Requiem for Sophiatown

“No artist will ever be content to substitute the noise of war for the music of his soul,” wrote the South African Can Themba, the star turn of the Sophiatown Renaissance of the 1950s.

His pieces about what he defined as the shadow life of the new African led the way for a generation of writers in Drum magazine, The Classic and other outlets. Here are twenty-five short stories and sketches from the creative side of his career, including “The Suit” - his classic, most anthologised and adapted work - with several previously uncollected pieces, some in print for the first time.