Twelve Shades of Black

By Joy Martin

This is a book about people … people with an identity.

Twelve Shades of Black sees writer Joy Martin attempt to shed light on the daily lives of black people within the racially charged context of South Africa during the apartheid era.

The result is a series of interviews presented as a collection of twelve essays, each focused on the life of an individual person living in the townships outside Johannesburg.

The stories include that of a priest, a “witch doctress” and a poet whose work conveys and carries the weight of the painful experiences of the past.

Exploring the themes of identity and race, Twelve Shades of Black provides a historical glimpse into the reality of life in South Africa during apartheid.

About the author…

Joy Martin, an Irish author and journalist, was born in Limerick and began to write when she was still at school. She wrote Twelve Shades of Black while working at the Rand Daily Mail, and won a runner-up prize in the South African Literary Awards. Her novels include A Wrong to Sweeten and Image of Laura.