By Ayanda Netshisaulu
Bridge Books was recently invited to a conference titled 1976@50: Commemorating 50 years of the 1976 uprisings – the student uprising remembered, hosted at UJ’s Soweto campus. I was part of the Bridge team who attended.
50 years later and 1976 is still necessary to talk about, our political legacy still echoed today.
We take for granted how young the students were, how they as young as 11 had to become political bodies.
Throughout the conference, the class of 1976 spoke about that time, the classes they skipped, the conversations they had, the radio announcements and just how much school they missed.
In the conference we were reminded that these were children, children who paid for our freedoms with trauma. They asked each other with shaky voices how they made it through the days, not the days of 1976 but those of 2026.
They developed part of the protest culture we have today, a culture widely written about.
For more recommendations, check out our full Youth Day collection.
During our Bloomsday at Bridge event on Saturday 13 June we were joined by authors Terry-Ann Adams and Ivan Vladislavić. During their conversation on writing Joburg as a city the big question came up: can you? Can a single author capture the entire city?
Both authors seemed to agree that you could capture a snapshot of a part of the city at a specific moment. As readers, we have the opportunity to piece multiple snapshots like these together into a bigger portrait of a city than a single novel could capture.
If you’re looking to read Joburg, here are some suggested snapshots and perspectives to help piece together your portrait of the city.
Adair brilliantly explores Springs from the view of its Art Deco buildings. Giving voice to both the architecture and inhabitants that make a city, with a focus on people building their lives in a reclaimed space that was not theirs historically.
The book is also littered with photographs, poems, and email correspondence that make it a refreshing and inventive experience.
“It is a cemetery, this town, yet it is a distorted cemetery for the graves are filled with life.
The buildings are tombs, structures that house the dead. Watch the dead people, watch them move and dance. They are the waking dead, the walking dead.
Ah, a dead man coming out of a tomb is the best master of life for he knows its value.” - Barbara Adair, In the Shadow of the Springs I Saw
Johannesburg in the 1980s. Violence and war fill the view while Adair brings unnerving humor, wit and eroticism to the story.
It skillfully weaves 1942’s Casablanca into a groundbreaking South African post-modern novel that tells a story of love and refugees, plays with gender, converses about destiny, and explores the city. End was shortlisted for Africa Regional Commonwealth Prize.
Get it while it’s on sale!
One of our favourite short story collections that brings readers into communities and takes them “on an odyssey of love and grief”.
Adams is an incredibly skilled and insightful writer whose stories will linger with you.
Snapshots of wanderings through Joburg at the turn of the century that flavours observations with poetic consideration and reminds us that “getting lost is not always a bad thing”. Already somewhat of a classic; if you haven’t picked Portrait with Keys up yet, now is a great time.
“This is our climate. We have grown up in this air, this light, and we grasp it on our skin, where it grasps us. We know this earth, this grass, this polished red stone with the soles of our feet. We will never be ourselves anywhere else. Happier, perhaps, healthier, less burdened, more secure. But we will never be closer to who we are than this.” - Ivan Vladislavić, Portrait with Keys
For more recommendations, check out our collection from Bloomsday
It has been a wonderfully busy time for the LitDistrict with great work done in the community programs.
For May, 786 children joined our learning and education support services as we expanded through schools in the city centre.
While we took learning and reading to kids and schools, our placemaking team worked cleaning the inner-city. 200 Refuse Bags were collected across critical inner-city blocks during May.
You can read more about all our ongoing programs on the LitDistrict website.
You can also directly support all the work happening in the city by donating to the LitDistrict.
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.