Jacana Media and Love Books invite you to the launch of Freedom Writer: My Life and Times by the late, great Juby Mayet.

Juby Mayet passed away in April 2019 at the age of 82. The New Age. Drum, Golden City Post, Voice – some of the greatest publications of an era – were elevated by Juby’s voice. Her hepcat, jazz-inflected writing is thrilling, and all the more so in this, her memoir. Mayet was a writer and a fighter, for whom media freedom was sacred, and being a writer was the greatest thing a person could do.

Juby was a founding member of the Union of Black Journalists and a member of the Writer’s Association of South Africa. She was detained in 1979 and, following that detention, was served with a five-year banning order. Her career spanned five decades, and although not always working as a journalist (she worked as a cleaner and a secretary), she cleared the path for black women journalists, and inspired generations of South African journalists.

Members of the Mayet family will share memories of Juby, as will legendary journalist Joe Thloloe.

Susanne M Klausen, who wrote the Afterword to the book, will be in conversation with Natasha Erlank from the UJ Department of History.

Klausen’s Afterword is an essential and elegant contribution to Juby’s life and times, and an urgent call for Juby Mayet to receive the recognition she so deserves.

Event details

Date: Tuesday 11 October 2022
Time: 17:30 for 18:00
Venue: Love Books, The Bamboo Centre, 53 Rustenburg Rd, Melville, Joburg
RSVP: rsvp@jacana.co.za

 

 

Categories Non-fiction South Africa

Tags Book events Book launches Freedom Writer Jacana Media Joe Thloloe Johannesburg Juby Mayet Love Books Natasha Erlank Susanne M Klausen