FOREIGN NATIVE

<p>In <em>Foreign Native</em> RW Johnson looks back with affection and humour on his life in Africa. From schooldays in Durban – fresh off the plane from Merseyside – to later years as an academic director of the Helen Suzman Foundation and formidable political commentator he has produced an entertaining and occasionally eye-popping memoir brimming with history anecdote and insight.</p><p>Johnson charts his evolution from enthusiastic left-leaning Africanist to political realist relating episodes that influenced his intellectual worldview including time spent among the exiled liberation movements in London during the 1960s a sojourn in newly independent Guinea and more recent forays into Zimbabwe. There are wonderful stories some hilarious others filled with pathos about the multitude of characters – Harold Strachan Tom Sharpe Ronnie Kasrils Helen Suzman Frederik van Zyl Slabbert among many others – that he met along the way.</p><p>Perceptive critical and full of verve <em>Foreign Native</em> is leavened with a deep humanity that makes it a pleasure to read.</p>