Tim McKee's interviews with 12 South African teenagers are presented here as lively first-person narratives, with each teen describing his or her life before and after the end of apartheid. Selected from 65 interviews the author conducted over a ten-month period in 1995-96, these 12 adolescent voices represent a range of personal histories and perspectives: Nithinia Martin, an 18-year-old Coloured woman, speaks candidly about race relations and her strong desire throughout childhood and adolescence to be like the white kids; 17-year-old Michael Njova was an abandoned child who survived by "stealing and stabbing" on the streets of Johannesburg until he was caught and sent to an orphanage at age 13; Vuyiswa Mbambisa, 16, grew up in exile with her mother in Angola and returned to Soweto as a young teenager to live with her grandmother, finding conditions much worse than she had expected; 16-year-old Mark Abrahamson had always taken his life of white privilege for granted until the breakdown of apartheid allowed him to see, close-up, how bad conditions were in the Black townships; and 15-year-old Pfano Takalani, living a traditional life in a remote rural area in Venda, comments that the biggest change in his life in the past few years occurred when his eldest brother was installed as chief in 1993. Eight of the 12 teens interviewed are Black and, with the exception of Pfano Takalani, each of them describes a childhood defined by poverty, brutality and oppression, and each one speaks with an amazing lack of bitterness. All 12 -- Black, white, Coloured and Indian -- have high hopes for a future where opportunity, freedom and equality will replace poverty, brutality and oppression. As 18-year-old Bandile Mashinini says: "We have a new constitution, and it's a great foundation, but it's still only ink on paper. I want to make sure we build well on top of it." This book gives us hope that he and his peers will be able to do just that. (Ages 12-18)

Just four years after South Africa abolished apartheid as a national, legal practice, thirteen South African teens tell stories about living under apartheid and about learning to take part in the New South Africa. Expressing guilt, anger, jealousy, love, and, most importantly, hope, these white, Coloured and African teens are ready for change, acceptance and equality. Eager to be a part of this change through the way they treat one another, they face their futures with openness to new ideas and a thirst for education.

In their own words, a variety of teenagers from South Africa talk about their years growing up under apartheid, and about the changes now occurring in their country. A photoessay in which 12 South African teens discuss their lives under apartheid & after. Twelve South African teenagers from varied backgrounds describe conditions under apartheid & the impact it had on their lives. "In South Africa we are learning to heal through the telling of stories like these, for it is only through telling that we heal." Through powerful personal narratives and photographs, this remarkable book brings together twelve South African teenagers whose distinct voices illuminate their experiences under apartheid and the joyous yet challenging years of freedom since. In their own words, these teens reveal what it was like to grow up in a country bitterly divided by racial separation, violence, and poverty. Eighteen-year-old Bandile Mashinini tells of police breaking down his door night after night because of his family's outspoken resistance to apartheid. Sixteen-year-old Ricardo Thando Tollie speaks of living in a tin shack only a few miles from the elegant houses of white suburbs. And fifteen-year-old Leandra Jansen van Vuuren describes her isolated childhood as a white South African, taught only to fear and mistrust people with skin darker than her own. But here, too, are stories of hope; of a willingness to reach out, to forgive, and to heal. Although they speak with a diverse range of voices, experiences, and attitudes, these young people are united in the belief that the new South Africa will truly be different from the one they have known. Their lives stand testament to the power and resilience of the human spirit and to a country's ability to redefine itself.