New releases

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s notion of a New Dawn as the clarion call for his presidency is yet to manifest fully in South Africa’s foreign policy. However, some changes are already indicating a departure from the Zuma era’s foreign policy.

The Niger Delta, the crude oil extraction centre of Nigeria, has become an archetype of global consumption happening at the expense of local communities and habitats. Much is made of the spectacle of violence in this region: environmental devastation, local community protests and youth violence on account of the perceived injustice associated with the oil extractive industrial complex.

Lauretta Ngcobo’s death in November 2015 robbed South Africa and the African continent of a significant literary talent, freedom fighter, and feminist voice. Born in 1931 in Ixopo in the then Natal Province, South Africa Ngcobo was one of three pioneering black South African women writers – the first to publish novels in English from the particular vantage point of black women.

The TIMSS 2019 Grade 9 study was administered in August 2019 by the Human Sciences Research Council, in collaboration with the Western Cape Education Department, the Department of Basic Education and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement.

From the perspective of the connections between this history and current conditions, Chinese naval voyages to the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia today are a continuation and development of Zheng He’s voyages to Africa, highlighting China’s status in solving contemporary international issues and safeguarding global maritime security.