What really happened in the 1980’s to draw world attention to the Vaal Triangle in South Africa?
Patrick Noonan's book tells the truth about the insurrection that changed the face of South Africa…
… and about the violence, torture, assassinations, intrigue, passion and betrayal that has never before been told outside the Black townships of South Africa.
From the Foreword
By George Bizos, legal advisor to Nelson Mandela
They're Burning the Churches is a book that should be read by those who claim that apartheid was not so bad; that we should forget the past and look into the future so that we may become reconciled. Father Patrick's book is a first-hand account of what happened in the black townships of the Vaal Triangle during the turbulent decade from the mid-eighties to the birth of democracy.
THEY’RE BURNING THE CHURCHES
By Patrick Noonan
Yes, this is a story that has never been told. That it has made it to print is an enormous achievement and Jacana Media are the proud publishers of Father Patrick Noonan’s They’re Burning the Churches!
This book is the true account of the traumatised memory of the people from at least five townships in the Vaal. They made it happen; they suffered the consequences; they are remembered.
They’re Burning the Churches is a meticulously written, moving account of the groundbreaking events that dramatically accelerated the downfall of apartheid. Noonan’s clear and unbiased historical record clarifies many misconceptions regarding important events such as the Sharpeville Six Trial, the Delmas Treason Trial, the 1984 uprising that led to international sanctions, the first-ever army invasions of the Vaal townships, and the still controversial Boiphatong massacre that stopped the Codesa negotiations.
From historians and the World Council of Churches to local and diaspora non-black South Africans who still don’t know what happened, this is a book for which people around the world having been waiting a long time.
Interview with Patrick Noonan
The Author talks about "They're Burning the Churches"
Letter to the People of the Vaal Triangle...
Calling all principals and school teachers, historians and politicians, born free youth and learners, fathers and mothers who lost loved ones, department heads in the educational sector, municipal representatives of the citizens, former MK and street activists, brave trade unionists who negotiated freedom in the eighties, former detainees and members to the SAPS, former Vaal Triangle administrators, people of the professions, the Vaal Ministers Solidarity Group...
What They Said
This is an important book, one that has great relevance for the future of our country at a time when moral leadership is so sorely needed.
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond M. Tutu
An eloquent and precise narrative of what happend in the townships of the Vaal triangle in the 1980's.
(The late) Professor Colin Gardner
News from Patrick Noonan
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