Once one experiences the phenomenal power of Christopher Okigbo’s poetry, it seems the reverberations persist throughout one’s creative life, writes…
I remember being eight and geeking out about iambic pentameter … —Maneo Refiloe Mohale This is the first in a…
Toyin Falola, who originally trained as a historian, is simply unparalleled as a vessel of public discourse, collaborative work, and…
The R335 curves around the eastern border of Addo Elephant Park and spools north through the cushiony green hills of…
The JRB presents an excerpt from Wits University at 100: From Excavation to Innovation, a book that captures important moments…
The JRB presents an excerpt from Ken Kweku Nimo’s new book Africa in Fashion: Luxury, Craft and Textile Heritage. Africa…
I cannot count the number of times I’ve read the late Binyavanga Wainaina’s viral Granta essay, ‘How to write about…
For Francis on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. I met Francis B Nyamnjoh, now a world-renowned professor of social…
Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah received the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, an announcement that came as a welcome surprise to…
The man at the bottom of Johannesburg Road in Highlands North, where Berkswell Road intersects it, punching it from the…
By Christa Kuljian and Makhosazana Xaba Transformation Who I was is not who I am.And who I amis not who I…
Sanya Osha remembers the late Harry Garuba, who died earlier this year. Since he passed in February this year, friends…
Achmat Dangor, one of The JRB’s founding Patrons, died in September. Ben Williams remembers him. It is a year of…
It’s an odd, even an imperfect location to build a museum—to build, many may argue, any kind of structure at…
Niq Mhlongo on searching for stories during a pandemic. I arrive in Berlin on Monday, 10 February 2020. It is…
Adam Smyer reflects on a global pandemic and Black Lives Matter. As I write this, we are in roughly Month…
To honour JM Coetzee’s eightieth birthday on 9 February 2020, an exhibition celebrating his life and work titled Scenes from…
As part of our January Conversation Issue, Itumeleng Molefi reflects on Mona Eltahawy’s keynote address and conversation with Pumla Dineo…
The new episode of Read This! is out now—find out what’s hot in the world of books! In this episode, we travel…
The JRB presents an excerpt from Meanwhile … Graphic Short Stories About Everyday Queer Life in Southern and East Africa….
Sandile Ngidi reflects on the life and work of Zulu novelist, poet, scholar, teacher and editor Sibusiso Nyembezi (1919–2000). In…
The following is an edited excerpt from a work in progress by American author Adam Smyer, whose debut novel, Knucklehead,…
Daylin Paul won the Ernest Cole Award, a photography prize for a prospective project, for his debut work Broken Land…
The new episode of our books show Read This!, where we share news of what’s hot in the world of…
Mapule Mohulatsi pays tribute to Toni Morrison, and weighs up the significance of her impact on and conversations with African…
The Johannesburg Review of Books and Volume have launched a new books show called Read This!, where we share news…
This year marks one hundred years since Peter Abrahams’s birth. Elinor Sisulu reflects on her meeting with the author at…
On 25 June 2019, during the State of the Nation (SONA) debate, our Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula tried to impress…
The Johannesburg Review of Books and Volume have launched a new books show called Read This!, where you can discover…
Celebrated novelist and playwright Harry Kalmer has died, at the age of sixty-two. Kalmer passed away on 26 July 2019,…
Writer and publisher Moses Nzama Khaizen Mtileni has died, at the age of thirty-six. Mtileni was shot and fatally wounded…
The JRB presents a new essay by Jacob Dlamini. For Dlamini, what began as a research project on the labour…
City Editor Niq Mhlongo, having just won his first South African prize, shares his gripes and observations on that strange…
Short Story Day Africa is celebrating the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Southern Hemisphere, with…
Header image: Binyavanga Wainaina (second from left) and Niq Mhlongo (far left), with American author and academic Jeffery Renard Allen, Lesego…
Sifiso Mzobe shows his fellow scribe, and JRB City Editor, Niq Mhlongo around his hometown of Durban during the Time…
Forget about Vilakazi Street, Soweto is deeper than that. When you get off the taxi and you’re a smoker, buy…
The JRB presents an alternative Twitter timeline by Farai Mudzingwa, who imagines what he would have, or could have, posted…
There’s a film that stands the test of time and still resonates with my friends and me: The Shawshank Redemption….
Header image (left to right): Nozizwe Cynthia Jele, Niq Mhlongo, Siyamthanda Skota, Yanele Nyamela, Phindile Mokoena, Outlwile Tsipane and Mũkoma…
