PHOTOGRAPHY / FASHION (CONTINENT-WIDE & DIASPORA)
Dandy Lion: the Black Dandy and Street Style by Shantrelle P. Lewis, 2017
R825 from Clarke’s Bookshop
A documentation of a movement that is more than just an articulation of style, Dandy Lion argues for a reading of dandyism as an interpretation of blackness that is subversive and joyful. The book is a collection of images from the 2010s that moves between London, Johannesburg, Lagos, Accra, and New York. Shantrelle P. Lewis locates various fashion and editorial movements, photographers, tailors, and fashionistas in their physical geographies and socio-political climates and ties them into a larger historical movement. There is a warmth and intimacy to the way Lewis collates this collection. It is one that is conversational, carefully weaving traces of sartorial connection across oceans. FKK
ESSAYS (SOUTH AFRICA)
I Write the Yawning Void by Sindiwe Magona, 2023
R350 from The Book Lounge
Now in her eighties, Dr Sindiwe Magona was first published aged 50, and has since then been prolific. Her social consciousness is profound and unapologetic and her wisdom can be found throughout the collection. In “Do Not Choose Poverty”, Magona uses her own experience of a hard but triumphant life to deconstruct the belief that poverty prevents success. “Why I Wrote Mother to Mother” recounts how Magona came to write about the death of American Fulbright scholar Amy Biehl, after discovering that the mother of one of the young killers was a childhood friend. And in “We Are All Racists!”, she challenges us to overcome the long-lasting effects of discrimination. Magona writes to shine a light on hard truths. Or, as she says, “I write the books I wish were not necessary – books for which there was no need.” GG
