Local Pride

The Jacana Literary Foundation and the Other Foundation are thrilled to announce the publication of the fourth volume of The Gerald Kraak Anthology, The Beautyful Ones Have Just Been Born. With the prize ceremony linked to Africa Day, the publication of the anthology is tied to the Pride Month of June and the celebrations of the LGBTQI+ community which occur across the globe. This year’s anthology is filled with inspiring and fearless literary works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry from across Africa. These stories capture the essence of the African LGBTQI+ community and showcase some of Africa’s most talented writers. The anthology gives a voice to those who would otherwise be marginalised and it insists that differences must be recognised, embraced and celebrated. The second of the Gerald Kraak Anthologies, As You Like It, received the LAMBDA Literary Award for LGBTQ Anthology Fiction 2019 at a ceremony in New York. A testament to the brave storytellers of Africa, and the impact they have. The Gerald Kraak Anthology and Prize is made possible by the Jacana Literary Foundation and the Other Foundation.

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Nkunzi's urge to live and draw others into her sense of interconnectedness emerges as a consistent theme in her story. As a sangoma, Nkunzi is able to explore dimensions of her sexual identity because of her relationship with both male and female ancestors. "In Zulu culture a man must be a man and do male things and a woman must be a woman and do female things but with sangomas it is more flexible. I can dance like a woman and wear a woman's clothes and dance like a man and wear a man's clothes. I can do the work of a man, like slaughtering a goat or a cow although in traditional Zulu culture a woman cannot slaughter…" Conscious of her constitutional rights as an urban young lesbian in a time of a relentless spate of hate crimes against township lesbians, Nkunzi is simultaneously sensitive to the demands of the guiding ancestral voice of the traditional, rural Zulu patriarch whose name she bears. Her quest is for a middle path of balance and integration between the living and the dead, the traditional and the modern. Nkunzi Zandile Nkabinde was born on 7 December 1975. She comes from a family of six children of which she is the third child. Her given name is Zandile. She says that she was born a lesbian. She had just started to study journalism when she received her calling to become a sangoma (traditional healer). During that time she is also named for her ancestor Nkunzi (Black Bull) who gives her her healing powers. She is proud of being a lesbian and a sangoma. After completing her training, she practises in Soweto where she lived until 2004 when she gets a job as a tour guide at Constitution Hill. She still also practises as a sangoma. All her life she has dreamt of becoming a writer and hopes that this book is her first step.

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‘Boy on the Run is tough and fragile, tragic and resilient, and utterly compelling. Welcome Lishivha has broken new ground in South African literature, in the voice he finds – and the stories he tells – about growing up poor, and queer, and loved, in a South African township. It is destined to be a classic.’ – Mark Gevisser ‘She never had a garden, but she sure tended to my hair like it was her own bed of roses. Always made sure my hair was just the right height, trimmed and moisturised. When she heard about the newest salon that worked magic ko kasi, she made it her mission to take me and beamed when she saw my head glistening in the sunshine. It made her proud. In one hand she held a spray can of sheen and a comb; in the other a brush with thatch bristles. Gently, she first brushed the flat sides of my haircut, then used her plump fingers to fondle the follicles of my crown, finishing off with a cloud of sheen that smelled like candy.’ Living in Soshanguve as a young boy with an adored and adoring mum, Welcome’s life almost stops when his mum is murdered by her new boyfriend. The upturned chair, his mum’s lifeless face, the blood on the floor, the glasses with the gold detail that Welcome had taken from a precious cupboard, the boyfriend’s body, a tableau that would be impossible to unsee. But this is the beginning of a journey which takes the author through school and university, with the help of his remaining family, and allows him to explore a South Africa that is almost impossible to describe. Through student politics, journalism studies, Fees Must Fall and then as a freelance journalist, Lishivha documents the living country as he documents his sexuality, his body, his choices. Welcome Mandla Lishivha’s exquisitely crafted memoir is unlike anything you have ever read. Boy on the Run is a staggering exploration of identity through grief, love and friendship, giving us, Lishivha’s readers, a glorious song of self-expression.

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Spanning from present day until the near future, this novel tells the story of three men facing the rapid unravelling of their world, due to cataclysmic climate collapse. Luthando’s environmental activism leads to a clash with the government. His life partner, Viwe, becomes embroiled in religious end-of-days fanaticism. And their friend Malcolm worries that his work in biotech augmentation will be used for sinister purposes. A story about resilience and our capacity for love in the face of fear.

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Pride and Prejudice is the first in the Gerald Kraak Anthology series. The kaleidoscopic collection comprises the most exceptional written and photographic entries for the annual Gerald Kraak Award, which was established in 2016 by The Other Foundation and the Jacana Literary Foundation. Offering important African perspectives gathered from the continent, this inaugural edition features works of fiction, journalism, photography and poetry. The pieces are multi-layered, brave and stirring. They represent a new wave of fresh storytelling that provokes thought on the topics of gender, social justice and sexuality.

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Tshepo, a young student at Rhodes, has a difficult time keeping up with his own strange mind. He is absorbed in making sense of a traumatic past in a violent country and so when he finds himself at the Valkenberg mental facility it is perhaps not entirely due to “cannabis-induced psychosis”. How is he to bring together the shattered pieces of his life? In the shady subculture of male prostitution Tshepo begins to find answers for the first time. Discovering first his true sexuality, and then that sexuality is only a key to the greater realms of a hidden, mythical humanity, Tshepo can finally tap into the ancient powers that are his birthright.

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Press both feet to the ground. Place your hand on your heart. You are brave and capable. It will always be your time. An empowering and uplifting collection of poems from groundbreaking and award-winning poet Koleka Putuma, about figuring out who you are and embracing it. With words to affirm, this is the ideal companion to hold your hand while you navigate all the big questions, discoveries and transitions of young adulthood. The perfect gift for fans of Rupi Kaur, Nikita Gill and Elizabeth Acevedo.

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Siya Khumalo grew up in a Durban township where one sermon could whip up a lynch mob against those considered different. Drawing on personal experience -- his childhood, life in the army, attending church, and competing in pageants -- Khumalo explores being LGBTQI+ in South Africa today. In You Have to Be Gay to Know God, he takes us on a daring journey, exposing the interrelatedness of religion, politics and sex as the expectations of African cultures mingle with greed and colonial religion. This combustive and personal commentary on sexual preference and the brutal dogmas of religion and politics is important and timely. – Steven Boykey Sidley The late, unlamented Zuma era brought bales of misery, but it also birthed a generation of writers of coruscating brilliance. Siya Khumalo is one of them. Walk through South Africa with him, and you'll find yourself in a place that finally, blindingly makes sense, even if you'd rather it didn't. - Richard Poplak Transgressive, provocative, authentic and uncompromising, Siya Khumalo's account of growing up as a gay man in newly-democratic South Africa takes him into potentially hostile territories in search of his authentic self. This book is a heady mix of desire, raunch, politics, intellect and principle all wrapped up in Khumalo's singular and fearless voice. - Marianne Thamm

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