Finding Freedom in the Bush of Books: The UWC Experience and Spirit (signed)

SIGNED & DATED BY THE EDITOR, published by Wendy's Book Lounge, East London, 2010, Iillustrated, 187 pages, condition: very good.

The University of the Western Cape (UWC) is taking its place in the greater South African story, with the recent publication of a students history of the institute that combines fact with literary narrative.

Finding Freedom in the Bush of Books: the UWC Experience and Spirit collects 31 stories from 24 writers who attended or were linked to the university. The book is published through East London-based Wendys Book Lounge, owned by Cornelius Thomas, the books editor and a contributor.

His purpose was to capture the history of UWC as a pioneering, cutting-edge political institute through the voices of ordinary students.

Because UWC drew a diverse student population from around South Africa, I wanted to capture the experience and spirit through a multiplicity of voices, said Thomas. I wanted the book to tell the story of the ordinary student life and its struggles.

The stories range from hilarious to tragic, interspersed with more serious accounts of student politics, all of which provide a full spectrum of student life in Bush College. The UWC obtained this nickname because it started up in 1959 as a university college for coloured students, and had no autonomy because it fell under the auspices of the distance learning University of South Africa.