Jacana: 156 books

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,...

The Book of War tells the story of a boy who comes to manhood in a war. An illiterate European child is stranded on the southern tip of Africa. The British and the Xhosa have been spilling each other’s blood for eighty years and the young man signs up for the conflict in the hope of steady meals...

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.

The seventh volume is a collection of the strongest entries for the 2017 Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Award. This edition of the anthology continues the legacy of social and political activist, intellectual giant and writer Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje (1876–1932).The anthology is a truly democratic...

The apartheid agent and killer who got away with it all ...It was in 1972 when the seemingly ordinary Craig Williamson registered at Wits University and joined the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS). Williamson was elected NUSAS's vice president and in January 1977, when his career in...

Challenging the stereotype that black people who lived under South African apartheid have no happy memories of the past, this examination into nostalgia carves out a path away from the archetypical musings. Even though apartheid itself had no virtue, the author, himself a young black man who spent...

The intellectual and imaginative engagement of social trauma is presented in this book that investigates how writers, visual artists, theater practitioners, musicians, filmmakers, dancers, and photographers from sub-Saharan Africa and Germany have creatively responded to traumata. Building off a conference...

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. She does well at her mission boarding school, and...

Shay, a seemingly shy and innocent journalism student, is sent to a female prison to cover a story on an inmate, but falls in love instead. Two months later, Sippy, Shay's love interest, is out of prison and they move in together. On the outside, Sippy is the haunted one in the relationship, but as...

If this were a book quiz and you were to ask me what film is most like Jani Confidential I would answer unhesitatingly, Blue Jasmine, Woody Allen’s Oscar-nominated film. Those who remember the Just Jani column in the Sunday Times will be intrigued and delighted. Those who missed out on those heady...

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...

Following in the footsteps of Jock of the Bushveld, Running Wild is an African story for all ages. It is a tale of resilience, of courage and endurance, a book that will uplift, enrich and warm every lover of the African bush.The story of Zulu is based on the life of a real stallion that lived on...

In this fascinating account of scientific study among forbidding wilderness, a husband-and-wife team describe their trek to the Kalahari to study the little-known brown hyena. The details of the scientific inquiry are provided while the daily challenges of living with children 420 kilometers from...

Laura Marsh, an art teacher and single mother, is horrified when a visiting friend—a Zimbabwean refugee and an artist—finds a corpse in the plantations near her home. When the friend, Daniel, is arrested for the murder, Laura assumes he has been pegged due to his being a foreigner. However, a...