About Khanya College
About Botsotso Publishing
Museum Africa
Background and Aim of Jozi Book Fair
Jozi Book Fair is open to publishing houses which are commited to a social justice agenda and who feature contemporary and cutting-edge writing internationally and regionally. The fair is initiated and organised by Khanya College and Botsotso Publishing to offer small and progressive publishers a forum to showcase their publications and activities, network, as well as the opportunity to develop alternative approaches and strategies.A range of activities, such as seminars, readings and network meetings will focus on urgent issues which are of interest for small and progressive publishers, and which will facilitate the profiling of non-mainstream writers and publishing houses. Special events will enable the exchange of knowledge about alternative ways of production and access to various distribution networks. The provision of a wide range of alternative information and existing informal networks aims at stimulating and encouraging publishing within social movements and NGOs.
Recently, a decline of progressive and alternative publishers could be observed in South Africa and internationally. While a vibrant generation of young and emerging writers, activists and publishers is profiled by international literary and poetry prizes, and more cutting-edge publishing projects, their work is hardly recognised by a wider audience in the region today. Jozi Book Fair is a response to the urgent need to rebuild a progressive publishing network on the continent, which it aims to promote publishers with a social justice agenda, support indigenous language writing and publishing, as well as to introduce marginalised writers to a wider audience. While these efforts hope to expand the potential of the variety of alternative and new publishing initiatives, they will, at the same time, serve to build up a reading culture wider than that of just mainstream publications.To achieve this, several formats of platforms are offered for publishers, agents, translators and press to engage, debate, discuss and plan new projects during the two days of Jozi Book Fair. Additionally, small and progressive publishers will be invited to network and exchange in a two day meeting before the Book Fair sets off.
Khanya College is an independent non-governmental organisation based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Established in 1986 with the primary aim of assiting various constituencies within working class and poor communities to respond to the challenges posed by the forces of economic and political globalisation. click here to read more
Botsotso publishing is a grouping of poets, writers and artists who wish to both create art, as well as to generate the means for its public exposure and appreciation. Botsotso is committed to a proliferation of styles, a multiplicity of languages and a multiplicit of themes and characters...
click here to read more
In the words of the curators, Museum Africa is a journey back into the glory years of the Africa continent’s past, when the first civilisations thrived. It is not a revisionist African history written by biased Afrocentric scholars. The journey through Africa’s history visits places like Kemet, now known as Egypt, Kush (Sudan) and Punt (Somalia), which the ancients called ‘God’s country’. Museum Africa is about a time the world forgot; a time very little of the world knows; a rich history with which a generation of black children can identify and correct the record on African history as it has been presented up until now.
Museum Africa’s collection and research focuses on indigenous African cultures, history and archaeology, and linguistics, and the collection of rock art is more than impressive. The collected works of art contain many local artists as well as Pre-Raphaelite and Impressionist paintings.
One of the main displays covers the Treason Trial where more than 150 people who included Nelson Mandela, Albert Luthuli and Walter Sisulu, were charged with treason, with no convictions. The defendants are each portrayed in a display that contains their portrait and a small biographical plaque. Under each portrait is a little red book in which the public is invited to write comments and facts about the person.
