Bring Me My Machine Gun: The Battle for the Soul of South Africa, from Mandela to Zuma [Hardcover]

Award-winning journalist Alec Russell was in South Africa to witness the fall of apartheid and the remarkable reconciliation of Nelson Mandela's rule; and returned in 2007-2008 to see Mandela's successor, Thabo Mbeki, fritter away the country's reputation. South Africa is now perched on a precipice, as it prepares to elect Jacob Zuma as president -- signaling a potential slide back to the bad old days of post-colonial African leadership, and disaster for a country that was once the beacon of the continent.

Drawing on his long relationships with all the key senior figures including Mandela, Mbeki, Desmond Tutu, and Zuma, and a host of South Africans he has known over the years -- including former activists turned billionaires and reactionary Boers -- Alec Russell'sBring Me My Machine Gunis a beautifully told and expertly researched account of South Africa's great tragedy: the tragedy of hope unfulfilled.Alec Russellis World News Editor at theFinancial Times, and formerly their Johannesburg bureau chief. He previously covered the wars in the former Yugoslavia and Africa for theDaily Telegraphand was its foreign editor from 2001-2003. From 2003-2006 he was based in Washington, D.C., and covered the Bush administration. He is the author of two books and lives in London.Peter Godwin, author ofWhen a Crocodile Eats the Sun
“A vivid portrait of post-apartheid South Africa, briskly depicting the dramas of a young nation and the telling threats to its future.”

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2009
“Financial Timesworld news editor Russell offers a cogent study of the political perils ensnaring South Africa since the fall of apartheid…. An important dispatch from a journalist in the trenches.”

Booklist, review 4/15
“In open, journalistic style, Russell looks in depth and detail at the stalled dream of peace and reconciliation…. This is excitlÓd