New Releases
The Last Sentence
Bandile is desperately searching for inspiration so he can make a much-needed comeback.
When Bandile finds himself in room 28 at the Cariba Inn with a sultry temptress he wonders whether he has gone crazy. Has the formerly brilliant writer who churned out hit TV show after hit TV show lost his mind? Is he on drugs? Or is it all in something he ate at a dinner a few years back…?
Buthelezi takes us through the inner workings of Bandile’s mind as he thinks about his writing and battles with the possibility of not producing something meaningful, ever.
The Last Sentence introduces us to a remarkable literary talent. Tumelo Buthelezi is an exceptional storyteller.
Born to Kwaito
From Alaska to Trompies. From Brown Dash to Boom Shaka. From the streets of eNdofaya to Zola, Kwaito arguably represents the most important music genre and sub-culture that post-apartheid South Africa has birthed.
Born to Kwaito revisits history as told through the vibrant lens of Kwaito, which is more than just music. Kwaito presented a new unbridled expression of Black South African youths. It carried the political significance of Black South Africans deciding to take a moment to enjoy themselves and the promise of their freedom. Born to Kwaito takes us through the tsiki tsiki yho’s of our South African narrative, cementing a culture of living, dancing and human relation unique to Kwaito and unique to eKasi.
Trail-blazed by likes of Oskido, Kwaito created a whole new and vibrant way of being for the Black person in South Africa’s newly found democracy.
In this impressively researched debut, authors Esinako Ndabeni and Sihle Mthembu pay tribute to a time when Brenda Fassie; Lebo Mathosa; Thembi Seete; Nomasonto ‘Mshoza’ Maswanganyi; Zanele ‘Nestum’ Nyakale; Queen ‘Iyaya’ Sesoko; Sharon Dee and Thandiswa Mazwai made dance anthems. Created movements. Disrupted patriarchy and paved the way.
This Is How It Is
“A powerful collection of life stories written in a healing space.” – Pregs Govender
This Is How It Is a “refreshing, poignant and wide-ranging” (Helen Moffett) collection of real life experiences: 52 stories, prose and poetry, that tell of a man who is anxious about an HIV test; a child with an alarming nose for gossip and a girl who is saved by the enemy in a war zone. Some of the writers are grieving the loss of a child or struggling with addiction, abuse, bullying or betrayal.
Most of these writers have never been published before. They wrote these stories primarily to bear witness to their lives and the troubled times in which we live. Putting traumatic experiences down on paper can help people work through shame, guilt and fear, releasing them from the traps they lay. Writing is sometimes able to turn a painful incident into something more manageable, even beautiful.
Sharing stories can also heal both the writer and the reader. When we first meet a stranger, we make assumptions about them. When we hear of their life in their own words, we find that many of our negative assumptions are wrong. Often we discover that we are more alike than we are different
A life of Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje
Celebrating one of South Africa’s most accomplished political and literary figures
Today Sol Plaatje is celebrated as one of South Africa’s most accomplished political and literary figures. He was a pioneer in the history of the black press, editor of several newspapers, one of the founders of the African National Congress in 1912, led its campaign against the notorious Natives Land Act of 1913 and twice travelled overseas to represent the interests of his people. He wrote a number of books, including – in English – Native Life in South Africa (1916), a powerful denunciation of the Land Act and the policies that led to it, and a pioneering novel, Mhudi (1930). Years after his death his diary of the siege of Mafeking was retrieved and published, providing a unique view of one of the best known episodes of the South African War of 1899– 1902.
Sol Plaatje: A life of Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje 1876–1932 tells the story of Plaatje’s remarkable life, setting it in the context of the changes that overtook South Africa during his lifetime and the huge obstacles he had to overcome. It draws upon extensive new research in archives in southern Africa, Europe and the US, as well as an expanding scholarship on Plaatje and his writings.
This is a commanding – and important – biography of Sol Plaatje with a clear purpose, to bring to light a story of how this very remarkable South African figure understood himself and to illuminate the ideas and beliefs that sustained him. A blockbuster of humane historical writing and a monumental research achievement. – Bill Nasson