Africa South presents a history and description of southern Africa from the arrival of Europeans until the creation of the Republic of South Africa in 1961. Harm J. de Blij provides a portrait of the landscape and the internal policies and struggles within the region. The work serves as a historical travel guide and an introduction to the history of southern Africa. All the maps in Africa South were prepared by the author.

HARM J. DE BLIJ (1935-2014) earned his Ph. D. from Northwestern University in 1959 was later the John A. Hannah Professor of Geography at Michigan State University. De Blij  was the geography editor on ABC’s Good Morning America for seven years and was the author of many books, including Why Geography Matters: Three Challenges Facing America and The Power of Place: Geography, Destiny, and Globalization's Rough Landscape.