Zukiswa Wanner was born in Zambia to a South African father and a Zimbabwean mother.
Her debut novel, The Madams, published in November 2006, dealt with racial role reversals in post-apartheid South Africa. Behind Every Successful Man was published in 2008 by Kwela Books. Men of the South was Wanner’s third novel and came out in 2010.
In addition to writing fiction, Wanner has also contributed essays to Oprah, Elle and Juice magazines, and literary reviews and essays to Afropolitan and Sunday Independent, as well as the international online journal, African Writing.
Her latest novel, London – Cape Town – Joburg, was published by Kwela in 2014. Her children’s book, Refilwe, was published by Jacana in 2015.
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The Black Pimpernel: Nelson Mandela on the Run
In March 1961, after giving a brief speech at a conference, Nelson Mandela vanished.
For the next eighteen months he was an outlaw, living under assumed identities and in various disguises (sometimes as a chauffeur, sometimes a gardener) as the South African police and secret services, helped by MI5 and the CIA, sought him in vain. His mission? To undergo military training and set up armed resistance to apartheid.
₵140.00 -
Hardly Working: A Travel Memoir of Sorts
“Zukiswa has mastered the art of writing a travel memoir. Through engaging prose she takes you on a journey — which she seamlessly intertwines with her innocent childhood memories — through Africa, Europe and then back to Africa. Even better she is doing part of the trip with her family which is unchartered territory: an African family exploring their own continent by public transport for adventure’s sake. What a way to bond.” — Sihle Khumalo, author of Almost Sleeping My Way to Timbuktu, Heart of Africa and the best-selling Dark Continent, My Black Arse
Ten years after her first book was published, Zukiswa Wanner leaves her Nairobi home on an adventure-filled road trip with her partner and son. Travelling by road to the southern most country in Africa, she gets stranded in a border town in Malawi; finds herself in the midst of a protest against bond notes in Zimbabwe that shows her that Mugabe isn’t the force that he once was. And while dealing with immigration officials from Uganda to Ukraine, she learns what it means to carry an African passport. Wanner deals with the politics of the nations she considers home as well as the politics of literary festivals and writing with the same touch of humour that has been her signature since her first book — The Madams.
₵100.00 -
London Capetown Joburg
1994. The world is about to change. The first truly democratic election in South Africa’s history is about to unite Nelson Mandela’s rainbow nation at the ballot box. And, across the world, those in exile, those who could not return home, those who would not return home, wait. Watch and wait . . .
London. Martin O’Malley isn’t one of those watching and waiting. He is too busy trying to figure out if Germaine Spencer really is the girl for him and why his best friend is intent on ruining every relationship he gets involved in. And then . . . And then Germaine is pregnant and suddenly the world really has changed for Martin O’Malley.
South Africa. A land of opportunity. A place where a young black man with an MSc from the London School of Economics could have it all, would have it all. But what does Martin O’Malley, London born and bred with an Irish surname, really know about his mother’s country? His motherland. A land he has never seen.
₵100.00London Capetown Joburg
₵100.00 -
Men of the South
In Johannesburg three men’s lives revolve around one woman. Mfundo is a struggling jazz musician. All hope of ever becoming famous end when he gets into a macho fight with an international R&B artist. No one is keen to employ him any longer, and Mfundo takes the role of house-husband. But his girlfriend Sli is not willing to be the ‘man’ of the house. Mzilikazi is a gay man in a heterosexual marriage. One of the few people in his life who do not question the decision he makes is his best friend, Sli. Tinaye is a Zimbabwean struggling to gain citizenship in South Africa hence his current situation – underpaid and overqualified. The only way to gain citizenship is to marry Grace. But then he meets Sli…
₵135.00Men of the South
₵135.00