Women of South Africa: Their Fight for Freedom

Boston, Toronto, London: Little, Brown and Company; A Bulfinch Press Book, 1993. Half-cloth, 134 pages, illustrations; 32 cm. Near fine. Firm binding, clean inside copy. Age toning. Stated First Edition. Dust jacket, with light edgewear, protected in a mylar cover. OVERSIZE! No priority/international, except by arrangement. Profusely illustrated. "Since apartheid began in South Africa, women have been at the forefront of the fight to abolish it. Their story is one of courage and strength in the face of terrible hardship, deprivation, and brutality. Now that story is vividly told through this collection of photographs by Peter Magubane. For almost forty years South African photo-journalist Peter Magubane has chronicled both the landmark events and the heart-breaking toll of the women's struggle against apartheid. He was there: from the 1950 bus boycotts, the 1956 march of the women on Pretoria, and the Treason Trials, to Sharpeville, the June 16, 1976, Soweto uprising, and the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990. Here, in his photographs, are the women who emerged as leaders, among them Winnie Mandela, Albertina Sisulu, and Helen Joseph. Here, too, are the thousands of unknown women - the unsung heroines of the movement - tilling their fields alone, mourning their dead, and raising their fists in defiance. In these one hundred photographs Magubane brings to life the political ferocity as well as the private intensity of their fight for liberation. The text, by South African journalist Carol Lazar, serves as a concise history of the anti-apartheid women's movement. Nadine Gordimer, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, has written the introduction, a riveting testament to this struggle. All told, this book is a revelation - of women powerfully united in the drive to claim their human rights." - Publisher.. 1st. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. Folio. Collectible.