The Will to Die
Ebook
Overview
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
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.
Can Themba was born in South Africa and died in 1967. His short stories are set across Sophiatown in Johannesburg; a historic suburb for Black residents during apartheid. First published posthumously in 1972. These seventeen short stories explore the racism and systematic violence suffered by Black people in South Africa during 1950s apartheid.
Themba was part of a group of writers known as the ‘Drum Generation’, famous for working at Drum magazine and exposing polices made by the South African government under apartheid. His work was officially banned in South Africa until 1982.
Themba was posthumously awarded The Order of Ikhamanga in Silver for his ’excellent achievement in literature, contributing to the field of journalism and striving for a just and democratic society in South Africa.’
Themba’s most famous short story, ’The Suit’ was made into a multi-award winning short drama film in 2016, winning the Best Short Film Award at the South African Film and Television Awards. It has been screened internationally and was chosen shown at numerous prestigious film fesitivals, winning multiple awards such as Best International Short at the Bronze Lens Film Festival and Best Short Film at the Scotland African Film Festival.
MARKET: Alex la Guma; Modikwe Dikobe; Mongo Betti; Nadine Gordimer
The best thing to do is to write stories that will resonate with generations. And that’s the magic of Can Themba.
- Title: The Will to Die
- Author: Can Themba
- Publisher: Apollo
- Print Publication Date: 2024
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Pages: 176
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781803288796, 1803288795
- Resource ID: LLS:9781803288796
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T10:02:06Z
Daniel Canodoise Themba, more commonly known as Can Themba, was a teacher, writer, and activist born in Marabastad, South Africa in 1924.
He attended the University of Fort Hare where he earned his teaching diploma and a degree in English. His writing career began in Sophiatown after he won a short-story competition with the magazine Drum. Themba later joined the magazine as an investigative journalist, exposing the realities of apartheid alongside other writers such as Bloke Modisane, Ezekiel Mphahlele and Modikwe Dikobe – known together as the pioneering 'Drum Generation'. The South African government retaliated by placing a ban on his writing in 1966, prompting Themba to move to the Kingdom of Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, where he lived out the rest of his life in exile. Themba died in 1967.