Books
Bloke of All Ages: Perspectives on Bloke Modisane, 2026
Publisher: Wits University Press www.witspress.co.za
https://www.witspress.co.za/page/detail/Bloke-of-All-Ages/?k=9781776149759
Bloke of All Ages offers refreshing new insights into the works of one of South Africa’s most important literary, intellectual and artistic figures, William Bloke Modisane. It highlights the resilience of his work, situating his intellectual and cultural contribution in the historic context of South African creative arts. Bloke of All Ages is an expansive reflection that offers refreshing new insights into the works of one of South Africa’s most important literary, intellectual and artistic figures, William Bloke Modisane. Born in Sophiatown, Modisane was a remarkable author, playwright and actor, and a leading member of the DRUM generation in the 1950s.
The contributors trace Modisane’s intellectual and cultural journey from his early years in South Africa to his exile in the United Kingdom, East Africa, North America, Italy, the German Democratic Republic, and the Federal Republic of Germany. Through a comprehensive and diverse exploration of Modisane’s body of work, they offer critical literary essays on his early short stories,his autobiography Blame Me on History, his journalism as well as his writings while in exile. The volume also includes little-known and previously unpublished essays by Modisane, written during his time in exile. Bloke of All Ages highlights the timelessness and resilience of Modisane’s work and situates Modisane’s significant intellectual and cultural contribution to South African creative arts.
Author(s):
PRAISE FOR BLOKE OF ALL AGES: PERSPECTIVES ON BLOKE MODISANE
“Bloke Modisane was one of the finest South African writers of the twentieth century. Finally, he is being given his due: this bracing and illuminating collection demonstrates how he is indeed ‘of all ages’ and not just of the Drum generation. If, like me, you are a fan, it will enhance your understanding of his work and his life immeasurably. If you don’t yet know him, it is a great introduction – alongside his incomparable memoir, Blame Me on History, of course.
– Mark Gevisser, author of The Pink Line: Journeys across the World’s Queer Frontiers and Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred
“Bloke of All Ages showcases Modisane’s varied intellectual, cultural and journalistic skills to reveal an inclusive trasnational, (pan -) African and international ‘citizen’ whose resistance to and navigation of political and ideological strictures is mirrored in the book’s own interpretive breadth. The essays by a range of academics and short texts by Modisane himself offer refreshingly new insights into one of South Africa’s most important literary figures, expanding and solidifying his place in the South African (and international) cultural canon.
– Aretha Phiri, Department of Literary Studies, Rhodes University
The House of Truth & Bloke and His American Bantu (Two Plays), 2025
Publisher: Wits University Press www.witspress.co.za
Siphiwo Mahala delves into the lives of iconic figures from South Africa’s tumultuous past in this remarkable collection of plays. The collection opens with The House of Truth, which explores the complexity of Can Themba, a fearless journalist, playwright and poet living under an oppressive
apartheid regime. The one-man play weaves together elements of Themba’s life and career, recreating the excitement and pathos of the Drum era – South Africa’s first magazine for a black audience, and his resident neighbourhood, Sophiatown in Johannesburg, before it was destroyed by apartheid legislation. Themba is brought back to life as an ordinary person with human flaws and attributes both tragic and inspirational. In the second play, Bloke and His American Bantu, Mahala brings to life the extraordinary lives of Bloke Modisane, a South African writer exiled in London, and Langston Hughes, the renowned American poet. This two-hander play celebrates their remarkable camaraderie and intellectual exchange. Through a reimagined correspondence, the play deftly explores how a simple friendship blossomed into a catalyst for international solidarity and cultural exchange across continents, from Africa to the UK to America. As a whole, the plays explore the intersections of identity, creativity and resistance. With wit, poise, and unflinching honesty, they bring to life the triumphs and struggles of these remarkable men who left an indelible mark on their worlds, and celebrate the human spirit’s capacity to persevere, inspire and uplift.
PRAISE FOR
TWO PLAYS
storytelling. His plays, Bloke and His American Bantu and The House of Truth, transcend mere performances to become vibrant acts of preservation, revitalising the memories of South African heroes and the worlds they inhabited. Through poetic language, meticulous research, and skilful dramaturgy, Mahala gifts us a theatre that is not only reflective but reparative.
— Dr Refiloe Lepere, drama therapist and playwright
The Missing Pages, 2025
Publisher: Focal Foundation https://FocalFoundation.org/
The Missing Pages is a collection of new and previously published stories by Siphiwo Mahala, one of contemporary South Africa’s most distinguished literary voices. Covering a broad spectrum of themes, styles, and epochs, the stories take readers on a journey from the colonial invasions of the 1800s through the oppressive, early apartheid-era 1950s, the turbulent struggles of the 1980s, and into the intricacies of modern-day South Africa.
This vibrant collection offers a rich, vivid portrayal of a dynamic, constantly evolving and culturally diverse society. Set against the backdrop of the country’s history, Mahala masterfully weaves wit, humour and profound insights, making The Missing Pages both a mirror of the past and a lens through which to view the current social fabric of South Africa
Can Themba: The Making and Breaking of the Intellectual Tsotsi (A Biography), 2022
Publisher: Wits University Press www.witspress.co.za
This rich and absorbing biography of Can Themba, iconic Drum-era journalist and writer, is the definitive history of a larger-than-life man who died too young. Siphiwo Mahala’s intensive and often fresh research features unprecedented archival access and interviews with Themba’s surviving colleagues and family. Mahala’s biography takes a critical historical approach to Themba’s life and writing, giving a picture of the whole man, from his early beginnings in Marabastad to his sombre end in exile in Swaziland. The better-known elements of his life – his political views, passion for teaching and mentoring, and family life – are woven together with an examination of his literary influences and the impact of his own writing (especially his famous short story ‘The Suit’) on modern African writers in turn.
Mahala, a master storyteller, deftly follows the threads of Themba’s dynamic life, showcasing his intellectual acumen, scholarly aptitude and wit, along with his flaws, contradictions and heartbreaks, against a backdrop of the sparkle and pathos of Sophiatown of the 1950s. Can Themba’s successes and failures as well as his triumphs and tribulations reverberate on the pages of this long-awaited biography. The result is an authoritative and entertaining account of an often misunderstood figure in South Africa’s literary canon.
Praise for
Can Themba
“An engaging read, well-researched and accessible. It offers new insights not only on Can Themba – the subject of the book – but on his era, his peers, and the movement that later became known as the Sophiatown Renaissance. Mahala captures the period and its politics so vividly that he makes the reader critically aware of how it felt to be in those events, rather than merely chronicling them.” Professor Zakes Mda
“A satisfying chemistry radiates from every page of Siphiwo Mahala’s biography of Can Themba. Mahala’s clarity, vivid narration, and firm touch do full justice to the life and work of Themba, a brilliant artist who was mercurial and troubled in equal measure. The result is an affectionate and astute biography that reaches across the generations.” Professor David Attwell
“In this well-researched, deep, devastatingly brilliant, honest, and yet sensitive portrayal, Can Themba: The Making and Breaking of the Intellectual Tsotsi, Siphiwo Mahala set out to offer an academically sound but accessible portrayal while “consciously suppress(ing) the temptation to write a hagiography” about a man who is sometimes romanticised at the same time as being reduced to a single depiction.” Lekgantshi Console Tleane
Red Apple Dreams and Other Stories, 2019
Publisher: Iconic Productions
This vibrant compilation blends fresh and classic stories by Siphiwo Mahala into an intertextual feast – in which he and guest contributors showcase and respond to time-honoured works by Can Themba, James Matthews and Njabulo Ndebele. The resulting chorus of voices, conducted with flair, makes for an essential addition to the library of every lover of African literature.
Short Stories (free downloads)
Praise for
Red Apple Dreams & Other Stories
“Mahala proves himself to be one of our generation’s masters of short story writing.” S’thembiso Msom
“The strength of Mahala’s work lies in the fact that it is both entertaining and thought provoking.” Carolyn Meads
“Mahala’s stories narrate the Fanonian desiring subject entangled in a historical context.” Requel Lisette Baker
The House of Truth, 2017
Publisher: Iconic Productions
This one man play recasts new insights into the life of Can Themba, one of South Africa’s most iconic journalists and short story writers in South Africa of the 1950s. It weaves together elements of Themba’s life and career with deft wit and poise, recreating the sparkle and pathos of the Drum era and Sophiatown before both were literally destroyed by apartheid legislation. In this play, Themba is brought back to life as an ordinary person with human flaws and attributes that both inspire and disappoint because we can relate to them. In its maiden run at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown (now Makhanda) in 2016, the play starred South African acting legend Sello Maake kaNcube. Mahala weaves together elements of Themba’s life and career with deft wit and poise, recreating the sparkle and pathos of the Drum era and Sophiatown before both were literally destroyed by apartheid legislation. An essential and highly entertaining piece of history, it has played countrywide to full houses and critical acclaim.
African Delights
Publisher: Jacana Media, 2011 www.jacana.co.za
African delights is a unique literary journey through some critical moments in South African history. It begins in Sophiatown of the 1950s, one of the most definitive periods in South African urban culture. This part of the book is in dialogue and also pays tribute to Can Themba, once described by Lewis Nkosi as ‘the supreme intellectual tsotsi of them all.’ The prose takes the reader to the emergency years of the eighties, where we are exposed to the painful rhythms of a society in distress through the eyes of a child. The realities of the South African society, after the first decade of our democracy, are interrogated in the last two sections of the book. The last part of the text, which is also the title of the book, takes a closer look at the social fabric of the contemporary society. The stories collectively create a dialogue between the past and the present and also between various literary and historical texts. These wide-ranging stories take us from Sophiatown in the Drum era to the rural Eastern Cape to the luxury Jozi homes of present-day tenderpreneurs.
Praise for
African Delights
“Contemporary South Africa, a state in flux, needs to read these stories to understand how it is seen by some of the sharpest commentators that this democracy has produced.” Mandla Langa
“The strength of Mahala’s work lies in the fact that it is both entertaining and thought provoking.” Carolyn Meads
“To the West African reader, Mahala’s offering reads like something in-between a Cyprian Ekwensi and a Chinua Achebe.” Tade Ipadeola
“Written fluently and deftly, it [African Delights] is laced with wit, humour and satire testimony to an incisive, thoughtful and refined literary talent.” Andries W. Oliphant
“It will outlive of the social, political, and economic dramas of the time. The power of African Delights lies precisely there”. Njabulo S. Ndebele
“Memorable, fearless and funny, Mahala’s characters burst off the page.” Ann Morgan
Yakhal’ Indoda (Xhosa)
UKZN Press, 2010 www.ukznpress.co.za
UThemba yindoda eqondayo kunjalo nje ezixabisileyo nebuhloniphileyo ubuzwe bayo. Indoda yamadoda enemisebenzi emihle nethandwayo luluntu kumzi waseSekunjalo. Kuba kakade intliziyo ingumkhohlisi, iliso iyinto apha ephandlwayo, ithuku lemvelo uyalityeshela, alibale ukuba ubuhle bekhiwane zimpethwana. Isiwo sakhe sinye kukuthanda iilokhwe akhohlwe ukuba ooDolly, ooThandi nooSips ziimpuku ezisigqibayo isitha. Siyehla isidima, ahlekwe naziintaka, umpha ochutywe walahlwa. Ziza kunceda na iinyembezi zendoda endala?
When a Man Cries
UKZN Press, 2007 www.ukznpress.co.za
Themba Limba is a family man who is caught between his flourishing career as a teacher and municipal councillor in the township of Sekunjalo, and his overriding sexual interests. Despite his attempts to maintain his status in the community, his actions eventually lead to his downfall. What follows is an account – sometimes tragic, occasionally humorous, and always compelling – of Themba’s efforts to regain his dignity and pride in the eyes of his family and community.
When a Man Cries is an uncompromising and engrossing novel about the challenges of manhood in contemporary South African society. It interrogates the dynamics of township life and the human and socio-economic realities of the most impoverished communities in post-apartheid South Africa.
Praise for
When a Man Cries
“When a Man Cries describes hegemonic masculinities in a clear and convincing manner.” Ezra Chitando
“This brilliantly written book will keep readers engrossed until the end.” Mfundekelwa Mkhulisi
“When a Man Cries is about a man on the move, a go-getter teacher, Themba Limba, who, when snared by success, reaps what he has sown.” Nape a’ Motana