12 Books Published by Jacana Media on AALBC — Book Cover Collage

Click for more detail about Reflecting Rogue: Inside the Mind of a Feminist by Pumla Dineo Gqola Reflecting Rogue: Inside the Mind of a Feminist

by Pumla Dineo Gqola
Jacana Media (Jan 01, 2018)
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Reflecting Rogue is the much anticipated and brilliant collection of experimental autobiographical essays on power, pleasure and South African culture by Professor Pumla Dineo Gqola. In her most personal book to date, written from classic Gqola anti-racist, feminist perspectives, Reflecting Rogue delivers 20 essays of deliciously incisive brain food, all extremely accessible to a general critical readership, without sacrificing intellectual rigor. These include essays on ‘Disappearing Women’, where Gqola spends time exploring what it means to live in a country where women can simply disappear – from a secure Centurion estate in one case, to being a cop in another, and being taken by men who know them. ‘On the beauty of feminist rage’ magically weaves together the shift in gender discourse in South Africa’s public spheres, using examples from #RUReferenceList, #RapeAtAzania and #RememberingKhwezi. While ‘I’ve got all my sisters with me’ explores the heady heights of feminist joy, ‘A meditation on feminist friendship with gratitude’ exposes a new, and more personal side to ever-incisive Gqola.


Click for more detail about Period Pain by Kopano Matlwa Period Pain

by Kopano Matlwa
Jacana Media (Jul 01, 2017)
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Period Pain captures the heartache and confusion of so many South Africans who feel defeated by the litany of headline horrors; xenophobia, corrective rape, corruption and crime and for many the death sentence that is the public health nightmare. Where are we going, what have we become? Period Pain helps us navigate our South Africa. We meet Masechaba, and through her story we are able to reflect, to question and to rediscover our humanity.


Click for more detail about Rape: A South African Nightmare by Pumla Dineo Gqola Rape: A South African Nightmare

by Pumla Dineo Gqola
Jacana Media (Aug 01, 2016)
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Why has South Africa been labelled the ‘world’s rape capital’? What don’t we as South Africans understand about rape? In Rape: A South African Nightmare, Pumla Dineo Gqola unpacks the complex relationship South Africa has with rape by paying attention to the patterns and trends of rape, asking what we can learn from famous cases and why South Africa is losing the battle against rape. This highly readable book leaps off the dusty book shelves of academia by asking penetrating questions and examining the shock belief syndrome that characterises public responses to rape, the female fear factory, boy rape, the rape of Black lesbians and violent masculinities. The book interrogates the high profile rape trials of Jacob Zuma, Bob Hewitt, Makhaya Ntini and Baby Tshepang as well as the feminist responses to the Anene Booysen case.


Click for more detail about Sweet Medicine by Panashe Chigumadzi Sweet Medicine

by Panashe Chigumadzi
Jacana Media (Jun 01, 2016)
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Sweet Medicine takes place in Harare at the height of Zimbabwe’s economic woes in 2008. Tsitsi, a young woman, raised by her strict, devout Catholic mother, believes that hard work, prayer and an education will ensure a prosperous and happy future. Out of university, Tsitsi finds herself in a position much lower than she had set her sights on, working as a clerk in the office of the local politician, Zvobgo. She finds herself increasingly compromising her Christian values to negotiate ways to get ahead. Sweet Medicine is a thorough and evocative attempt at grappling with a variety of important issues in the postcolonial context.


Click for more detail about Refilwe (Best Loved Tales for Africa) by Zuksiwa Wanner Refilwe (Best Loved Tales for Africa)

by Zuksiwa Wanner
Jacana Media (Apr 01, 2015)
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A take on the traditional German tale Rapunzel in a Southern African setting
 
Zukiswa Wanner brings young readers a retelling of the classic fairy tale, Rapunzel, with a uniquely South African twist. Refilwe is the story of the dreadlocked beauty who is stuck in a cave on top of a mountain awaiting her prince, Tumi. This take on the classic tale will have the children chanting, “Refilwe, Refilwe let down your locks … So I can climb the scraggy rocks!” Based on the original version but reimagined for African children, the tale is enriched with magical illustrations by Tamsin Hinrichsen that will keep all children entranced and foster in them a love of reading.


Click for more detail about The Class of ’79: Three Students Who Risked Their Lives to Destroy Apartheid by Janice Warman The Class of ’79: Three Students Who Risked Their Lives to Destroy Apartheid

by Janice Warman
Jacana Media (Jan 01, 2015)
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Out of the class of 1979 at Rhodes University one of the quietest girls in the class, Marion Sparg joined the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC) Umkhonto we Sizwe, trained in exile in Angola, and was eventually convicted of bombing three police stations. The Cape Times journalist Zubeida Jaffer was imprisoned, poisoned, and tortured for her writing and her union activism, yet chose not to prosecute her torturer. Guy Berger, also a student and later a lecturer at Rhodes University, was arrested and interrogated for possession of banned books. He spent seven months in custody, three of which he spent in solitary confinement. He was ultimately sentenced to four years in prison. For them, it began at the moment that each of them realized that what was happening in South Africa was wrong, and that they simply could not tolerate it. And for all of them, that moment came at Rhodes University. Each of them chose to reject their backgrounds and take the path of resistance, following in the footsteps of the famous few. Among these were the writers Breyten Breytenbach, Nadine Gordimer, Ingrid Jonker, Alan Paton; and the fighters Albie Sachs, Ruth First, Trevor Manuel, and Joe Slovo. This book is for all those who suffered under apartheid, and suffered to end it, and in particular for Marion, Zubeida, and Guy, who have shared their story so generously.


Click for more detail about Unimportance by Thando Mgqolozana Unimportance

by Thando Mgqolozana
Jacana Media (Jul 01, 2014)
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Unimportance is the gripping account of 12 anxiety-stricken hours in the life of Zizi—a university student and candidate in the upcoming SRC presidential election—and his struggle to balance his pristine public image with his darker private life. On the morning of the presidential manifesto presentations, Zizi delivers a speech no one could have expected and makes an extraordinary confession. As Zizi’s words fade, and a sense of shock lingers in the air, he is faced with the reality of his actions. As the students realize that they may vote a highly flawed man into office, how will they respond? What will it mean, either way? In Unimportance, the university is successfully displayed as a microcosm of society and written in an unconventional style.


Click for more detail about Maid in SA: 30 Ways to Leave Your Madam by Zuksiwa Wanner Maid in SA: 30 Ways to Leave Your Madam

by Zuksiwa Wanner
Jacana Media (Oct 01, 2013)
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It’s a scene most South Africans are familiar with; something that adds that oomph to your social status as a South African woman. This is a laugh-out-loud take on a woman’s home, but is as serious as the security guards in gated communities. It is a quirky look at the women in our lives; our mothers, our sisters, our cousins, our friends, us.


Click for more detail about A Renegade Called Simphiwe by Pumla Dineo Gqola A Renegade Called Simphiwe

by Pumla Dineo Gqola
Jacana Media (Oct 01, 2013)
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In eight essays, Pumla Dineo Gqola shows why Simphiwe Dana is arguably the most significant cultural figure working in contemporary South Africa today. Dana’s musical repertoire, self-styling choices, public debates, and growing written output display her causes. Controversy, tabloid headlines, and fluctuating public responses to Dana all reveal South African sensitivities on Blackness, femininity, language, and the imagination. Part intellectual biography and part commentary on South African contemporary culture, Gqola has captured a must-read portrait of Dana, her music and writing, her cultural activism, the vision in her work, and changing politics against the background of a changing postapartheid popular culture.


Click for more detail about Hear Me Alone by Thando Mgqolozana Hear Me Alone

by Thando Mgqolozana
Jacana Media (Jan 01, 2012)
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When Epher returns to Nazareth, he meets his childhood sweetheart, Bellewa Miriam, whose marriage to the woodwork merchant, old man Joseph, has been arranged. Bellewa Miriam shares with Epher that an angel has informed her that she would conceive that very night. Many years later, Epher recounts the events of that meeting in a letter to his patron and friend Theophilus, recounting the consequences suffered as a result of the encounter, which, Epher hopes, will be included in the bible. A reimagining of the Nativity Story, this novel offers an imaginative alternative to the account of the conception and birth of Jesus Christ.


Click for more detail about Spilt Milk by Kopano Matlwa Spilt Milk

by Kopano Matlwa
Jacana Media (Sep 01, 2010)
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A story of two passionate people who share a shameful past and a tenuous present, this remarkable narrative follows headmistress Mohumagadi—of the elite Sekolo sa Ditlhora school for talented black children—and Father Bill, a disgraced preacher, as they are brought together again decades after a childhood love affair expelled them from their communities. Much to the dismay of her students, Mohumagadi hires Father Bill as a teacher, resulting in a battle of wills and wits for the hearts and minds of the children living in the shadow of revolution and change. Entertaining and thought-provoking, this unique account offers insight into the workings of African culture.


Click for more detail about Coconut by Kopano Matlwa Coconut

by Kopano Matlwa
Jacana Media (Apr 01, 2008)
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An important rumination on youth in modern-day South Africa, this haunting debut novel tells the story of two extraordinary young women who have grown up black in white suburbs and must now struggle to find their identities. The rich and pampered Ofilwe has taken her privileged lifestyle for granted, and must confront her swiftly dwindling sense of culture when her soulless world falls apart. Meanwhile, the hip and sassy Fiks is an ambitious go-getter desperate to leave her vicious past behind for the glossy sophistication of city life, but finds Johannesburg to be more complicated and unforgiving than she expected. These two stories artfully come together to illustrate the weight of history upon a new generation in South Africa.