Into the Laager by Kajsa Norman

Into the Laager (Collectible Copy of a Study of Orania and Afrikaner Identity)

Narrative journalism on Afrikaners who withdrew from post-apartheid South Africa, from Blood River to Orania

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: Into the Laager: Afrikaners Living on the Edge
• Author: Kajsa Norman
• Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers, Johannesburg & Cape Town
• Publication Date: 2016
• ISBN-13: 9781868427369
• Binding: Publisher's illustrated card wrappers (trade paperback format), yellow spine
• Physical Format: Large softcover (trade paperback).
• Language: English

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Very Good Plus (VG+)
• Exterior / Wraps: The illustrated card wrappers are solid and the spine, which is yellow, looks straight with no obvious creasing. There is a small crease or lifted fold at the top corner of the front cover. The page edge is slightly toned cream. The bottom corner of the back cover is sharp and clean, with a faint crease line.
• Interior: The title page and copyright page are clean with no markings.
• The Dust Jacket: Not Applicable (As Issued)

Synopsis & Historical Value

Into the Laager: Afrikaners Living on the Edge, published by Jonathan Ball in 2016, is a work of narrative journalism about white Afrikaner communities who have withdrawn from post-apartheid South Africa, among them those who moved to the breakaway community of Orania.

Kajsa Norman moves between past and present. She follows the struggle for control of South Africa, its people and its history through a series of December 16ths, beginning with the Battle of Blood River in 1838. She traces the origins of present-day fears back to the years of nationalism and social engineering, and asks how people respond when their identity feels endangered.

The book is a useful companion for readers of Afrikaner history and contemporary South African politics, offering an outsider's investigative perspective on a community that sees its culture as under threat.

Author Profile: Kajsa Norman

Kajsa Norman is a London-based investigative journalist who focuses on dictatorships and conflict zones. Her career began in 2000 as editor-in-chief of the Mid Sweden University magazine, and her first book, on political prisoners in Cuba, was published in Sweden in 2003.

Her English-language book Give Me Cholera: Forging a Future for Zimbabwe is a notable earlier work. Into the Laager first appeared in Sweden in 2015 as Bron över Blood River, with a foreword by Henning Mankell.

Into the Laager Kajsa Norman · Orania book · Afrikaners living on the edge · Afrikaner identity after apartheid · Kajsa Norman Jonathan Ball 2016 · Battle of Blood River December 16th book · post-apartheid South Africa journalism