Youth activist Malaika wa Azania could not have asked for a better start to 2015. Her book, Memoirs of a Born Free: Reflections on the Rainbow Nation, is making waves in the US.
Local publisher Jacana Media announced this week that her book’s international publishing rights have been sold to New York-based Seven Stories Press.
Jacana Media is also looking for more international opportunities for the book, which is based on the life of the Soweto- born 23-year-old Wa Azania as she discovers her political self and her Pan African ideals.
She says the new deal will help her continue to provide for her mother and siblings while also paying her own Rhodes University tuition fees.
“I am the breadwinner at home after my mother was retrenched some few years ago and she hasn’t been able to find a job since. What I make from this book also helps me pay for my sister’s fees at University of Johannesburg and my brother’s primary school fees.
“The reception towards the book is definitely unexpected and makes me feel good that I could share my life experience with others,” said Wa Azania.
The book was last year used as curriculum material by Highline College in Washington DC in the Civil Rights Theory and Law studies while Vanderbilt University in Tennessee prescribed it for one of its English Literature courses.
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 