Stories are
ing the “fragilities ... as well as [the] creativity and beauty that define African contemporary life”. Most of its titles, including independent publications, can be found in its online store and in the Chimurenga Bookstore in the Pan African Market on Cape Town’s Long Street.
Lesedi House Publishers
Founded in the spirit of serving the under-published and unmarketedto, Lesedi House is Khayelitsha’s first independent publisher and bookstore. Although still light on titles (currently listed are four blackauthored works) the significance of a black-owned publisher and bookseller in the city’s largest township cannot be overstated.
Kalk Bay Books
Standing somewhere between the pier and the ice-cream shop on the eastern shores of the Cape Peninsula is Audrey Rademeyer’s Kalk Bay Books. Fiction, nonfiction and independent magazines — including Chimurenga, Prufrock and other local titles — can be found here.
Clarke’s Books
Established in 1956, Clarke’s Books boasts a charming windowfull of books on Long Street, Cape Town. With a particular focus on African art and out-of-print books, the collection at Clarke’s has grown to include new and secondhand books, as well as a growing list of books and zines by black South African authors and publishers.
DURBAN
Ike’s Books
Founded in 1988 by book lover, collector and curator Ike Mayet, Ike’s Books and Collectibles is recognised as South Africa’s first independent “Africana” bookstore owned and operated by a person of colour. Located in Overport, Durban, the bookshop was an intellectual home to many anti-apartheid activists, and still functions as a meeting place for debates, readings and literary refuge.
Last Chance Books
Another member of the “Africana” book-dealer family, Last Chance Books in Durban North stocks a large number of secondhand and rare books, including limited first editions of JM Coetzee and others. The Stables Lifestyle Market in Stamford Hill, Durban, is their weekly outpost and offers a range that is wide in price and genre.
GRAHAMSTOWN
Fables Bookshop
Well known to students and visitors to the annual arts festival is Fables Bookshop, where one can pick up The Boer War Diary of Sol Plaatje together with a biography of Cecil JohnRhodes and The History of Native Policy in South Africa from 1830 to the Present Day Edgar Harry Brookes.
Modjaji Books
Black Letter Media
uHlanga Press
African Books Collective
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Bookshops and publishing houses on the internet
Some of the most compelling literature coming out of South Africa may be slow to make it to physical bookshelves — independent or otherwise. These titles sit with a growing cohort of independent publishers online that started in direct response to the lack of representation in content, authorship and availability in South Africa. Operating out of Cape Town, Modjaji is an “independent feminist press that publishes Southern African women writers”. Its aim is to create a “platform for serious and ground-breaking writing by new and established women writers with brave voices”. Its growing list includes novels, poetry and short story collections. Duduzile Z Mabaso started Black Letter Media in 2011 as a full-service print and digital publisher for African storytellers. Its roots are lyrical, with Poetry Potion (both online and a quarterly print) being its founding vehicle. Black Letter Media’s online store is a trove of affordable anthologies and other titles. Under the banner of “Poetry for the People”, uHlanga is a publisher in KwaZulu-Natal dedicated “to publishing new, experimental and classic works of Southern African poetry”. Its curated anthologies and full collections are led by contemporary authors that include Genna Gardini, Francine Simon, Koleka Putuma, Thabo Jijana and Nick Mulgrew. This nonprofit based in England is on a mission to grow the global market for African literature. It manages more than 2 000 titles from a wide network of independent publishers in 24 African countries. The site can be used as an online store or as a comprehensive guide to finding local stockists and independent publishers of African-authored titles.