Ruth First

"From Publishers Weekly : Originally published in 1980 and long out of print, this fine work illuminates Schreiner's life and major writings through a portrayal of her "conscious struggles for self-definition" as a novelist, feminist and political activist. Born in 1855 to English missionaries working in Africa, hers was a lonely, self-educated childhood. She worked as a governess during the late 1870s, and when she sailed to England for medical training in 1881, had with her the manuscripts of three novels, including The Story of an African Farm, her best known. She was quickly taken up by London's intellectual circles; Havelock Ellis and Eleanor Marx were among her closest friends. On her return to Africa, Schreiner supported the Boer cause and took what she herself called an "almost painfully intense interest" in empire-builder Cecil Rhodes, although she quickly became disillusioned with both. Abhorring treatment of blacks as an "engine of labour," she became an outspoken advocate for black citizenship; and her Women and Labour published in 1911 reflected a lifetime of thought on "the Woman Question" and became a crucial work for early-20th-century feminists. The authors write insightfully of the split sense of self in a woman who made such an impact yet felt her life a failure. South African political activist First was assassinated in 1982; Scott is a British book editor.."--amazon.com.

An unforgettable account of defiance against political terror by one of South Africas pioneering anti-apartheid activistsAn invaluable testimonial of the excesses of the apartheid system, 117 Days presents the harrowing chronicle of journalist Ruth Firsts isolation and abuse at the hands of South African interrogators after her arrest in 1963. Upon her arrest, she was detained in solitary confinement under South Africas notorious ninety-day detention law. This is the story of the war of nerves that ensued between First and her Special Branch captorsa work that remains a classic portrait of oppression and the dignity of the human spirit.

A concise yet comprehensive survey of the reasons why South West Africa (now Namibia) is a vital area of the African continent. The author traces the course of over eighty years' economic and political exploitation of the African population by a succession of white powers, from the original British and Dutch traders to the Nationalist regime begun in 1948. She argues that the ironic tragedy whereby a League of Nations mandate became an instrument of oppression may yet become a source of hope.