Wits University Press

29/10/2025

If you missed the ASSAf Humanities Book Award Lecture by award-winning author, Prof Hugo ka Canham on his book, Riotous Deathscapes, you can watch the recording of it here:

The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) hosted a webinar on 24 October 2025 with Professor Hugo ka Canham, joint recipient of the 2025 ASSAf Humanitie...

28/10/2025

The newest reprint of ‘Inzuzo’ by S.E.K Mqhayi who was known as the father of isiXhosa contemporary and traditional poetry. Mqhayi’s poetry is also a storehouse of historical events, heritage, culture, language and literature in South Africa https://witspress.co.za/page/detail/?K=9781776149162

23/10/2025

INVITATION to an ONLINE EVENT | Friday 24 October 2025
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2025 Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) Humanities Book Award Lecture
by Hugo ka Canham
on his groundbreaking award-winning book,
RIOTOUS DEATHSCAPES

Lecture Date: 24 October 2025, Time: 10:00 –11:30
Platform: Zoom
RSVP: Register here (After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar) https://assaf-org-za.zoom.us/meeting/register/mFZmyV0sRg-5dHgdpKrsUw #/registration
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In this groundbreaking work, Hugo ka Canham introduces Mpondo theory, a framework rooted in indigenous and Black ways of knowing, exploring amaMpondo people’s capacity to endure state abandonment in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. He examines the intersections of life, death, and systemic oppression, emphasising ancestral connections and the natural world as sites of resistance.

Praised for its originality and interdisciplinary depth, Riotous Deathscapes weaves oral histories, historical narratives, and radical Black intellectual traditions. It challenges capitalist notions of land ownership, offering a powerful counter-narrative to Western paradigms.

The Review Panel described the book as:
“An extraordinary piece of scholarship that develops a theory of living and dying rooted in indigeneity without resorting to essentialism.”
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More info about the book - https://witspress.co.za/page/detail/?K=9781776148639

23/10/2025

Johannesburg! Tonight's the night! See you at Exclusive Books, Rosebank at 18:00.

23/10/2025

The onset of popular struggle in the townships from 1976 onwards forced the state to embark on an attempt to incorporate black unions in a deracialized industrial relations system. Edward Webster analyzes this crucible of transformation of the labour process and the crisis in the system of racial capitalism. More about the book here https://witspress.co.za/page/detail/?K=9781776149636

SWOP - The Society, Work & Politics Institute Wits School of Economics and Finance


Image: from https://sefoundry.co.za/. Accessed 22 October 2025, 13:00

22/10/2025

NOW PUBLISHED!!!
‘Johnny Clegg: Critical Reflections on his Music and Influence’ examines the profound legacy of Johnny Clegg (1953-2019). The South African musician, anthropologist and cultural activist known as the “White Zulu” revolutionised the nation’s musical landscape while navigating cultural politics and appropriation through his engagement with Zulu traditions. For more about the book edited by Michael Drewett and Lucilla Spini https://witspress.co.za/page/detail/Johnny-Clegg/?k=9781776149643

20/10/2025

Srila Roy, professor of sociology at Wits University writes recently in a Times Higher Ed article, " South African universities face a tension between the ideals of internationalisation and Pan-Africanism, on the one hand, and decolonisation and deracialisation (changing the racial demographic of the academy), on the other.

A truly decolonial university cannot simply recruit educators of a different colour and gender from those in the apartheid era. While this might meet the conditions for demographic justice, it does not necessarily speak to epistemic justice, as Suren Pillay, director of the Center for African Studies at UCT, argues in a recent book. (Predicaments of Knowledge - https://www.witspress.co.za/page/detail/Predicaments-of-Knowledge/?K=9781776149070)

To meet that latter goal, South African universities need to draw on a diverse set of intellectual traditions – especially from the Global South, but not Africa alone.
Centre For African Studies - CAS

Decolonisation is not just about scholars’ colour. It is as much about welcoming a diversity of non-Western ideas, from South Africa and beyond, says Srila Roy

17/10/2025

Don't miss this book launch! The definitive book on the legacy and influence of South African music legend, JOHNNY CLEGG!

WHEN: Thursday 23 October 2025, 18:00 for 18:30
WHERE: Exclusive Books, Rosebank Mall, Johannesburg
RSVP: https://exclusivebooks.co.za/pages/events #?event-id=62385

16/10/2025

Wits Press mourns the passing of South African novelist and feminist literary scholar, Zoë Wicomb, who passed away on 13 Oct 2025. We echo the words of poet and scholar, Gabeba Baderoon: "The loss of this brilliant and ground-shifting author and scholar is immeasurable to Africans, Africanists and feminist scholars. She wrote unforgettably on Sarah Baartman, slavery, shame, passing, and the fractures and betrayals of the anti-apartheid struggle and the South African transition, all through the observation of fine, unnoticed textures of ordinary life. Everything she wrote was luminous. She was the inaugural recipient of the Wyndham Campbell Prize, along with many other honours. Her legacy is glorious, vital writing, and a model of undaunted courage, friendship and imagination."
Wits Press published Zoë's book, "Race, Nation, Translation : South African essays, 1990-2013", and she also contributed to the award-winning book of feminist writing, "Surfacing : On being black and feminist in South Africa".
You can find more info about these books at www.witspress.co.za

16/10/2025

The Nonqgqayi or nightwatchman – Zulu warriors and Zulu policemen - are described by Selby Mvusi who in the poem ‘Nightwatchman From Zululand’ writes “From Zululand he comes, a lion long tamed, fed on the soul of warriors long dead; Time—uncorrosive—like water on a Hippo's back seals his fury from the light of day. An oak tree in the desert parched and bare, he sits conversing with fire and the dark. ‘The Nightwatchman: Representing Black Men in Colonial South Africa’ https://witspress.co.za/page/detail/?K=97817761493842

Figure 12: Zulu policeman on patrol, Nocombotshe, Msinga’ (n.d.) Photographer: Nicolaas Jacobus van Warmelo. Courtesy Special Collections, Library and Information Centre, University of Johannesburg

13/10/2025

Join us with the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research for the launch of Hlonipha Mokoena's book 'The Nightwatchman'. Mokoena will be in conversation with John Wright and Achille Mbembe on:

DATE: 16 October 2025 - Thursday
TIME: 18h00
WHERE: WiSER Seminar room
6th Floor, Richard Ward Building
East Campus, Wits University, Johannesburg
RSVP: [email protected]