Treading the Waters of History Perspectives on the ANC.

This volume is an anthology of thought-pieces about the ANC, contributed by a variety of scholars and thinkers. It gives voice to a variety of perspectives on the subject. The book originated from a series of public dialogues that began before the centenary year and continued afterwards, being held at the University of the Free State. The first section covers reflections on how knowledge of the history of the ANC has advanced. Chapters in the second half of the book consider some of the various contexts in which the ANC has operated, especially with reference to the international.

The book is edited by Kwandiwe Kondlo, University of Johannesburg; Chris Saunders, University of Cape Town; and Siphamandla Zondi, Institute for Global Dialogue.

ANC Centenary DVD

Peace Diplomacy, Global Justice and International Agency. Rethinking Human Security and Ethics in the Spirit of Dag Hammarskjöld. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Edited by Carsten Stahn and Henning Melber.

This tribute and critical review of Hammarskjöld's values and legacy examines his approach towards international civil service, agency and value-based leadership, investigates his vision of internationalism and explores his achievements and failures as Secretary-General. See more at: http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/law/un-and-international-organisations/peace-diplomacy-global-justice-and-international-agency-rethinking-human-security-and-ethics-spirit-dag-hammarskjold

Carsten Stahn is Chair of International Criminal Law and Global Justice at Leiden University, The Netherlands and Programme Director of the Grotius Centre for International Studies, The Hague.

Henning Melber is Senior Adviser and Director Emeritus of The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Uppsala, Sweden. He is also Extraordinary Professor at both the University of Pretoria and at the Centre for Africa Studies, University of the Free State.

Henning Melber. Understanding Namibia. The Trials of Independence. London: Hurst, 2014.

This study explores the achievements and failures of Namibia’s transformation since Independence. It contrasts the narrative of a post-colonial patriotic history with the socio-economic and political realities of the nation-building project. See more at: http://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/understanding-namibia/#sthash.E03OZq1L.dpuf"

Henning Melber is Senior Adviser and Director Emeritus of The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Uppsala, Sweden. He is also Extraordinary Professor at both the University of Pretoria and at the Centre for Africa Studies, University of the Free State.

Sacred spaces and contested Identities. Space and Ritual Dynamics in Europe and Africa. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2014. Edited by Paul Post, Philip Nel and Walter van Beek.

The fundamental changes in society and culture are forcing us to reconsider the position of sacred space, and to do this within the broader context of ritual and religious dynamics and what is called a ‘spatial turn’. Conversely, sacred sites are a privileged way of studying current cultural dynamics. This collection of studies on scared space concerns itself with both perspectives by exploring place-bound dynamics of the sacred in Africa and Europe.

Paul Post is Professor of Ritual Studies (School of Humanities, Tilburg University (Netherlands)).

Philip Nel is a scholar of Ancient Near Eastern and Afro-Asiatic Studies and in 2007 he established the Centre for Africa Studies at the University of Free State where he is current a research fellow.

Walter van Beek, an anthropologist, is Professor of Anthropology of Religion (School of Humanities, Tilburg University).

Edgard Sienaert. Au commencement était le Mimisme: Essai de lecture globale des cours de Marcel Jousse (Trans: In the beginning was mimism: A holistic reading of Marcel Jousse’s lectures). Paris: Marcel Jousse Association, 2014.

This publication allows us to hear the voice of Marcel Jousse, professor of Anthropology of Language, who taught in Paris between 1931 and 1957. Edgard Sienaert, after having translated in English all anthumous and posthumous publications of Jousse, returns here to Jousse’s oral lectures, analysed through the lens of an anthropology of human mimism. Jousse’s train of thought leads us to question our own thought categories stuck in antagonisms: spirit and matter, concrete and abstract, body and mind, science and faith. Sienaert’s autoethnographic anthropology continues to fascinate in a largely urbanised and industrialised world, not for nostalgia, but because it teaches each of us to learn to know ourselves.