In the run-up to Africa Day, on 25 May, Jonathan Ball Publishers will be sharing some of the sparkling new books from their 2021 Pan-African list.

We’re calling these Future African Classics – the books you’ll want on your shelves today, and for future generations.

Today, find out more about Years of Fire and Ash: South African Poems of Decolonisation, edited by literary critic and lecturer Dr Wamuwi Mbao.

• See the full list of Future African Classics here!
• Don’t miss a poetry celebration centred around this book on Africa Day!

The animating impulse behind this collection of old and new voices is ‘decolonisation’, a term which has regained prominence over the last few years.

It allows us to perceive how different South African poets have placed their work in the world, and how that work might relate to the struggle for radical social transformation.

How, then, does decolonisation look like in the world of South African poetry? This anthology is an attempt to answer that question.

The poems express the thoughts and experiences of poets who experienced apartheid, but also of those who address current political realities. This collection includes established voices such as HIE Dhlomo, Oswald Mtshali, Mongane Serote, Sipho Sepamla, and Es’kia Mphahlele, as well as prominent contemporary poets such as Vangile Gantsho, Adrian van Wyk and Lebohang Masango.

About the author

Wamuwi Mbao lectures in English studies at Stellenbosch University. He writes short fiction, and his research interests are in South African post-apartheid literature, architecture and popular culture. He is a South African Literary Award-winning literary critic with the Johannesburg Review of Books. His short story ‘The Bath’ is included in Twenty in 20, a collection of the twenty most significant short stories post-1994.

Categories Africa Non-fiction South Africa

Tags Africa Day Africa Month Future African Classics Jonathan Ball Publishers Wamuwi Mbao Years of Fire and Ash