More about the book
In 1977, at the age of 18, Mark McCrum went to Southern Africa to wash dishes and teach English at a new multi-racial school in Botswana. He found his hitch-hiking trips around South Africa - then at the height of the apartheid regime - profoundly affecting and confusing. 15 years later he returns. The all-white Referendum has just taken place, transition to black Government is being negotiated, Boipatong is yet to happen. McCrum embarks on a journey that takes him from Crossroads township to the splendours of Johannesburg's Northern Suburbs. On the way he meets people as diverse as a Cape Town down-and-out and Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi. He returns to a Botswana which has changed almost beyond recognition and where his ex-pupils have developed in a variety of surprising ways. South Africa is often considered a subject too complex for comprehension. In this personal account, McCrum provides a slice-of-life view of a country in the throes of an historic and irreversible transition.
Book purchase
Happy Sad Land, Mark McCrum
- Language
- Released
- 1993
- Binding
- (Hardcover)
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- Title
- Happy Sad Land
- Subtitle
- A Journey Through Southern Africa
- Language
- English
- Authors
- Mark McCrum
- Publisher
- Sinclair-Stevenson
- Released
- 1993
- Format
- Hardcover
- Pages
- 455
- ISBN10
- 185619230X
- ISBN13
- 9781856192309
- Series
- Rating
- 4 out of 5
- Description
- In 1977, at the age of 18, Mark McCrum went to Southern Africa to wash dishes and teach English at a new multi-racial school in Botswana. He found his hitch-hiking trips around South Africa - then at the height of the apartheid regime - profoundly affecting and confusing. 15 years later he returns. The all-white Referendum has just taken place, transition to black Government is being negotiated, Boipatong is yet to happen. McCrum embarks on a journey that takes him from Crossroads township to the splendours of Johannesburg's Northern Suburbs. On the way he meets people as diverse as a Cape Town down-and-out and Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi. He returns to a Botswana which has changed almost beyond recognition and where his ex-pupils have developed in a variety of surprising ways. South Africa is often considered a subject too complex for comprehension. In this personal account, McCrum provides a slice-of-life view of a country in the throes of an historic and irreversible transition.