Wits University Press

Latest titles

Public Intellectuals in South Africa

The essays in this volume utilise the idea of public intellectualism as an interpretive prism and activist principle within a historical South African context. They offer fascinating insights into the thought and work of a number of public intellectuals across a range of disciplines – from journalism and arts criticism to history and politics. ...
More about: Public Intellectuals in South Africa
San Elders Speak

This richly illustrated book documents San material culture through the words of four San elders in conversation with two academics. Their discussion, over seven days, of the world’s largest collection of San artefacts provides a novel perspective that enriches scholarly knowledge and brings past and present San ways of life vividly alive. ...
More about: San Elders Speak
Prisoners of the Past

Building on the work of economic historian Douglass North and Ugandan political scholar Mahmood Mamdani, Friedman argues that the difficulties besetting South African democracy are legacies of the past, not products of the post-1994 era. ...
More about: Prisoners of the Past
Falling Monuments, Reluctant Ruins

Examining questions around heritage, ruins and remembrance in post-apartheid South Africa, the contributors seek to understand how architecture contests or subverts the persistent conditions in order to promote social justice, land reclamation and urban rehabilitation. ...
More about: Falling Monuments, Reluctant Ruins
Land, Law and Chiefs in Rural South Africa

This collection illustrates contestations over land, restitution, chieftaincy, customary law and history in South Africa’s rural areas. Intense disputes are taking place around such issues as who ‘owns’ the land and mineral resources, and who can make decisions about their use. Case studies focus especially on disputes that have come to court. ...
More about: Land, Law and Chiefs in Rural South Africa
Bill Freund

The late social historian and leading analyst of African history, Bill Freund traces the varied environments in which he was educated and taught. Freund provides a fascinating family history, descriptions of émigré life in the USA, observations drawn from his teaching experiences, and offers up deeply personal moments in his life. ...
More about: Bill Freund
Surfacing

An anthology of academic and non-academic writings, dedicated to contemporary Black South African feminist perspectives currently influential in scholarship, radical thought and creative expression. The writers use creative expression, photography and poetry in eclectic, interdisciplinary ways to unearth and interrogate representations of Blackness, sexuality, girlhood, history, divinity, and ot ...
More about: Surfacing
How I Lost My Mother

A deeply felt account of the relationship between a mother and son, and an exploration of what care for the dying means in contemporary society. ...
More about: How I Lost My Mother
Neither Settler nor Native

Making the radical argument that the nation-state was born of colonialism, this book calls us to rethink political violence and reimagine political community beyond majorities and minorities. ...
More about: Neither Settler nor Native
Precarious Power

An incisive analysis of ANC power – as party, government and state – this book distils trends bound to shape South Africa’s political future. It examines ‘compliance and discontent’ under Ramaphosa and reveals a president wavering between serving the needs of the organisation and those of the nation; an ANC whose power is indeed precarious. ...
More about: Precarious Power

News

Radio Soundings: South Africa and the Black Modern by Liz Gunner wins UJ’s Book of the Year Award for 2020

Tuesday, November 17th, 2020

Wits University Press is excited to announce that author Liz Gunner has won the University of Johannesburg’s Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Awards 2020: Book of the Year for Radio Soundings: South Africa and the Black Modern. These awards acknowledge excellence in teaching, research, innovation and service. Professor Elizabeth “Liz” Gunner is a Visiting Research Professor with the […]

Bill Freund – a tribute

Tuesday, August 18th, 2020

6 July 1944 – 17 August 2020 MEDIA RELEASE It is with great sadness that Wits University Press heard the news of the death of social historian, academic and intellectual, Bill Freund on Monday 17 August 2020. Described as one of the grandmasters of South African economic historiography, he was a remarkable and prolific scholar and […]