Jacana: 156 books

In 2003, Thabo Jijana's father was gunned down in a scrap between rival taxi associations who had been forced to operate from a single rank. A decade later, Thabo faces up to South Africa's most violent industry to try to figure out how and why his father was murdered. In this searing first-person...

This work is the long-awaited sequel to the historian Nigel Penn's award-winning book Rogues, Rebels and Runaways, in which he entertained and informed readers with stories of the lives of some remarkable characters from early Cape history. In this new volume Penn, a consummate raconteur and storyteller,...

Bright, articulate, and charismatic, former journalist and police spokesman McIntosh Polela has been on African television screens for many years. But behind a dazzling career, Polela’s troubled past haunts him. When he was a child, both his parents disappeared, leaving him and his sister Zinhle...

Experimenting with the narrative structure by crafting together snapshots, this short story collection touches upon topics as diverse as anorexia, cleaning the oven, the terror of losing a child, exile, infidelity, and desire. Using panache and hypnotic honesty, it traverses the terrain of loss and...

In this searing and revealing account of cricket in post-apartheid South Africa, Ashwin Desai deftly tells a story of promise and despair, the story of a new pitch; a quick start full of hope, followed by a steady erosion of the commitments needed to fulfil the promise of a level-playing field. Economic...

African Muckraking is the first collection of investigative and campaigning journalism written by Africans about Africa. The editors delved into the history of modern Africa to find the most important and compelling pieces of journalism on the stories that matter.This collection of 41 pieces of African...

In this consideration, respected trend analyst JP Landman focuses on the South African economy, examining its history, its current state, and what he perceives as its future fate. By questioning and challenging the preconceived ideas and the media-portrayed examples of what members of the public might...

Part tourist guide, part monograph, this book journeys through South Africa’s amazing wildlife reserves. Indicating what types of animals to find and in which provinces to find them, this record not only contains stunning pictures and pertinent, detailed information but also teaches wildlife enthusiasts...

What happens when a goofy, armchair-liberal white guy takes up with an Africanist shoe fetishist? Marrying Black Girls for Guys Who Aren’t Black finds out as it chronicles Hagen Engler’s journey from being the whitest person this side of a Radiohead concert to being ever so slightly blacker. Living...

“I wrestled with life and lost.” So begins the story of Michael, a corporate lawyer known to his colleagues and associates as Sir Marvin, who picks his way – sometimes delicately, but more often in his own blundering way – through the unfathomable intricacies that make up a life: love and...

Khalil, ‘the Companion’, is given his name by The One Above at his birth in 1903. Despite evidence of this divine interest, Khalil’s eighty-odd years of life remain fairly ordinary – even though many of these years are spent under the far from ordinary conditions of The System in South Africa....

A new anthology of writings, this collection contains stories with varying themes from 21 different writers. Including an assured and professional piece of writing about a seemingly simple interaction between two men in which the true drama takes place beneath the surface, this book will give insight into what African writers are experiencing and writing about in the new decade. 

Including poems, short stories, and personal essays, this collection-culled from a successful contest now in its fourth year-honors the perspective of South African girls and women who have been the victims of abuse. Based on the idea that creative writing aids the healing process, these selections...

Originally published in 1971 by Lionel Abrahams' Renoster Books, this book quickly became a classic of South African literature, but has been unavailable for many years. This new edition carries a simultaneous isiZulu translation of the poems, and a new foreword by Nadine Gordimer.