48 books to read before you visit South Africa

Reading - Knowledge is power

Nothing in this world is ever black and white. Francis Bacon said knowledge is power, remember? The more you educate yourself the better life gets. You can’t have an opinion on something without gathering enough information to understand what is going on around you. When I visit a place I also like to read about it. Not only the papers and facts but also fiction, prose, cookbooks, I read and browse just about everything to get the bigger picture. 

If I mix this information with those I get from talking to as many people in the country as possible I feel content that I can build an opinion and can participate in a discussion. Empty words thrown into thin air just to say something? Not good.

The other day, as I was at Daunton in London (you know this pretty Edwardian book store on Marylebone High Street) I realised I have an awful lot of books about South Africa. There wasn’t a single book about South Africa in their travel section that I hadn’t on my bookshelf. 

After I got over my nerdy moment, I put together a very thorough reading list for South Africa. These books saved me from being ignorant on my travels to South Africa. I understand that not everyone who plans a two week trip to South Africa will read all of these books before heading out there. But you might get inspired. (No, neither Daunton Books, South Africa, London nor Marylebone paid me for writing this. I simply love books and bookstores).

All books are tried and tested. Word of warning: If you read all of these and travel to South Africa you will lose your heart to this place forever.

48 books to read before you visit South Africa

	Title	Author
1	Troublemakers	Margaret Renn, Anton Harber
2	Begging to be Black	Antjie Kroog
3	Come Sunday	Isla Morley
4	Panorama	Pieter Dyrk Uys
5	The Only Black at a Dinner Party	Eric Miyeni
6	Before Mandela was Mandela	Eric Miyeni
7	Philida	André Brink
8	A Dry White Season	André Brink
9	Praying Mantis	André Brink
10	Karoo Boy	Troy Blacklaws
11	A City Imagined	Stephen Watson
12	The Madonna of Excelsior	Zakes Mda
13	Into Africa	Martin Dugard
14	The Lost World of the Kalahari	Van der Post
15	South African Fact Book	Denise Slabbert, Pat Hopkins, Jabulile Bongiwe Ngwenya
16	In the Heart of the Country	J.M. Coetzee
17	Disgrace	J.M. Coetzee
18	Somewhere Over the Rainbow	Gavin Bell
19	On the Other Side of Shame	Joanne Jowell
20	Fiela's Child	Dalene Matthee
21	Khayelitsha	Steven Otter
22	The State of Africa	Martin Meredith
23	Down 2nd Avenue	Es'kia Mphahlele
24	Return to Paradise	Breyten Breytenbach
25	From Aardvark to Zebra. Secrets of African Wildlife	Peter Joyce
26	Africa the legends live on	Jan Roderigues
27	The Day I Died	Thembelani Ngenelwa
28	Childhood	Adrian Hadland
29	Long Way Down	Ewan McGregor, Charley Boorman
30	Sea Mountain, Fire City	Mike Nicol
31	South Africa. A travellers literary companion	Balseiro and Hecht
32	Modern South African Stories	Stephen Gray (edited by)
33	My Son's Story	Nadine Gordimer
34	Beethoven was one-sixteenth black	Nadine Gordimer
35	From Jo'burg to Jozi	Edited by Heidi Holland and Adam Roberts
36	Dead before Dying	Deon Meyer
37	Blood Safari	Deon Meyer
38	Dark Star Safari	Paul Theroux
39	Gem Squash Tokoloshe	Rachel Zadok
40	The Wilderness Family	Kobie Kruger
41	The Covenant	James A Michener
42	Postcards from Soveto	Mokone Molete
43	Cape Town Stories	Madeleine Barnard
44	The Healing Land	Rupert Isaacson
45	Red Dust	Gillian Slovo
46	Karoo Kitchen	Sydda Essop
47	In the words of Nelson Mandela	A little pocketbook
48	Long Walk to Freedom	Nelson Mandela

Before my next trip to South Africa I am going to read Nadine Gordimer, July's People. Alan Paton, Cry the beloved country. Dalene Matthee, Dreamforest. Deon Meyer, Cobra. These four books are patiently waiting on my bookshelf and wait for their time to come and my next vacation in South Africa. Update: I can add them all to the above list.

What is your favourite book about South Africa? Let us swap experiences. 

Make sure you are not responsible for the death of your local bookshop

Please buy all books from your local bookshop. No one wants to live in a town centre without independent shops. It is in our hands, we can vote with our purse. There is no need to support online giants when every one of us can support their own community. You won't find any links in this article to online shops. These book recommendations are purely made out of love for reading and travelling and understanding different cultures. Make sure you are not responsible for the death of your local bookshop. It sounds drastic, but let's face it, it is true. 

From Berlin with love