Songs of the Veld

This book was banned by the British authorities in South Africa when it appeared in 1902 shortly after the end of the Anglo-Boer War. It contains pro-Boer and anti-imperialist protest poetry that had been published in the weekly London journal, The New Age, and is now reproduced in a facsimile edition with a substantial introduction in English and Afrikaans by Marthinus van Bart. Six South Africans, Betty Molteno, Alice Greene, Anna Purcell, C Louis Leipoldt, Friedrich Kolbe and Albert Cartwright, contributed anonymously despite martial law, under which they could have been tried for treason for doing so. Van Bart tells this fascinating story in his introduction, explaining the important role of women as Cape Rebels. The pen ultimately triumphed over the sword in 2008 when Songs of the Veld became freely available in South Africa for the first time, and this quality publication is now a collector's item, true Africana come home after 106 years.

ISBN 9780620394321