[The JRB Daily] 2018 Alan Paton Award for Non-fiction longlist announced
The 2018 Sunday Times Literary Awards longlists have been announced! The awards celebrate ‘the best of South African non-fiction and…
Category: 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,…
‘Writing allowed me to honour the connections between life and death’—Philippa Namutebi Kabali-Kagwa talks to Tiah Beautement about her memoir, Flame and Song
Tiah Beautement chats to Philippa Namutebi Kabali-Kagwa about her poetry and prose memoir, Flame and Song, which traverses Uganda, Addis…
JM Coetzee is tired: Wamuwi Mbao reports from the ‘Photographs from Boyhood’ exhibition in Cape Town
An exhibition of JM Coetzee’s newly discovered childhood photography was recently held in Cape Town. Wamuwi Mbao was there. With…
[The JRB Daily] The early years: Read an excerpt from Hugh Ramapolo Masekela’s autobiography, Still Grazing
Hugh Ramapolo Masekela died in Johannesburg today, at the age of seventy-eight, after a long battle with prostate cancer. The…
[The JRB Daily] [Photo Editor] Listen to Victor Dlamini’s 2007 interview with Mmatshilo Motsei on her book The Kanga and the Kangaroo Court
As part of our January Conversation Issue, The JRB published an essay titled ‘Kanga and Khwezi: Kwezilomso Mbandazayo challenges the…
‘I was interested in being present at the moment when truth revealed itself’—JM Coetzee’s childhood photography
Childhood photographs by JM Coetzee are currently on exhibition at the Irma Stern Gallery in Cape Town. The exhibition, titled…
[The JRB Daily] 2017 South African Literary Awards winners announced
The winners of the 2017 South African Literary Awards (SALAs) have been announced. The SALAs are awarded annually by the…
Linger No More: Mandela speaks from the grave, and Bongani Madondo speaks to his medium, author Mandla Langa
Nelson Mandela altered the world. He affected everyone in it, in ways few will ever manage. He also died before…
‘A confrontation we see as our birthright’: An excerpt from Sisonke Msimang’s new book Always Another Country
Sisonke Msimang, who grew up in exile, describes her first visit to South Africa in December 1990, the year Nelson…
Read an excerpt from the first full-length biography of Christopher Okigbo, a cult hero for a new wave of young African writers
Exclusive to The JRB, an excerpt from the newly published first-ever biography of the Nigerian poet Christopher Okigbo: Christopher Okigbo 1930—67, Thirsting…
[The JRB Daily] South African Literary Awards shortlists announced
The 2017 South African Literary Awards shortlists have been announced, with nominees including Mohale Mashigo, Kopano Matlwa, Nthikeng Mohlele, Etienne van…
[The JRB Daily] Exclusive preview: Bongani Madondo’s interview with Mandla Langa, co-author of Nelson Mandela’s Dare Not Linger
To mark the publication of Nelson Mandela’s Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years, which goes on sale today, The JRB…
Making space for women in South Africa’s political memory, or, the case of the non-intersection of Pixley ka Seme and Charlotte Maxeke Streets
Recently published biographies of Pixley ka Seme and Charlotte Maxeke reveal how women’s histories become insignificant back roads in the…
[Sponsored] We did not know it was the final farewell: An excerpt from Karina M Szczurek’s memoir, The Fifth Mrs Brink
Jonathan Ball Publishers has shared an excerpt from The Fifth Mrs Brink, Karina M Szczurek’s soul-baring memoirs of her life before,…
In honour of Emma Mashinini: An excerpt from Strikes Have Followed Me All My Life
… I have always resented being dominated. I resent being dominated by a man, and I resent being dominated by…
Writes of passage, an urban memoir: How a Pan-African journal and American glossies put Bongani Madondo on the Write Path
Sigh the Beloved Country: Braai Talk, Rock ‘n’ Roll & Other Stories Bongani Madondo Picador Africa, 2016 Load up on…
[Sponsored] Karina M Szczurek on life with Andre Brink and her new memoir, The Fifth Mrs Brink (including podcast)
Ingrid Winterbach spoke to Karina M Szczurek at the Woordfees literary festival recently about her life with one of South…