Fred Khumalo: 5 books

As a teenager Fred Khumalo greeted his friends with a handshake and the words 'touch my blood'. It implied friendship and trust. The saying became his name. More than that, it became the way he viewed his world. Everything touched Fred Khumalo. Twice he was bewitched. Twice his father - the 'moegoe',...

Who are these Guptas who are so powerful, they’re distributing cabinet posts like matrons handing out condoms at a brothel? Who do Americans think they are, accusing Trevor Noah of ‘stealing’ a joke from one of their comedians? Is Sizakele MaKhumalo Zuma’s spaza shop a National Key Point?...

‘Be quiet and be calm, my countrymen, for what is taking place is exactly what you came to do … Brothers, we are drilling the death drill.’ – Reverend Isaac Wauchope Dyobha Paris, 1958. A skirmish in a world-famous restaurant leaves two men dead and the restaurant staff baffled. Why did the...

This multilayered family saga is a riveting tale of love, betrayal, and a search for identity—sexual and otherwise. Sis Lettie, the streetwise philosopher of the shebeens and entrepreneur par excellence, and her son Kokoroshe, a street urchin turned lawyer, are at the center of this dark and understated novel.

Focusing on the epic love affair between a former amateur musician—who happens to be a bootlegger, mercenary, and killer—and a shebeen queen, this South African love story traces the couple's lives and loves through the interweaving of history and memory in the tradition of village storytellers.