Author: Peter Magubane, Sandra Klopper

Celebrating the vibrant social, artistic and religious traditions of various contemporary South African peoples, this book is based on Magubane's recent images of communities across the country. It is a tribute to the lives to those rural traditionalists who still continue to honor practices that have been all but lost in most urban centers.

African Renaissance is not only about the past. It demonstrates the dynamic relationship between past and present practices, while at the same time drawing attention to the hybrid styles of dress and adornment that are adopted by contemporary traditionalists throughout the country.

African Renaissance looks, in turn, at the history of the notion of an African Renaissance; the vibrant traditions of dress, beadwork and other forms of adornment that are still worn by rural traditionalists; the continued importance which people attached to rites of passage such as initiations and weddings; various rural artistic traditions, and the murals and vernacular forms of architecture practiced throughout rural South Africa