Awards

Honouring literary stalwarts in their lifetime: Gcina Mhlophe and Sindiwe Magona celebrated for their contribution to children’s literature (including exclusive John Kani video)

Authors are sometimes only properly appreciated after they are gone, but Gcina Mhlophe and Sindiwe Magona are two writers who…

Africa

[The JRB Daily] Exclusive to The JRB: ‘I’m going to market the hell out of our stories’—Zukiswa Wanner reveals the details of her new Africa-focused publishing company, Paivapo

Zukiswa Wanner is starting her own publishing company, with a focus on marketing and selling books throughout Africa. Wanner will launch…

Africa

[The JRB Daily] ‘None But Ourselves’—Percy Zvomuya charts the sonic cartography of a revolution in the new Chimurenga Chronic: ‘The Invention of Zimbabwe’

Image: Bob Marley performing at the Zimbabwe Independence celebration, Rufaro Stadium, Harare, 18 April 1980 The new issue of Chimurenga’s…

Fiction

‘My main objective is still to help build a bigger reader base of fiction in this country and beyond’—Nozizwe Cynthia Jele chats to Jennifer Malec about her new book, The Ones with Purpose

Editorial Advisory Panel member Nozizwe Cynthia Jele chatted to The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec about her new novel, The Ones with Purpose, which…

Biography & Memoir

The hidden history of an ordinary umZulu woman who asserted her freedom—Makhosazana Xaba reviews Nomavenda Mathiane’s Eyes in the Night: An Untold Zulu Story

Nomavenda Mathiane’s Eyes in the Night: An Untold Zulu Story illuminates the times, spaces and voices in-between, writes The JRB…

Biography & Memoir

‘I am me; I am black; I must be proud of my blackness.’—Read an excerpt from Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s memoir, 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has died in Johannesburg at the age of eighty-one. Read an excerpt from her prison journal, published in 2013,…

Fiction

[City Editor] ‘I try to appreciate township solidarity without romanticising it’: Niq Mhlongo chats to Jennifer Malec about Soweto, Under the Apricot Tree

The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec chatted to City Editor Niq Mhlongo about the banning of Inxeba, writing to music, and his brand…

Book excerpts

‘Spending time with Bra Willie is the closest thing to being in touch with the soul of this country’: Read Mandla Langa’s Introduction to Keorapetse Kgositsile’s Homesoil in My Blood

Homesoil in My Blood: A Trilogy Keorapetse Kgositsile Xarra Books, 2018 Exclusive to The JRB, we present author Mandla Langa’s…