Vuvuzela Dawn

In 2019, South Africa celebrates 25 years of democracy and the freedom that turned the country from a political pariah to one warmly embraced by the world. Nowhere was the welcome more visible, or more emotional, than in sport. Vuvuzela Dawn tells the stories of that return. From Bafana Bafana’s Africa Cup of Nations win to the fabled ‘438’Proteas game, we go behind the scenes of the great moments and record-breaking triumphs from 1994 to the present. From Caster Semenya and Wayde van Niekerk to Benni McCarthy and Kevin Anderson, from twin World Cup rugby victories to the traumas of Kamp Staaldraad and Hansie Cronjé, Vuvuzela Dawn reveals the sporting dramas and passions that defined a quarter century.

IN 2019, SOUTH AFRICA CELEBRATES 25 years of democracy and the freedom that turned the country from a political pariah to one warmly embraced by the world. Nowhere was the welcome more visible, or more emotional, than in sport. Vuvuzela Dawn tells the stories of that return. From Bafana Bafana's Africa Cup of Nations win to the fabled '438'Proteas game, we go behind the scenes of the great moments and record-breaking triumphs from 1994 to the present. From Caster Semenya and Wayde van Niekerk to Benni McCarthy and Kevin Anderson, from twin World Cup rugby victories to the traumas of Kamp Staaldraad and Hansie Cronj�, Vuvuzela Dawn reveals the sporting dramas and passions that defined a quarter century.

“There will be a black Springbok over my dead body.” — Dr Danie Craven, President of the South African Rugby Board, 1969 Just a year after the controversial D’Oliveira affair, the organised disruption of the all-white 1969/70 South African rugby and cricket tours to Britain represented a significant challenge to apartheid politics. Led by future cabinet minister Peter Hain, the ‘Stop the Seventy Tour’ campaign brought about the cancellation of both tours, presaging white South Africa’s expulsion from the Olympics and the end of apartheid sport altogether. With his brand of attention-grabbing, direct action sports protest, the 19-year-old Hain emerged as a hero to some and enemy to others. Now, reflecting on these experiences with fifty years of hindsight, Lord Hain, together with South Africa’s foremost sports historian and fellow anti-apartheid activist André Odendaal, shows how decades of relentless international and domestic campaigning for equality led to a Springbok team captained by black athlete Siya Kolisi winning the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Interspersing a wide range of examples with personal testimony, Pitch Battles explores the themes of sport, globalisation and resistance from the deep past to the present day. Published in the same year as the Stop The Tour documentary from acclaimed director Louis Myles, this compelling story of sacrifice, struggle and triumph reveals how sport should never be divorced from politics or society’s values.

Imagine an athlete so incredible that he dominates two sports - football and baseball - shattering records and lifting his team to championships every year. Doug Maxwell is a new kind of reluctant hero. A boy from a fractured home, he now has to overcome crushing criticism from the media, opposing players and the public. Deep down, Doug is a kind, giving man, who struggles with his own inner demons and human foibles. But he is not a cheat. Yet, Doug does have an incredible, supernatural secret. Having been bestowed amazing strength by an event in his childhood, Doug can now work towards fulfilling his greatest wish: to make his father proud. But as his abilities grow, so do his detractors. After reporter Sue Ohuna notices that something is not quite human about Doug, she risks her career trying to uncover his secret. As stakes get higher, Doug soon needs to make life-changing decisions. But can he fulfill his true destiny?

All three books in Theodore Huntington's 'The Storm Trilogy', now available in one volume! Doug Maxwell: A boy from a fractured home, Doug Maxwell has an incredible secret. Having been bestowed amazing strength by an event in his childhood, Doug can now work towards fulfilling his greatest wish. But after reporter Sue Ohuna notices that something is not quite human about Doug, she risks her career trying to uncover his secret. As stakes get higher, Doug soon needs to make decisions that will change the course of his life. Charlie Estrella: He’s the greatest musician the world has ever seen, but what is the secret behind Charlie Estrella's magical gifts? The second book in Theodore Huntington's 'The Storm Trilogy' follows a tale of another supernatural hero. This time, it is young Charlie Estrella who is granted his greatest wish by the Storm. But can he find his true destiny, or will he be thwarted by his foes? Larry: Ever since he was born, thoroughbred Larry has faced adversity. Bestowed with a miraculous gift by a supernatural storm, Larry is climbing to the heights of triumph. Protected by his best friend - a jockey with her own magical gift - Larry gallops through hurdle after hurdle. But can he conquer his obstacles and emerge as a symbol of indomitable will?

On his last night in prison, Aladam, incarcerated for many years for his opposition to white domination in South Africa, dreams about the political struggles that have shaped the course of the country. The contours of his dream take us through the bewildered state of black people's lives after the Act of Union in 1910. We come across an ambitious white President, Nieman, who has been recalled from retirement to protect the country from falling into black hands; the fierce political conflict between the English and the Afrikaners; the sudden onset of the Spanish Influenza ; and the outbreak of a violent white miners' strike.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup roused a nation, defying South African skeptics and Afro-pessimists alike, and this definitive account of Africa’s first World Cup covers the build-up, the tournament itself, and its aftermath. Offering serious insights into the host country’s management of a soccer event of this magnitude, the book explores the image South Africa chose to convey to the world, revealing the vivid granularity of this beautiful country during that extraordinary month.

Africa’s World Cup: Critical Reflections on Play, Patriotism, Spectatorship, and Space focuses on a remarkable month in the modern history of Africa and in the global history of football. Peter Alegi and Chris Bolsmann are well-known experts on South African football, and they have assembled an impressive team of local and international journalists, academics, and football experts to reflect on the 2010 World Cup and its broader significance, its meanings, complexities, and contradictions. The World Cup’s sounds, sights, and aesthetics are explored, along with questions of patriotism, nationalism, and spectatorship in Africa and around the world. Experts on urban design and communities write on how the presence of the World Cup worked to refashion urban spaces and negotiate the local struggles in the hosting cities. The volume is richly illustrated by authors’ photographs, and the essays in this volume feature chronicles of match day experiences; travelogues; ethnographies of fan cultures; analyses of print, broadcast, and electronic media coverage of the tournament; reflections on the World Cup’s private and public spaces; football exhibits in South African museums; and critiques of the World Cup’s processes of inclusion and exclusion, as well as its political and economic legacies. The volume concludes with a forum on the World Cup, including Thabo Dladla, Director of Soccer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Mohlomi Kekeletso Maubane, a well-known Soweto-based writer and a soccer researcher, and Rodney Reiners, former professional footballer and current chief soccer writer for the Cape Argus newspaper in Cape Town. This collection will appeal to students, scholars, journalists, and fans. Cover illustration: South African fan blowing his vuvuzela at South Africa vs. France, Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein, June 22, 2010. Photo by Chris Bolsmann.