‘Poetry has always been a way for me to process life’—Saaleha Idrees Bamjee in conversation with Makhosazana Xaba
This is the eighth in a series of long-form interviews by Patron Makhosazana Xaba to be hosted on The JRB,…
Tag: Islam
Ethiopia’s violence in focus—Percy Zvomuya reads regional conflict through the lens of the Tigray War
Percy Zvomuya draws on Martin Plaut and Sarah Vaughan’s valuable new book Understanding Ethiopia’s Tigray War in a reading of…
‘A welcome addition to the growing list of literature centring queer lives in Africa’—Shayera Dark reviews Musih Tedji Xaviere’s debut novel These Letters End in Tears
As a novel centred on lesbian love set in an intensely homophobic country, These Letters End in Tears by Musih…
Creating interventionist ways of reading—Read an excerpt from Reading From the South: African Print Cultures and Oceanic Turns in Isabel Hofmeyr’s Work
The JRB presents an excerpt from Reading From the South: African Print Cultures and Oceanic Turns in Isabel Hofmeyr’s Work….
[Fiction Issue] ‘She prophesises bad omens when birds are kept caged’—Read an excerpt from Zaheera Jina Asvat’s Tears of the Weaver
The JRB presents an excerpt from Zaheera Jina Asvat’s short story ‘Birds Kept in Cages, Curse …’, from Tears of…
Tales from Mombasa—Carey Baraka speaks to Khadija Abdalla Bajaber about her award-winning debut novel, The House of Rust
Carey Baraka reviews The House of Rust, the latest tale from Mombasa, land of fables, and chats to its author,…
‘The Pit was a place steeped in gloom, where people seldom went, and where certainly no one went alone’—Read an excerpt from Ashraf Kagee’s new novel By the Fading Light
The JRB presents an excerpt from By the Fading Light, the new novel from European Union Literary Award-winner Ashraf Kagee….
‘These are the nuances of poverty’—Read an excerpt from Razina Theba’s new memoir A Home on Vorster Street
The JRB presents an excerpt from A Home on Vorster Street: A Memoir by Razina Theba. A Home on Vorster…
A work of fiction that calls to us to rethink Palestine’s ‘normal’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Against The Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
Wamuwi Mbao reviews Susan Abulhawa’s Against The Loveless World, winner of the Palestine Book Award. Against The Loveless WorldSusan AbulhawaBloomsbury…
Writing Athlone—Gabeba Baderoon’s latest poetry collection The History of Intimacy maps the small hurts of apartheid, writes Toni Giselle Stuart
Toni Giselle Stuart reviews Gabeba Baderoon’s poetry collection The History of Intimacy, which won the 2019 University of Johannesburg Main…
[Conversation Issue] ‘I won’t be polite, because there’s nothing polite about patriarchy’—Mona Eltahawy inspires (and triggers) at the Abantu Book Festival, reports Itumeleng Molefi
As part of our January Conversation Issue, Itumeleng Molefi reflects on Mona Eltahawy’s keynote address and conversation with Pumla Dineo…
[Conversation Issue] ‘I wanted to throw back the curtain on some of the things and places that “nice” people avoid talking about’—Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan talks to Ben Williams about her bestselling Singlish novel Sarong Party Girls
As part of our January Conversation Issue, The JRB Publisher Ben Williams chats to Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan about her debut…
[Conversation Issue] On writing about religion, childhood and insecurities: Azad Essa transcribes a conversation between father and son
As part of our January Conversation Issue, journalist and author Azad Essa is in conversation with his father Ebrahim Essa,…
Africanism and Afrofuturism: Imraan Coovadia considers Blackness, Black Panther and Achille Mbembe’s Critique of Black Reason
Achille Mbembe’s vision is a guide to the revolution that stands on the other side of revolution, writes Imraan Coovadia. Critique…
A real-life Yemeni-American hero: Imraan Coovadia reviews Dave Eggers’s new book, The Monk of Mokha
The Monk of Mokha’s easygoing optimism glides over the prejudices and hatred that underdog minorities face in the United States,…
‘I started writing the book in a fit of anger with Fees Must Fall activists’—Rehana Rossouw chats to Jennifer Malec about New Times
Rehana Rossouw’s critically acclaimed debut novel, What Will People Say?, was shortlisted for the 2015 Etisalat Prize for Literature, and won…
A flawed take on immigration and the rise of the right: Lebohang Mojapelo reviews Sasha Polakow-Suransky’s Go Back to Where You Came From
Fear of a black planet, rather than ‘economic anxiety’, gnaws at the West’s hallowed liberal democratic principles, writes Lebohang Mojapelo….
The limits of counterfactual fiction: Percy Zvomuya reviews Bertène Juminer’s Bozambo’s Revenge and Michel Houellebecq’s Submission
La Revanche de Bozambo / Bozambo’s Revenge Bertène Juminer Présence Africaine, 1968 (French ed.)/Three Continents Press, 1968 (English ed.) Submission…