Will to Die

In this collection of previously banned short stories, Can Themba shines a light on the racism and systemic violence suffered by Black South Africans during apartheid in the late 1950s.



Written during Can Themba's career as an investigative journalist for South Africa's revolutionary magazine Drum, these seventeen short stories capture the atrocities of apartheid as he witnessed and experienced them first-hand.



In Themba's most famous short-story, 'The Suit', a couple living in poverty struggle to find freedom from oppression and from each other. Set in Sophiatown, the tales preludes the South African government's decision to bulldoze the homes of Black residents and make way for a white-only suburb – an event that personally devastated Can Themba and shaped the rest of his writing career.



This is the essential collection of his most impactful stories, written in defiance of the injustice he witnessed.



Selected by Donald Stuart and Roy Holland