Luli Callinicos Author

Luli Callinicos was born in Johannesburg of Hellenic descent. She became involved in the struggle for democracy in South Africa at an early age and taught history in schools and the emerging trade union movement. In the late 1970s, she began writing her pioneering and award-winning trilogy Gold and Workers (1981), Working Life (1987) and A Place in the City (1993). Those volumes brought to the South African public, for the first time, the neglected history of 'ordinary' South Africans. Her popular book, The world that made Mandela (2000, STE Publishers), broke new ground in South African biography by identifying both the people and the places that shaped the life of a great man. That innovative method draws on her experience as a Council member of the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) and her involvement in a number of heritage committees and advisory panels for the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. In both The world that made Mandela and Oliver Tambo: His Life and Legacy, Luli Callinicos' command of social history is combined with her deep commitment to conserving the landscape of South Africa's heritage and celebrating it with the world.