Book excerpt: The 16th conference of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation (GR16), held at the International Convention Centre in Durban, South Africa, from 15 to 21 July, was attended by 450 delegates from around the world. The scientific programme comprised 18 plenary lectures, one public lecture and 19 workshops which, excepting three plenary lectures, are presented in this proceedings. It was the first major international conference on general relativity and gravitation held on the African continent.