Litnet

"What I didn’t know was that when I arrived in Amsterdam, Breyten was wandering around Hillbrow with a false French passport and the assumed identity of Christian Galaska."

In The truth about Cape slavery, Patric Tariq Mellet argues that modern South Africa – its economy and politics – is shaped and established on the foundation of chattel slavery just like the United States of America. Cape slavery, rather than minor, was a crucial feature of maritime capitalism. This then moved to become the cornerstone of the Cape’s agricultural economy. Read an excerpt here.

The Springboks made history in France in 2023 when they became the only team to win the Webb Ellis Trophy four times. Who can forget how the Boks won by only one point in three games? Released on the anniversary of this milestone, Twice the glory by Lloyd Burnard and Khanyiso Tshwaku investigates how this remarkable victory was achieved.

It is with deep sorrow that the Breytenbach family announces the passing of Breyten Breytenbach earlier today, Sunday 24 November 2024.

As a young journalist, roped into court reporting to cover Jacob Zuma’s 2006 rape trial, Karyn Maughan could not have known that she would be reporting on Zuma’s legal woes for the next two decades – and would herself become his target.

In 2025, AmaBooks Publishers will publish Tsitsi Mutiti’s translation of Mapenzi by Ignatius Mabasa into English under the title Madmen, while the University of Georgia Press is set to release the translation in North America. Philani A Nyoni talks to Ignatius Mabasa about this new lease of life on his iconic multi-award-winning book, and what it means to him and the zeitgeist after a quarter century in circulation.

The clock is ticking! The annual AVBOB Poetry Competition closes at 23:59 on 30 November 2024. Don’t miss your chance to be part of South Africa’s biggest poetry event! Through the AVBOB Poetry Project, thousands of poems in all 11 official written languages are hosted online, creating an archive where poets of all levels can connect, learn and grow.

This book documents the stories of southern African insects in over 800 pages, with 3 200 beautiful photographs illustrating the rich morphological diversity and biological attributes of the insect species of the region. We emphasise their environmental importance as ecosystem service providers, and narrate, highlight, and illustrate many of the interesting, often remarkable, aspects of their life histories and behaviour, a first for insects of this region.

"Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi and I, as writers who hail from the Eastern Cape, have had the dream of reckoning with the literary history of the Eastern Cape for as long as we have known each other. When, last year, there were celebrations of 200 years of Xhosa in the written word, we thought it an opportune moment to put the idea into action. The Gompo Book and Cultural Festival to be held in East London on 21 to 23 March 2025 is the tentative first step towards accomplishing this goal."

"Hier het ons die geleentheid om ’n kykie in die binnewerke van die man agter die naam te kry, in sy eie woorde en uit sy eie perspektief. Maar terselfdertyd trek hy ook op besonderse wyse die gordyn weg sodat ons kan sien hoe die organisasie waaraan hy sy lewe gewy het, werk."

Maneo Mohale is a poet, feminist writer and editor whose debut collection Everything is a deathly flower (uHlanga, 2019) won the 2020 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry. Read their extraordinary list poem here and be reminded of poetry’s roots in song, magic and ritual. The annual AVBOB Poetry Competition remains open until midnight on 30 November 2024.

Darryl David is the organiser of numerous book festivals in South Africa. This year he delivered the keynote address at the biannual conference for the International Organisation of Book Towns of New Zealand at the national Book Town in Featherston, which is an hour’s drive from Wellington. He shares some of his photos of the visit to New Zealand with LitNet’s readers.

"Lank lewe die saliges, dié wat lees, die Bookbedonnerd-familie, want aan hulle behoort die biblioteeksaal op Richmond en die verbeelde Melkweg besaai met verse en stories."

"This is a deeply religious book, but it is so much more than that. Khoza reflects on a wide range of topics, such as the Atlantic slave trade, missionaries in Africa, the 1976 Soweto riots, Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement, the South African transition to democracy, and leaders such as King Moshoeshoe, Thabo Mbeki and Nelson Mandela."

The winners of the annual Sunday Times Literary Awards were announced last night in Johannesburg, where author Johnny Steinberg was the recipient of the Sunday Times Non-Fiction Award for his work, Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a marriage (Jonathan Ball Publishers). Andrew Brown received the Sunday Times Fiction Award for The bitterness of olives (Karavan Press).

"Book Town Richmond is like the Cheers bar in Boston. It's a place where everybody knows your name."

"By visiting New Zealand, I realised that despite all the challenges we face in South Africa, Book Town Richmond is a shining light among Book Towns of the world. And I feel ashamed that I even contemplated closing the book on possibly the greatest fairytale in the history of book culture in South Africa."

"Welz is a zoologist, a biologist, a nature conservationist, but perhaps most tellingly – by his own admission – an old-fashioned naturalist. His stories are woven with a sense of wonder for the world he loves, something that sets him apart from other scientists in his field."

Adriaan Basson will be in conversation with Karyn Maughan for the book launch of I will not be silenced on Wednesday, 13 November at 18:00 at Exclusive Books, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town.

"I had the option of trans-creation, while also making sure that the Shona voice remained Tambu’s, and not that of a village elder, which is my favourite when it comes to my Shona writings." Philani Nyoni interviews Tanaka Chidora about his experience translating Tsitsi Dangarembga’s The book of not (Ayebia Clarke Publishing, 2006).