Slaughter of the Innocent

The Bushmen of Southern Africa

A mix of history and current affairs, travel, reportage and anecdote, this passionate book speaks up for the Bushmen, the first people of Africa.

This is a shocking book, one of those rare volumes that skin the conscience and suck at the fat of complacency. It is the story of a genocide, the persecution of one of the world's most ancient peoples, the Bushmen of the Kalahari...the story is told with research as thorough as his passion is undisguised

Sandy Gall was born in Malaya in 1927, educated in Scotland, and in 1953 joined Reuters as a foreign correspondent in Germany, East Africa, Hungary and South Africa.  In 1963, he moved to ITN, where he co-presented News at Ten, and reported wars in the Middle East, Vietnam, Afghanistan and the Gulf.  He has made numerous documentaries, and written several books. He is married, has four children, and lives in Kent.  He was awarded the Lawrence of Arabia Memorial Medal by the Prince of Wales in 1987, and the CBE in 1988.

A mix of history and current affairs, travel, reportage and anecdote, this passionate book speaks up for the Bushmen, the first people of Africa. 
 
*Featuring a preface by Prince Charles* 
 
Bushmen were hunting and gathering, painting and mining copper, thousands of years ago. They were the first people of Africa. Deadly shots with their bows and arrows, they were, in their heyday, Lords of the Desert. They fought extremely bravely for their land, and lost. Today, they have been reduced to an underclass - dispossessed, despised and degraded. Just in time - one is tempted to say, miraculously - the Mandela government saved them from extermination in South Africa. Now, in Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve, set aside specially for them by the British in 1961, they are making their last stand, refusing to be evicted in order to benefit mining and tourism. Sandy Gall, who is best known for his reporting of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, has taken up the cause of the Bushmen. His interest in their plight dates back to the 1950s and 1960s when he was working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters; in 1999 he visited the Central Kalahari with his daughter Michaela. 
 
His book celebrates the culture of these unique people, many of whom have an almost mystical bond with animals. He has portrayed many fascinating individuals who have been involved, for good or ill, in their tragic history and their present predicament. Here, for the first time, is the full story of the slaughter of an innocent people. The Bushmen of Southern Africa speaks not only for the Bushmen but for the native indigenous people of the world. It faces up to a shameful and bloodstained past and looks at burning current issues such as human rights and the ownership and exploitation of land.

Sandy Gall

Agony of a Nation

This book is an account of Sandy Gall's last trip to Afghanistan in 1986 to report the war. It tells of his journey, with all its hardships and dangers, as well as explaining the background to the war including some dramatic pictures of the fighting. Sandy Gall chose to revisit the man he regards as the outstanding commander in Afghanistan, Ahmed Shah Masud, who is trying to organize resistance to the Russians on a regional and eventually national scale. The author views the war as Russia's Vietnam and believes it merits much wider attention. He believes it has been largely neglected because of the difficulties of the terrain and the length of time it takes to get to the remoter areas. For his work in Afghanistan, Sandy Gall - a Reuter correspondent for ten years and ITN "trouble shooter" since 1963 - was awarded the Lawrence of Arabia Memorial Medal in 1987.

Sandy Gall

Books by Sandy Gall

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