[Photo Editor] Two portraits of Charles Mungoshi (1947–2019) by Victor Dlamini
Victor Dlamini photographed the Zimbabwean writer Charles Mungoshi, who died on 16 of February this year at the age of…
Category: Zimbabwe
‘Zimbos are Highly Educated in conspiracy theories smh’—Tweets from Harare during the week-long #ZimShutdown social media blackout, January 2019
The JRB presents an alternative Twitter timeline by Farai Mudzingwa, who imagines what he would have, or could have, posted…
[Photo Editor] Original portraits of Tsitsi Dangarembga and Achmat Dangor by Victor Dlamini
Victor Dlamini is The JRB’s Photo Editor. We feature his work on our Instagram channel. Visit the ten-year retrospective of…
Hugh Lewin, 1939–2019, RIP
Journalist, author and anti-apartheid activist Hugh Lewin has died, aged seventy-nine. Lewin passed away at his home in Killarney, Johannesburg…
[Conversation Issue] ‘Africa exists in the world, and the world has always been in Africa’—Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu chats to Jennifer Malec about her debut novel, The Theory of Flight
As part of our January Conversation Issue, The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec talks to Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu about her debut novel, The Theory of…
New short fiction: ‘Njuzu’ by TL Huchu, excerpted from the Pan-African science fiction anthology AfroSFv3
The JRB presents ‘Njuzu’, a new short story by TL Huchu, excerpted from AfroSFv3. AfroSFv3 Edited by Ivor W Hartmann…
[Fiction issue] ‘The History of Emil Coetzee’, an excerpt from a work in progress by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu
The JRB presents an excerpt from a work in progress by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu. Ndlovu is the author of The…
[The JRB Daily] Panashe Chigumadzi wins 2018 Brittle Paper Award for Rights of Conquest, Rights of Desire, published in The JRB
The winners of the 2018 Brittle Paper Awards have been announced—including Panashe Chigumadzi, for her essay ‘History Through the Body or Rights…
[The JRB Exclusive] An excerpt from Tsitsi Dangarembga’s This Mournable Body, the third in the Tambudzai Trilogy that began with Nervous Conditions
The JRB presents an exclusive excerpt from This Mournable Body, the highly anticipated new novel from Tsitsi Dangarembga. Scroll to…
[Photo Editor] Original portraits of Sue Nyathi and Athol Fugard by Victor Dlamini
Victor Dlamini is The JRB’s Photo Editor. We feature his work on our Instagram channel. Don’t miss the ten-year retrospective…
Of Fathers and Grandfathers—Read an excerpt from House of Stone, the debut novel by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma
The JRB is proud to present an excerpt from House of Stone, the debut novel by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma. House of…
Novuyo Rosa Tshuma and Panashe Chigumadzi in conversation—Meditations on the traumas and triumphs of Zimbabwe’s histories
‘History is created in the mouth …’ Novuyo Rosa Tshuma and The JRB Contributing Editor Panashe Chigumadzi both have new…
[The JRB Exclusive] ‘The colonisers were right: the mbira is dangerous’—Read an excerpt from Panashe Chigumadzi’s new book These Bones Will Rise Again
Chigumadzi’s exploration of personal, family and national history reincarnates in stark, vivid images, many of those interred in the shadows…
[The JRB Daily] Short Story Day Africa Prize shortlist announced, revealing ‘uncomfortable and fascinating truths about who we are’
The shortlist for the Short Story Day Africa Prize for Short Fiction has been announced. The prize is worth $800…
[City Editor] Hardly working under the apricot tree in Harare: Niq Mhlongo reports back from his joint book tour with Zukiswa Wanner
The JRB City Editor Niq Mhlongo traveled to Harare recently, for two joint book launches with Zukiswa Wanner. Don’t miss…
View from the privileged heights of the JIAS Castle: Zukiswa Wanner and Niq Mhlongo reflect on their writing fellowship
The JRB City Editor Niq Mhlongo and Zukiswa Wanner have both just published new books—Soweto, Under the Apricot Tree and…
[The JRB Daily] Panashe Chigumadzi reflects on Zimbabwe’s ‘coup that was not a coup’ in her new book, These Bones Will Rise Again
Panashe Chigumadzi’s new book, These Bones Will Rise Again, will be out from United Kingdom-based independent publisher The Indigo Press in June….
[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…
[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…
[Audio] It’s a writer’s life: That hilarious time Zukiswa Wanner encountered her own book in a Joburg taxi
Zukiswa Wanner launched her latest book, Hardly Working: A Travel Memoir of Sorts, in Johannesburg at African Flavour Books recently, in…
[The JRB Daily] The Johannesburg Review of Books’s Book of the Year
The JRB’s Editor takes a look back at 2017 and picks out the single work that left the biggest impression….
[The JRB Daily] 2017 Short Story Day Africa Prize longlist announced
The longlist for the Short Story Day Africa Prize for Short Fiction has been announced. The prize is worth $1,000…
The Visiting Hours: A dispatch from Harare by Tonderai Munyevu
The author visited Harare, Zimbabwe shortly after the military intervention that led to President Robert Mugabe’s resignation on 21 November,…
[Fiction issue] An excerpt from Imagine Ghosts Telling Tales in front of Smoky Mirrors, the debut novel by SL Masunda
Exclusive to The JRB, an excerpt from the debut novel of Zimbabwean author SL Masunda. Imagine Ghosts Telling Tales in…
[The JRB Daily] He seemed invincible: Petina Gappah reflects on Robert Mugabe’s rule
Writing for the New Yorker, The JRB Editorial Advisory Panel member Petina Gappah contemplates ‘How Zimbabwe Freed Itself From Robert Mugabe’. Mugabe’s resignation…
‘Speaking Shona was associated with humiliation’: Petina Gappah on the influence, on her writing, of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Decolonising the Mind
Exclusive to The JRB, a new essay by Petina Gappah on the influence of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s work on her…
Exclusive interview: Petina Gappah speaks about the highs and lows of her writing career, and reveals details of her next book
Petina Gappah sat down with The JRB contributor Bongani Kona. Gappah is a Zimbabwean writer with law degrees from Cambridge, Graz…
James Baldwin in Rhodesia: Percy Zvomuya picks out a thread from the forgotten war book Black Fire!
In the late nineteen-seventies, James Baldwin encountered an ‘extraordinary and illuminating’ Rhodesian book, which influenced his thought around black rage…
[The JRB Daily] JRB Contributing Editor Bongani Madondo up for Brittle Paper Literary Award
Main image: Bongani Madondo photographed by JRB Photo Editor Victor Dlamini To celebrate their seventh anniversary, Brittle Paper recently launched the…
[The JRB Daily] Tribute to the extraordinary Dambudzo Marechera, thirty years after his death
18 August 2017 is the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera. He would have been sixty-five….
The Johannesburg Review of Books Vol. 1, Issue 4 (August 2017)
The fourth issue of The Johannesburg Review of Books has arrived—and not a moment too soon, in our humble opinion….
Remembering Marechera: Humboldt University hosts archive of the Zimbabwean author’s estate
There is a black-and-white portrait of Dambudzo Marechera, taken in Harare in 1986 by the Dutch photographer Ernst Schade, that…
The Johannesburg Review of Books Vol. 1, Issue 2 (June 2017)
The second issue of The Johannesburg Review of Books is here—replete with some of the finest writing on books and…
[Temporary Sojourner] How little has changed in thirty-nine years: Efemia Chela reads Dambudzo Marechera’s The House of Hunger
The House of Hunger Dambudzo Marechera First published Pantheon Books 1978; this edition Heinemann African Writers Series 2009 We knew…
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…