Exhibition: Ruth First: A Revolutionary Life. Early Anti-Apartheid Journalism and Activism

To coincide with the Ruth First Papers project symposium, taking place on the 7th of June the Library  has put up a small (two cases) display of material from the Ruth First and related collections.

This exhibition concentrates on the period 1946-1964 when Ruth First was active in South Africa as both journalist and activist and includes material relating to the Bethal farm labour scandal, the Freedom Charter, the Treason Trial, the banning of the Guardian and the subsequent Freedom of the Press Conference of November 1951, Ruth First's journalism, her banning and arrest and detention under the 90-day law.

The exhibition is on the fourth floor of Senate House, in the Membership Hall of the Senate House Library and admission is free (just say at the membership desk you wish to see the exhibition).

New books - April - Part 1

New books added to the catalogue and collection in April include the following titles. These cover a range of topics including: migration, Indian railways, Pakistan's foreign policy, contemporary South Africa, HIV/AIDS, Cyprus, elections and Kashmir.


Mapanje, Jack. And crocodiles are hungry at night. Banbury : Ayebia Clarke, 2011.

Tvedten, Inge. “As long as they don't bury me here" : social relations of poverty in a Namibian shantytown. Basel : Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 2011.

Darling, Malcolm Lyall. At freedom's door. Karachi : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Milam, William B. Bangladesh and Pakistan : flirting with failure in South Asia. London, England : Hurst Pub., 2009.

Meek, Charles Innes, Brief authority : a memoir of colonial administration in Tanganyika. London : Radcliffe Press, 2011.

Prabha Ravi Shankar. The British Committee of the Indian National Congress, 1889-1921. New Delhi : Promila & Co. Publishers in association with Bibliophile South Asia, c2011.

Raghavan, E. and James Manor. Broadening and deepening democracy : political innovation in Karnataka. New Delhi : Routledge, 2009.

Richards, Ruben. Bullets or ballots? : the ultimate solution to crime and unemployment in South Africa. Houghton [South Africa] : Mutloatse Arts Heritage Trust, 2010.

Solomou, Emilios & Hubert Faustmann (eds). Colonial Cyprus, 1878-1960 : selected readings from the Cyprus review. Nicosia, Cyprus : University of Nicosia Press, 2010.

Mulligan, Suzanne. Confronting the challenge : poverty, gender, and HIV in South Africa. Oxford ; New York : Peter Lang, 2010.

Segatti , Aurelia and Loren B. Landau (eds). Contemporary migration to South Africa : a regional development issue . Washington, DC : World Bank, c2011.

Kumar, C. Raj. Corruption and human rights in India : comparative perspectives on transparency and good governance. New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Dikomitis, Lisa. Cyprus and its places of desire : cultures of displacement among Greek and Turkish Cypriot refugees. London : I.B. Tauris, 2012.

Gilman, Lisa. The dance of politics : gender, performance, and democratization in Malawi . Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2009.

Njogu, Kimani (ed). Defining moments : reflections on citizenship, violence, and the 2007 general elections in Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya : Twaweza Communications, 2011.

McLaren, John. Dewigged, bothered, and bewildered : British colonial judges on trial, 1800-1900, Toronto ; Buffalo, [NY] ; London : Published for the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History and the Francis Forbes Society for Australian Legal History by University of Toronto Press, c2011.

Bindra, S. S. Dynamics of Pakistan's foreign policy. New Delhi : Deep & Deep Publications, c2011.

Education, training, and skill development in India : first five year plan (1951-56) to eleventh five year plan (2007-12). New Delhi, India : New Century Publications, 2011.

EISA technical observer team report : Namibia Presidenial and National Assembly elections 27 and 28 November 2009. Johannesburg, South Africa : EISA, 2010.

Falola, Toyin and Adam Paddock. Environment and economics in Nigeria. London : Routledge, 2011.

Scott, Anne M. et al (eds). European perceptions of Terra Australis. Farnham : Ashgate, c2011.

Bhattacharyya, Harihar. Federalism in Asia : India, Pakistan and Malaysia. London ; New York : Routledge, 2010.

Sweeney, Stuart, Financing India's imperial railways, 1875-1914. London : Pickering & Chatto, 2011.

Lule, Elizabeth and Markus Haacker. The fiscal dimension of HIV/AIDS in Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland, and Uganda . Washington, D.C. : World Bank, 2012.

Movik, Synne. Fluid rights : water allocation reform in South Africa. Cape Town : HSRC Press, 2012.

Plaatjies , Daniel (ed). Future inheritance : building state capacity in democratic South Africa . Auckland Park , South Africa : Jacana Media, 2011.

Cohen, Stephen P. et al. The future of Pakistan. Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution Press, c2011.

Day, Lynda Rose, Gender and power in Sierra Leone : women chiefs of the last two centuries. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

D'Alpuget, Blanche, Hawke : the Prime Minister. Melbourne, Vic. : Melbourne University Press, 2011.

Gottlob, Michael, History and politics in post-colonial India. New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Copland , Ian et al. A history of state and religion in India. Milton Park, Abingdon ; New York : Routledge, 2011.

Yikona , Stuart et al. Ill-gotten money and the economy : experiences from Malawi and Namibia. Washington, D.C. : World Bank, c2011.

Faustmann, Hubert & Emilios Solomou (eds) Independent Cyprus, 1960-2010 : selected readings from the Cyprus review. Nicosia, Cyprus : University of Nicosia Press, 2011.

Noorani, Abdul Gafoor. India-China boundary problem, 1846-1947 : history and diplomacy. New Delhi ; New York : Oxford University Press, c2011.

Kaushik, Kshama V. India means business : how the elephant earned its stripes . New Delhi ; London : Oxford University Press, 2012.

Destradi, Sandra. Indian foreign and security policy in South Asia : regional power strategies. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2012.

Commuri, Gitika. Indian identity narratives and the politics of security. New Delhi : Thousand Oaks, Calif. : SAGE Publications, 2010.

Brass, Paul R. An Indian political life : Charan Singh and Congress politics, 1937 to 1961. Thousand Oaks : SAGE Publications, 2011.

Wallace, Paul and Ramashray Roy. India's 2009 elections : coalition politics, party competition, and Congress continuity. New Delhi ; Thousand Oaks, Calif. : SAGE Publications, 2011.

Nganga, Tabitha W. Kiriti. Institutions and gender inequality : a case study of the Constituency Development Fund in Kenya. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia : Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA), c2011.

Faught, C. Brad. Into Africa : the imperial life of Margery Perham. London ; New York : I.B. Tauris, 2012.

Schlee, Günther & Abdullahi A. Shongolo. Islam & ethnicity in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia. Oxford : James Currey, 2012.

Khan, Nyla Ali, Islam, women, and violence in Kashmir : between India and Pakistan. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

Asmal, Kader and Adrian Hadland with Moira Levy. Kader Asmal : politics in my blood : a memoir. Auckland Park, South Africa : Jacana Media, 2011.

Webb, Matthew J. Kashmir's right to secede : a critical examination of contemporary theories of secession. London ; New York : Routledge, 2012.

Hornsby, Charles. Kenya : a history since independence. New York : I. B. Tauris, 2012.

Maxon, Robert M. Kenya's independence constitution : constitution-making and end of empire . [Madison, N.J. : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press ; Lanham, Md. : Co-published with Rowman & Littlefield, c2011.

Montigny, Éric, Leadership et militantisme au Parti québécois. [Québec] : Presses de l'Université Laval, 2011.

Gibbons, Arnold. The legacy of Walter Rodney in Guyana and the Caribbean. Lanham [Md.] : University Press of America, c2011.

Udogu, Emmanuel Ike. Liberating Namibia : the long diplomatic struggle between the United Nations and South Africa. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, c2012.

Menon, Raja and Rajiv Kumar. The long view from Delhi : to define the Indian grand strategy for foreign policy. New Delhi : Academic Foundation in association with Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, 2010.

Clarke, Marieke Faber with Pathisa Nyathi.. Lozikeyi Dlodlo : queen of the Ndebele : a very dangerous and intriguing woman. Luveve, Bulawayo [Zimbabwe] : Amagugu Publishers, 2010.

Villalobos, Gabriela A and Daniel E. Segura (eds). Malaysia : country profile and U.S. relations . Hauppauge, N.Y. : Nova Science Publishers, c2011.

Patterson, Mary & Martha Macintyre (eds), Managing modernity in the Western Pacific. St Lucia, Qld. : University of Queensland Press, 2011.

Chakrabarty, Bidyut and Rajat Kumar Kujur. Maoism in India : reincarnation of ultra-left wing extremism in the twenty-first century. London ; New York : Routledge, 2010.

Josiah, Barbara P. Migration, mining, and the African diaspora : Guyana in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Kelegama , Saman (ed). Migration, remittances, and development in South Asia. New Delhi ; Thousand Oaks, Calif. : SAGE Publications, 2011.

Mawere, Munyaradzi. Moral degeneration in contemporary Zimbabwean business practices . Bamenda, Cameroon : Langaa Rpcig, 2011.

Tsvangirai, Morgan with T William Bango. Morgan Tsvangirai : at the deep end . Johannesburg : Penguin Books (South Africa), 2011.

The Mozambique presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections of 28 October 2009. Johannesburg : EISA, 2010.

Creese, Gillian, The new African diaspora in Vancouver : migration, exclusion, and belonging . Toronto ; Buffalo, [N.Y.] : University of Toronto Press, c2011.

McGrane. David (ed). New directions in Saskatchewan public policy. [Regina] : CPRC Press, University of Regina, c2011.

SAS-Space: Collection of the Month: Ruth First Papers

Today am very happy to re-blog the SAS-Space Collection of the Month

SAS-Space: Collection of the Month: Ruth First Papers: Our featured collection for June is the Ruth First Papers collection: the collected notes and writings of Ruth First, anti-apartheid activist, investigative journalist, and scholar. First worked her entire life to end apartheid in South Africa. She was exiled from South Africa in 1964, with her husband, the prominent South African communist Joe Slovo, and their children. In 1982, while working in Mozambique, Ruth First was killed by a letter bomb sent by the South African secret service. 2012 is the thirtieth anniversary of Ruth First’s murder.


Part of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, the project will also host a major symposium on First's work in London on June 7th: see the project site for further details.

The digitisation of the data is ongoing, but the first fruits of the project are now available. They include published writings on Gaddafi's Libya, unpublished writings and correspondence, plus some particularly fascinating scrapbooks of newspaper cuttings from the late 1940s.

The Global Peace Index

The Institute for Economics & Peace produces a number of indexes which measure levels of peace and conflict worldwide. Its Global Peace Index ranks 153 nations according to 23 dimensions of peace. These include democracy, wellbeing, and violence, crime data which is drawn from a number of sources including the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the World Bank, a number of UN Agencies, peace institutes and the EIU. The report and an interactive map are available at the website. http://economicsandpeace.org/research/iep-indices-data/global-peace-index

Out of the 153 countries Commonwealth nations are in the top ten (New Zealand ranking 2nd (after Iceland), and Canada 8th) and also represented in the bottow ten (Pakistan being ranked 146th). the site shows detailed indicators including number of external and internal conflicts fought, relations with neighbouring countries, political instability, respect for human rights, level of violent crime, military expenditure and number of armed personnel.

The Lone Protestor - Book Launch and discussion

The Lone Protestor


Fiona Paisley and Bernardine Evaristo discuss Fiona’s new work on the life of Anthony Martin Fernando, an Australian Aboriginal who protested against British imperial rule while he lived and worked in London and Europe during the 1920s and 1930s.

Thursday 14 June 2012

6.00pm-8.30pm

Bishopsgate Institute
230 Bishopsgate, London, EC2M 4QH
FREE but places are LIMITED. Registration required.
RSVP to http://loneprotestor.eventbrite.com/

Mozambique History Net

Today introducing a recent and growing resource established by Colin Darch

The Mozambique History Net  website makes available selected newspaper clippings and some other resources dealing with contemporary Mozambican history and presented in a thematically organised form. A high proportion of this material is in Portuguese. Contemporary Mozambican history is arbitrarily defined as the period from the beginning of a Luta de Libertação Nacional [the National Liberation Struggle, as the Mozambicans call it] or a Guerra Colonial [the Colonial War, as the Portuguese prefer] in Mozambique in the early 1960s to the advent of political pluralism in 1994. This obviously includes the conflict between the Mozambican government and Renamo from the late 1970s until October 1992, as well as the entire period of the presidency of the late Samora Machel.


The materials are organised by subject, each with its own page on this website, where each document is briefly referenced, with a link to a viewable or down-loadable PDF or JPEG file. Click on the menu on the left to go to the page that interests you. Topics include Ruth First, re-education centres, Josina Machel, FRELIMO 1962-62, cartoons and crime, amonst many others.

The Ongoing Development of MHN. There are presently about 400 physical dossiers – subject files containing press clippings mainly from Mozambican and southern African sources – which can potentially and eventually be added to the MHN website. These include such broad topics as the economy, divided into sub-categories (agriculture, energy, finance, labour, trade, and so on); education; the environment; governance (the Assembleia Popular, elections, local government); international relations (with South Africa, Portugal, the Soviet Union, the United States); politics (including Frelimo and Renamo); and social studies (including health, housing, migration, gender issues and so on). The MHN is interested in feedback on its development and enables comments from the website.

CFP: C.L.R. James's Beyond a Boundary: 50th anniversary conference

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies holds all of the published works of CLR James and an archive collection of papers and correspondence ICS 140 CLR James Papers. We are very pleased to forward this call for papers:

CFP: C.L.R. James's Beyond a Boundary: 50th anniversary conference


University of Glasgow.
Friday 10th and Saturday 11th May, 2013.

With confirmed keynote speakers so far including Mike Brearley (former England Test captain) and Wai Chee Dimock (Yale University)

Regularly cited as one of the great sports books of the twentieth century, C.L.R. James’ Beyond a Boundary (1963) is, by his own famous definition, about far more than cricket. Part-autobiography, part-historical study and part-political-call-to-arms written against the backdrop of the decolonisation struggles, James’ reflections on sport in the Caribbean reach out into a critical account of racism and imperialism, into wider questions of aesthetics and popular culture, and into the struggle for revolutionary social change which was the enduring concern of his life. Crucially, James insisted that such questions were not simply of concern to academics or to experts, but were also a central part of what drew ordinary men and women to sport.

Much loved, and widely read, James’ study has also been the subject of searching criticism: he has been accused, among other things, of a failure of critical judgement in relation to cricket’s role in the moral framework of empire, of a lack of attentiveness to gendered inequalities, and of a naïve faith in the spontaneity of popular political resistance.

This conference is convened on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Beyond a Boundary, with the intention of both celebrating and questioning, drawing out the book’s intellectual legacies and indentifying the issues it leaves unanswered. We would welcome original papers dealing with any aspects of Beyond a Boundary. These might include:

- critical engagement with or reinterpretation of James’ arguments;
- studies of the production and reception of the book itself;
- interpretations, via James, of contemporary sport;
- reflections on the transnational responses to James’ text;
- discussion of Beyond a Boundary within James’ wider corpus;
- papers reporting on the use of James’ insights and methods in social research, in teaching, in journalism or in political activism.

Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be sent to Andy Smith: mailto:andrew.smith.2@glasgow.ac.uk

In keeping with James’ own practice, we would ask potential speakers to avoid unnecessary technical jargon, and to prepare papers intended for a general audience.

Abstracts should be submitted by the end of October 2012.

Already confirmed keynote speakers for the conference are Mike Brearley (former England Test captain and previously President of the British Psychoanalytic Society), and Wai Chee Dimock (Department of English, Yale).

Further keynotes to be announced; to be added to the conference mailing list, please e-mail the address given above.



Conference organisers: Dr. Dave Featherstone (Human Geography, Glasgow); Dr. Chris Gair (English Literature, Glasgow); Dr. Christian Høgsbjerg (History, Leeds Metropolitan); Dr. Andy Smith (Sociology, Glasgow).