This rich and absorbing biography of Can Themba, iconic Drum-era journalist and writer, is the definitive history of a larger-than-life man who died too young. Siphiwo Mahala’s intensive and often fresh research features unprecedented archival access and interviews with Themba’s surviving colleagues and family.

Mahala’s biography takes a critical historical approach to Themba’s life and writing, giving a picture of the whole man, from his early beginnings in Marabastad to his sombre end in exile in Swaziland. The better-known elements of his life – his political views, passion for teaching and mentoring, and family life – are woven together with an examination of his literary influences and the impact of his own writing (especially his famous short story ‘The Suit’) on modern African writers in turn. Mahala, a master storyteller, deftly follows the threads of Themba’s dynamic life, showcasing his intellectual acumen, scholarly aptitude and wit, along with his flaws, contradictions and heartbreaks, against a backdrop of the sparkle and pathos of Sophiatown of the 1950s.

Can Themba’s successes and failures as well as his triumphs and tribulations reverberate on the pages of this long-awaited biography. The result is an authoritative and entertaining account of an often misunderstood figure in South Africa’s literary canon.

Siphiwo Mahala delves into the lives of iconic figures from South Africa's tumultuous past in this remarkable collection of plays.

The collection opens with The House of Truth, which explores the complexity of Can Themba, a fearless journalist, playwright and poet living under an oppressive apartheid regime. The one-man play weaves together elements of Themba's life and career, recreating the excitement and pathos of the DRUM era South Africa's first magazine for a black audience, and his resident neighborhood, Sophiatown in Johannesburg, before it was destroyed by apartheid legislation. Themba is brought back to life as an ordinary person with human flaws and attributes both tragic and inspirational.

In the second play, Bloke and His American Bantu. Mahala brings to life the extraordinary lives of Bloke Modisane, a South African writer exiled in London, and Langston Hughes, the renowned American poet. This two-hander play celebrates their remarkable camaraderie and intellectual exchange. Through a reimagined correspondence, the play deftly explores how a simple friendship blossomed into a catalyst for international solidarity and cultural exchange across continents, from Africa to the UK to America.

As a whole, the plays explore the intersections of identity, creativity and resistance. With wit, poise, and unflinching honesty, they bring to life the triumphs and struggles of these remarkable men who left an indelible mark on their worlds, and celebrate the human spirit's capacity to persevere, inspire and uplift.

African delights is a unique literary journey through some critical moments in South African history. The journey begins in Sophiatown of the 1950s, one of the most definitive periods in South African urban culture. This part of the book is in dialogue and also pays tribute to Can Themba, once described by Lewis Nkosi as "the supreme intellectual tsotsi of them all." The prose takes the reader to the emergency years of the eighties, where we are exposed to the painful rhythms of a society in distress through the eyes of a child. The transitional period of the nineties is reflected through the life of a young man, who has to confront the complexities of the new South Africa while carrying baggage of the old era. The realities of our society, after the first decade of our democracy, are interrogated in the last two sections of the book. The truth stories sparks a dialogue between characters and weaves together human stories that reflect some of the challenges faced by the present day society. The last part of the text, which is also the title of the book, takes a closer look at the social fabric of the contemporary society. The stories collectively create a dialogue between the past and the present and also between various literary and historical texts. The intertextuality of the stories posits history not as a series of events but as interplay between the past and the present while attempting to contrive the future. The simplicity of the prose invites the reader to intimately become part of the journey and laugh, cry, love and hate with the characters. African Delights is a delightful journey of uniquely South African stories from the past to the present and would prove to be an essential companion going to the future.