Beyond the introductory notes provided below, actual reviews of these received publications, which are not featured in the current issue of African Writing, may appear in subsequent issues. Please write to editor@african-writing.com if you would like to join the reviewing team, or wish to provide commentary on any of the publications listed – Editor

Photo: Tolu Ogunlesi

The Rich Man of Pietermaritzburg. Sibusiso Nyembezi, with Sandile Ngidi (translator), Aflame Books, Laverstock, UK, 2008. Enquiries: info@aflamebooks.com. First published as Inkinsela yase Mungungundlovu by Shooter and Shuter, Pietermaritzburg, 1961. This is the first English translation of a South African classic selected as one of Africa’s 100 Best books of the 20th Century. In The Rich Man of Pietermaritzburg, C. C. Ndebenkulu the con man city-dweller goes to the sleepy KwaZulu-Natal midlands and tries his tricks on a naïve but well-meaning local in this tale “of neurotic ambition that unfolds against the backdrop of the systematic destruction of the African peasantry and the loss of their land and liberties.”

Jaime Bunda, Secret Agent. Story of Various Mysteries. Pepetela, with Richard Bartlett (translator), Aflame Books, Laverstock, UK, 2006. Enquiries: info@aflamebooks.com. First published as Jaime Banda, Agente Secreto by Publicacoes Dom Quixote, Lisbon, 2001. Artur Pestana, who writes as Pepetela, a codename earned fighting the Portuguese in the 1960s during Angola’s guerrilla wars of independence, is a well-known literary name in his home country and also in Brazil and Portugal. He has won the Camoes Prize, one of the most prestigious literary honours in the Lusophone world, and some of his 15 books have been translated into 12 languages.

The Other Half of History. An Anthology of Francophone African Women’s Poetry. Georgina Collins (Editor and Translator), with Kadija Sesay (Preface), The Heaventree Press, Coventry, UK, 2007. Enquiries: www.heaventreepress.com. Twenty-nine poets from thirteen African countries in this anthology very much deserving of its description as “groundbreaking”. Read the review in this issue of AW.

Charrua and Beyond: Poems from Mozambique. Maria Luisa Coelho, Ana Raquel Lourenco Fernandes, Tula Hatagima, Jonathan Morley and Ana Teresa Brizio Marques dos Santos (Editors and Translators), The Heaventree Press, Coventry, UK, 2007. Enquiries: www.heaventreepress.com. There are Jorge Rebelo and Mia Cuoto, both canonical African poets, and others like Ana Mafalda Leite and Eduardo White, equally well known, in this bilingual anthology of fifteen key Mozambican poets. Read the review.

The Afropolitan Issue 2. Vol. 1. September 2007. Tiiseko Makube (Editor), Results Media Group Ltd, Randburg. Enquiries: With writers and experienced media operators like Fred Khumalo, Zukiswa Wanner and Ndumiso Ngcobo contributing, this well-supported second outing of South Africa’s latest litmag of national importance has ‘Literary Criticism and State of the Nation’ as its theme. In this special issue of African Writing focusing on South Africa, we reproduce work from some contributors of The Afropolitan, which we consider of some significance in the understanding of the South African contemporary.

Halala Madiba: Nelson Mandela in Poetry is an ambitious anthology including the work of over ninety poets from around the world, living and dead, with Nelson Mandela as their main subject and overall theme. Some of the poets included are major international voices. They include Wole Soyinka, Seamus Heaney, Kamau Brathwaite, Arthur Nortje, Dennis Brutus and Linton Kwesi Johnson. As might be expected there is a dominant South African presence, including the poets Mazisi Kunene, Karen Press, the South African Laureate Keoropetse Kgositsile, Ingrid de Kok, Chris Mann, Breyten Breytenbach, Don Mattera, Mongane Wally Serote, Sipho Sepamla and Oswald Mtshali. And there are surprises too. The late hip hop music superstar, Tupac Shakur, for instance. An important historical document.