World atlas for South Africans
(Jonathan Ball)
Our human world is not a static place. Boundaries shift, places get new names. As with dictionaries, every decade or so it’s useful to invest in a new atlas to keep up with global changes. South Africa itself doesn’t have the same internal shape it had 10 years ago. The new World Atlas for South Africans has a special 32-page section just on South Africa, with double-page spreads on its physical geography, climate, demography, infrastructure and the like, as well as maps of each of the nine new provinces. Name changes to towns, dams, and so on, are reflected but, strangely, the Gariep River is still labelled the Orange. An eight-page section gives a thumb-nail overview of South Africa’s history, with tables of key dates.
The global section opens with vital statistics about all the nations of the world, as well as global economic groupings and international organisations, time zones, climate, telecommunications, the state of the world’s health and wealth, and much more — making this an ideal reference tool not only for school projects but also for business people operating in a globalised world.
A section entitled Century of Change, outlines key events in 20thcentury history. The main atlas section is organised by continent: Europe, Asia, Oceania, North and South America, Africa, as well as Polar and Oceans. The index takes up a good third of the book, so you should be able to find most of what you’re looking for. Only slightly larger than an A4 page, the World Atlas for South Africans is also very portable.