A call to action, for all people in the world, to undo the gender hierarchy." —MediumIn this personal, eloquently-argued essay—adapted from the much-admired TEDx talk of the same name—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-fi...

In the first Quarterly Essay for 2011, David Malouf returns to one of the most fundamental questions and gives it a modern twist: what makes for a happy life?With grace and profundity, Malouf discusses new and old ways to talk about contentment and the self. In considering the happy life what it is, and what makes it possible David Malouf returns to the "highest wisdom" of the classics, looks at how, thanks to Thomas Jefferson's way with words, happiness became a "right", and exami...

Occupy gives Noam Chomsky's thoughts on a movement which swept the world'Occupy is the first major public response to thirty years of class war.'Since its appearance in Zuccotti Park, New York, in September 2011, the Occupy movement has spread to hundreds of towns and cities across the world. No longer occupying small tent camps, the movement now occupies the global conscience as its messages spread from street protests to op-ed pages to t...

Where did we lose our idealism and why and at what cost?' In these conversations with people of a younger generation Mamphela Ramphele responds to the growing despair among young South Africans about the cracks that are appearing in our system of governance and threatening the idealism of the country that reinvented itself with the dawn of democracy in 1994. She shows incisively how successive post-apartheid ANC governments have betrayed the nation for a culture of impunity among those clo...

2016 Speaker's Book Award — ShortlistedFormer Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty shares the story of his life in politics and the leadership lessons he has learned.Dalton McGuinty was premier of Ontario for ten years, from 2003 to 2013. Inheriting a province wounded from years of cutbacks and divisive politics, McGuinty led Ontario through a deep recession and a challenging shift away from a manufacturing-based economy. Moving boldly, he initiated a m...

In What if there were no whites in South Africa? Ferial Haffajee examines South Africa’s history and present in the light of a provocative question that yields some thought-provoking discussion and analysis. From round-table discussions with influential South Africans, to research, personal thoughts and powerful anecdotes, Ferial takes the reader through the rocky terrain of race rage in our country and grapples with what it means to be South African in 2015.

In 2005 Michael Ignatieff left his life as a writer and professor at Harvard University to enter the combative world of politics back home in Canada. By 2008, he was leader of the country’s Liberal Party and poised—should the governing Conservatives falter—to become Canada’s next Prime Minister. It never happened. Today, after a bruising electoral defeat, Ignatieff is back where he started, writing and teaching what he learned.What did he take away from this crash course in politic...

What is Philosophy? Is it the exclusive domain of those who dream in abstract? Or is it the manifestation of the struggle of those who practice in material? Does it originate in the minds of professors like a Ganges flowing out from the hair-locks of "Lord" Shiva? Or is it rustic and puerile, evolving into maturity through the experiences of common men. I started writing philosophy without actually knowing that I was writing one. To start with, it was an outlet to project my frustration in...

Many years ago, Hugh Mackay wrote the bestseller Reinventing Australia that analysed, with forensic skill, what was happening to our society. Now, in Advance Australia…Where? he takes another long, hard look at us.While we enjoy unprecedented levels of prosperity and the promise of more to come, we are still battling an epidemic of depression, taking on record levels of debt, and yearning for a deeper sense of meaning in our lives. While many Aust...

the inability for capital, and therefore the state, to pay for the costs of producing a well educated workforce or to guarantee that investment in education will result in a more vigorous economy and increased living standards for those with qualifications. This breakdown, and the dogmatism of free market economics which seeks to alleviate it, has seen the imposition of a business rationale onto what previously had been regarded as the provision of a public service, sometimes even a public...