Category: Non-fiction

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Academic

A profoundly beautiful exploration of what ageing means for those who lived in compact with racial separation—Wamuwi Mbao reviews God’s Waiting Room by Casey Golomski

Wamuwi MbaoLeave a Comment on A profoundly beautiful exploration of what ageing means for those who lived in compact with racial separation—Wamuwi Mbao reviews God’s Waiting Room by Casey Golomski

What does it mean to want grace after such a thing as apartheid? What might it look like? God’s Waiting…

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Academic

Omar Badsha: an ordinary South African whose struggles and triumphs offer insights into broader social movements—Sean Jacobs reviews Available Light by Daniel Magaziner

Sean JacobsLeave a Comment on Omar Badsha: an ordinary South African whose struggles and triumphs offer insights into broader social movements—Sean Jacobs reviews Available Light by Daniel Magaziner

Available Light continues Daniel Magaziner’s significant work in shedding light on the lives of Black artists and intellectuals under apartheid,…

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Academic

‘They began to see that science was not isolated from politics but shaped by it’—Read an excerpt from Our Science, Ourselves by Christa Kuljian

Christa KuljianLeave a Comment on ‘They began to see that science was not isolated from politics but shaped by it’—Read an excerpt from Our Science, Ourselves by Christa Kuljian

The JRB presents an excerpt from Christa Kuljian’s new book, Our Science, Ourselves: How Gender, Race, and Social Movements Shaped…

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Academic

‘Africans are free only to the extent of breathing’—Read an excerpt from An Ethos of Transdisciplinarity: Conversations with Toyin Falola by Sanya Osha

Sanya OshaLeave a Comment on ‘Africans are free only to the extent of breathing’—Read an excerpt from An Ethos of Transdisciplinarity: Conversations with Toyin Falola by Sanya Osha

The JRB presents an excerpt from Sanya Osha’s latest book An Ethos of Transdisciplinarity: Conversations with Toyin Falola. An Ethos…

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Academic

Read ‘The Complexities of Intimacy for Black Middle-Class Women’, excerpted from Love in Jozi: The Black Middle Class, Love and Intimacy in Johannesburg

The JRBLeave a Comment on Read ‘The Complexities of Intimacy for Black Middle-Class Women’, excerpted from Love in Jozi: The Black Middle Class, Love and Intimacy in Johannesburg

The JRB presents an excerpt from Love in Jozi: The Black Middle Class, Love and Intimacy in Johannesburg, edited by…

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Book excerpts

Taking Guard in Inner-city Johannesburg—Read an excerpt from Niren Tolsi’s new book Writing Around the Wicket: Race, Class and History in South African Cricket

Niren TolsiLeave a Comment on Taking Guard in Inner-city Johannesburg—Read an excerpt from Niren Tolsi’s new book Writing Around the Wicket: Race, Class and History in South African Cricket

The JRB presents an excerpt from Writing Around the Wicket: Race, Class and History in South African Cricket by Niren…

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Academic

‘In Africa, the conservative realism of the military mind met the liberatory spirit of the decolonising mind’—Read an excerpt from Soldier’s Paradise by Samuel Fury Childs Daly

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The JRB presents an excerpt from Samuel Fury Childs Daly’s new book, Soldier’s Paradise: Militarism in Africa After Empire.  Soldier′s…

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Academic

‘Ngangizwa kahle ukuthi ukuhumusha kuyangikhulisa, kungisabalalisela ingqondo’—Makhosazana Xaba chats to Musawenkosi Cabe about her isiZulu translation of Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth

Musawenkosi CabeLeave a Comment on ‘Ngangizwa kahle ukuthi ukuhumusha kuyangikhulisa, kungisabalalisela ingqondo’—Makhosazana Xaba chats to Musawenkosi Cabe about her isiZulu translation of Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth

Udliwano ndlebe mayelana nokuhushushwa kwengcwadi ka Frantz Fanon, Izimpabanga Zomhlaba, phakathi komhumushi uMakhosazana Xaba no Musawenkosi Cabe. This is a…

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Academic

The place of death in the struggle for freedom in South Africa—Read an excerpt from Jacob Dlamini’s new book Dying for Freedom: Political Martyrdom in South Africa

Jacob DlaminiLeave a Comment on The place of death in the struggle for freedom in South Africa—Read an excerpt from Jacob Dlamini’s new book Dying for Freedom: Political Martyrdom in South Africa

The JRB presents an excerpt from Dying for Freedom: Political Martyrdom in South Africa, the new book by Jacob Dlamini. Dying…

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Interviews

‘A family can be a very stifling environment’—Lebohang Mojapelo interviews Pontsho Pilane on her book Power and Faith: How Evangelical Churches are Quietly Shaping Our Democracy

Lebohang MojapeloLeave a Comment on ‘A family can be a very stifling environment’—Lebohang Mojapelo interviews Pontsho Pilane on her book Power and Faith: How Evangelical Churches are Quietly Shaping Our Democracy

Lebohang Mojapelo talks to Pontsho Pilane about her new book, Power and Faith: How Evangelical Churches are Quietly Shaping Our…

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Academic

‘I lose myself for hours inside its green and blue pixels’—Read Masande Ntshanga’s new essay Technologies of Conquest, from The Creative Arts: On Practice, Making and Meaning

Masande NtshangaLeave a Comment on ‘I lose myself for hours inside its green and blue pixels’—Read Masande Ntshanga’s new essay Technologies of Conquest, from The Creative Arts: On Practice, Making and Meaning

The JRB presents an excerpt from Masande Ntshanga’s essay ‘Technologies of Conquest: On Writing the Dystopian through South Africa’s Past,…

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Academic

‘Because of informers, meetings were never announced beforehand’—Read an excerpt from Dayspring, the memoir of the late CJ Driver, major South African poet and exiled student politician

The JRB2 Comments on ‘Because of informers, meetings were never announced beforehand’—Read an excerpt from Dayspring, the memoir of the late CJ Driver, major South African poet and exiled student politician

The JRB presents an excerpt from Dayspring, the forthcoming memoir by CJ Driver, edited and with a foreword by Nobel…

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Academic

Continuities between Tswana worlds and Black world politics—Read an excerpt from Keorapetse Kgositsile and the Black Arts Movement by Uhuru Portia Phalafala

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The JRB presents an excerpt from Uhuru Portia Phalafala’s new book, Keorapetse Kgositsile and the Black Arts Movement. Keorapetse Kgositsile…

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Biography & Memoir

[The JRB exclusive] ‘To survive as a woman in South Africa, I had to be angry’—Read an excerpt from Margie Orford’s new memoir, Love and Fury

Margie OrfordLeave a Comment on [The JRB exclusive] ‘To survive as a woman in South Africa, I had to be angry’—Read an excerpt from Margie Orford’s new memoir, Love and Fury

 The JRB presents an exclusive excerpt from Love and Fury: A Memoir by Editorial Advisory Panel member Margie Orford. Margie OrfordLove and Fury:…

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Academic

‘Powerful drama fused with its cerebral yet emotional writing’—Read Njabulo S Ndebele’s Foreword to the 60th anniversary edition of William ‘Bloke’ Modisane’s Blame Me on History

The JRBLeave a Comment on ‘Powerful drama fused with its cerebral yet emotional writing’—Read Njabulo S Ndebele’s Foreword to the 60th anniversary edition of William ‘Bloke’ Modisane’s Blame Me on History

The JRB presents Njabulo S Ndebele’s Foreword to the new sixtieth-anniversary edition of William ‘Bloke’ Modisane’s Blame Me on History….

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Book excerpts

‘This book is being published while Gaza, where I live, is being annihilated’—Read an excerpt from Decolonising the Palestinian Mind by South African–Palestinian author Haidar Eid

The JRB2 Comments on ‘This book is being published while Gaza, where I live, is being annihilated’—Read an excerpt from Decolonising the Palestinian Mind by South African–Palestinian author Haidar Eid

The JRB presents an excerpt from Haidar Eid’s new book Decolonising the Palestinian Mind. Decolonising the Palestinian MindHaidar EidInkani Books,…

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Non-fiction

‘There is something to be gained in looking at that which resists being looked at’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Black Racist Bitch by Thandiwe Ntshinga

Wamuwi MbaoLeave a Comment on ‘There is something to be gained in looking at that which resists being looked at’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Black Racist Bitch by Thandiwe Ntshinga

Thandiwe Ntshinga’s Black Racist Bitch is the sort of book some readers will absolutely love, and others will find unreadable,…

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Book excerpts

‘The language we know as Afrikaans today owes much to the enslaved people who spoke it’—Read an excerpt from Coloured: How Classification Became Culture

The JRBLeave a Comment on ‘The language we know as Afrikaans today owes much to the enslaved people who spoke it’—Read an excerpt from Coloured: How Classification Became Culture

The JRB presents an excerpt from Coloured: How Classification Became Culture by Tessa Dooms and Lynsey Ebony Chutel. ColouredTessa Dooms,…

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Academic

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 JRBLeave a Comment on 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….