The second issue of The Johannesburg Review of Books is here—replete with some of the finest writing on books and literature that Africa has to offer.
As with our first issue, which saw many unsought but welcome synergies emerge among and between the articles (feminism, counterfactual fictions, coloniality, and so on), Issue 2 is marked by several themes, serendipitously bubbling up and seeping through the prose like literary black gold, including: Marabi-style music, African literary awards, travel across the continent and the oceans, Muslim African sexuality, the influence of Dambudzo Marechera, the ‘modernity-crash moment’ and ‘postcolonial swirl’ of the postcolony (thanks to reviewer Wamuwi Mbao for those pithy phrases) and, unhappily, how little has changed on the ground for so many Africans since independence began to dawn halfway through the last century.
Here’s the complete breakdown of Vol. 1, Issue 2, which you will also find on our issue archive page:
Reviews
- Step on the Bassline: Bongani Madondo unlocks a torrent of Joburg memories
- Caught in the surreal postcolonial swirl: Wamuwi Mbao reviews Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou
- We are not dogs! We must get organised: Percy Zvomuya reviews The Beggars’ Strike by Aminata Sow Fall
- [Temporary Sojourner] How little has changed in thirty-nine years: Efemia Chela reads Dambudzo Marechera’s The House of Hunger
Interviews
- English here is the foreign language: A conversation with Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, author of Season of Crimson Blossoms
- It was a hard book to write: Kopano Matlwa discusses her latest novel, Period Pain
Essays
- ‘I want my legs back’: A personal history of catastrophe by para-athlete Palesa ‘Deejay’ Manaleng
- ‘Writing is sometimes like a thread that weaves all our hearts into one’: Lidudumalingani reflects on his Caine Prize visit to the United States
- [City Editor] A miracle under the apricot tree in Chi Town: How a writer came to name Maboneng
- Lagos, one long literary and artistic lime: Etisalat Prize judge Elinor Sisulu reflects on a trip of note
- Dispatch from Conakry: James Murua attends the 2017 World Book Capital celebrations
Fiction
- New short fiction from Queer Africa 2: ‘Nine Pieces of Desire’ by Idza L
- Welcome to Jozi maboneng, the place of lights: Read an excerpt from After Tears by Niq Mhlongo
Poetry
Photography
Audio
News & Other
