Breyten Breytenbach   True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist (Faber & Faber, UK). In vividly poetic language, the exiled Afrikaner poet tells the entertaining story of his return to South Africa in 1975 - to be arrested and jailed for seven years.

 

Wilfred Cibane   Man of Two Worlds (Kwela Books, SA). The autobiography of Cibane, from his life as a rural goatherd to cosmopolitan man of means and the cultural clashes that accompanied it.

Robin Denniston   Trevor Huddleston, A Life (Macmillan, UK). An inspiring biography of the English churchman who worked among Johannesburg's urban blacks in the 1950s and later founded the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

Mark Gevisser   Portraits of Power (David Philip, SA). Forty profiles of South Africa's movers and shakers in the era of transition.

Sindiwe Magoma   To my Children's Children (David Philip, SA). A fascinating autobiography, initially started so that her family would never forget their roots - that traces Magoma's life from the rural Transkei to the hard townships of Cape Town, and from political innocence to wisdom born of bitter experience.

Greg Marnovich and Joao Silva   The Bang Bang Club (Arrow, UK). The compelling story of four news photographers who snapped the country's most violent townships in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Two survived to tell the tale; Ken Oosterbroek was killed in crossfire days before the 1994 elections and Ken Carter committed suicide not long afterwards.

Mike Nicol   Sea-Mountain, Fire City: Living in Cape Town (Kwela Books, SA). One of the most recent books in that rare category, a non-fiction documentary, on living in Cape Town at the beginning of the new millennium. Basing his narrative on the apparently prosaic business of moving house from one part of the city to another, Nicol maps many of those fissures, not to say abysses, that make Cape Town such a divided city.

Nelson Mandela   Long Walk to Freedom (Abacus, UK). The superb best-selling autobiography of the South African president, which is wonderfully evocative of his early years and intensely moving about his long years in prison. However, when it comes to his love life, the byzantine intricacies of ANC politics during its long years as an illegal organization, and the story behind the negotiated settlement, Mandela is more diplomatic than candid. Mandela's generosity of spirit and tremendous understanding of the delicate balance between principle and tactics come out very strongly, and the book is without doubt essential reading for the new South Africa.

Emma Mashinini   Strikes Have Followed me All my Life (Women's Press, UK). The moving account of this diminutive but unstoppable trade unionist, who defied both injustice in the labour market and the deep sexism of her colleagues during her tireless struggles from the 1950s to the 1980s.

William Plomer   Cecil Rhodes (David Philip, SA). There are countless books on Rhodes, most of which feed the legend, although the distance of time has made some historians ready to regard him as a flawed colossus. This is a re-publication of one of the most critical accounts, written several decades ago, against the grain, by a South African poet-novelist, when colonialism was still regarded by many whites as a good thing. It pulls no punches in presenting Rhodes as an immature person driven by his weaknesses.

Richard Rosenthal   Mission Improbable (David Philip, SA). A fascinating account of an attempt to set up "talks about talks" between the ANC and P.W. Botha's government in Switzerland during December 1988, which were cut short by the latter's stroke.

Albie Sachs   The Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter (David Philip, SA). The ANC veteran relates the story of how, in exile in Mozambique, he was almost killed by a South African security police bomb. The book vividly traces his recovery and the mental difficulties he went through to emerge with a new vision of the struggle.

Anthony Sampson   Mandela, The Authorised Biography (Harper Collins; Knopf). Released to coincide with Mandela's retirement from presidency in 1999, Sampson's authoritative volume can compete with A Long Walk to Freedom in both interest and sheer poundage. Firmly grounded in the author's long association with his subject, as well as exhaustive research and interviews, it offers a broader perspective and sharper analysis than the autobiography.