This book explores the environmental activism and biocultural preservation efforts of Dzomo La Mupo, a community-based organisation led by indigenous activist Vho-Mphatheleni Makaulule in Venda, South Africa. Drawing on in-depth ethnographic research, Kimberly Ross examines how land legislation, extractive industries, and gender politics have undermined indigenous knowledge systems, while highlighting the central role of women, particularly the makhadzi, in reclaiming ancestral authority to protect sacred sites, ecosystems, and cultural sovereignty in the post-apartheid era.

Presidential Power: A Jacana Pocket History challenges the common belief that South Africa’s presidents significantly shape the nation’s direction. Instead, it argues that deeper historical and structural forces limit what any president can achieve. While leaders can influence events, their power is often narrow and sometimes more harmful than transformative. The book also explores how myths about strong leaders are created, and why a president’s legacy can shift dramatically over time.

Michelle Kekana's ambitious debut, The Fragile Mental Health of Strong Women, is an utterly engrossing novel that explores the complex lives of three modern South African women. The book delves into their experiences as they are pushed to breaking point while navigating life, love, and mental health challenges. It offers a bold exploration of what it truly means to be 'strong,' particularly for Black women, and challenges the societal expectation that their suffering should have an imminent expiration date.

This book is a timely contribution towards enriching literary studies, cultural studies and historical studies. Thulani Mkhize places Nontsizi Mgqwetho in conversation with multiple genres and voices over time, which highlights the need for complex readings of black women's writing. She shows us that Mgqwetho was a philosopher-poet and political-poet, whose words have transcended time and space, like all great poets." Athambile Masola, Department of Historical Studies, University of Cape Town

Migration, Borders, and Borderlands: Making National Identity in Southern African Communities offers a timely and multidimensional exploration of how national identities are formed, contested, and lived in the border regions of the SADC (Southern African Development Community). Edited by Munyaradzi Mushonga, John Aerni-Flessner, Chitja Twala, and Grey Magaiza, this volume brings together voices from across the region to examine the complex realities of people living in borderlands—spaces often overlooked in national discourse.

Led by Shepherds is a powerful memoir by Jeffrey Rakabe that traces his harrowing experience as a twelve-year-old undergoing a traditional Koma initiation ceremony, a rite he believed would mark his passage into manhood. What follows is a brutal ordeal that contrasts sharply with his early hopes. As Rakabe grows into a student and voracious reader, he begins to question the cultural practices that shaped him, exploring the links between the language of initiation and the broader crisis of gender-based violence in South Africa.

Song of the Slave Girl is a powerful and moving tale of love, resilience, and resistance set during the brutal era of slavery in the Cape Colony. It follows Meraj and Djameela, two young slaves whose deep bond is threatened when Djameela is sold to a distant farm. As Djameela faces exploitation and danger, and Meraj is consumed by grief, both risk everything in their desperate quest to reunite.

Midnight in the Morgue brings together an electrifying collection of short stories that showcase the depth and range of contemporary African writing. From tales of migration, family life, and infidelity to gritty noir and fantastical horror, the anthology offers a vivid portrait of African realities and imagination. Tackling themes such as feminism, patriarchy, class, and exploitation, these witty and provocative stories highlight the talents of some of the continent’s most astute literary voices.

Ambivalent rethinks photography in Africa as a deeply historical, political, and cultural practice. Bringing together a new generation of Africa-based scholars, the book challenges traditional categories of visibility and photographic analysis. Through case studies ranging from identity photography in South Africa to visual activism in West Africa, the contributors reveal photography’s hidden labour and its intersections with orality, ritual, psychoanalysis, and politics.

Samora Machel was born in rural Mozambique in 1933 under Portuguese colonial rule and trained as a nurse but abandoned this career to join the fledgling liberation movement Frelimo. He rose through the ranks to become secretary of defence and later president of the movement in 1969. In 1974 he assumed the presidency of the new People's Republic of Mozambique.