Books

One Man’s Africa

Ryan’s first book, One Man’s Africa is a record of his time as a foreign correspondent. Interlaced with many of Ryan’s reports of the day, it reflects history in the making. Ryan was involved in five wars and detained four times.

The book also records the process of revolution in South Africa itself, the struggle against apartheid and how the author’s own life was changed as he fought to maintain his integrity as a journalist during that struggle. One reviewer said of the book, “When John Ryan writes (about Africa) nobody comes second.”

In One Man’s Africa (John Ryan) gives a vivid, colourful account of what it was like to be a journalist on assignment in these event-filled, often traumatic, defining times.  Insightful, intelligent, scrupulously fair and written with a sort of sustaining humour and an eye for the absurd, it blends history with his own personal experiences. Anthony Stidolph, The Natal Witness, November 6 2002.

 

White Journalist During Apartheid

“One Man’s Africa” therefore serves an important purpose: it conveniently compiles, in one volume, the long career of an honest journalist who operated under apartheid’s looming shadow. For an African based outside Southern Africa, it’s enlightening.

Ryan’s method is to present past stories he filed in their original form while adding context and hindsight commentary. For the South African reader, this may simply be rehashing. But for the outsider, it works quite well. Most importantly, one gets to see that even under a racially divisive system, there were newspapers and reporters calling things as they were. This is all the more striking since Ryan is a white South African. And he makes it clear, with pride, that he wasn’t alone.

The book is written in a liberal voice, but it’s different in tone—in subtle ways—from, say, the regular accounts by an American or British foreign correspondent. Ryan is a white South African. This makes him an African but not in the usual sort of way, and he puts his uniqueness to use. He has a wry humor that hints at his European ancestry. However, there’s also a slight though appealing brashness of someone who’s all too familiar with his environment.”  Wilson Wanene, Nieman Reports, Fall 2003

One Man’s Africa is available in soft copy on Amazon.com.  To buy a copy, click here.

Spy Story

Spy story has its origins in the fact that Ryan grew up in the Transkei during the latter part of World War II. His father, as head of the National Reserve Volunteers there, was privy to a lot of confidential information. Thus, to a large extent, it is autobiographical. Most of the events it records happened. All the main characters actually existed. The Wild Coast, that area of the Indian Ocean bordering the remote Transkei, was a prime hunting ground for German submarines during that war. They would target Allied convoys using the alternative supply route through the Suez Canal. Many neutral vessels plying between African ports were also sunk.

Spy Story is available for Kindle on Amazon.com.  To buy a copy, click here.