We are delighted to welcome our new colleague, Wisani Mushwana!

Wisani is a writer and scholar who has taken up a joint appointment as lecturer in the department of English Literary Studies and the Centre for African Studies, as of May 2025.

He graduated with his MA in Creative Writing (with distinction) from the University of Cape Town in 2021. His debut novel, A Soft Landing, was published by Kwela in 2023 and became the Book Lounge’s 2023 Book of the Year, also forming part of Brittle Paper’s 100 Notable African Books of 2023. The novel was also shortlisted for the 2024 University of Johannesburg Prize for South African Writing in English, and longlisted for the Sunday Times Literary Awards, the Humanities and Social Sciences Awards and the South African Literary Awards.

His doctoral thesis, titled Writing Against Shame: Contemporary African Writing on Queer Subjectivities, was recently awarded with minor corrections, and his PhD graduation will follow later this year. The thesis takes a pan-African view of literary production that counters what Mushwana has named an archive of delinquency which constructs queer African subjects as delinquents in need of violent reorientation. Examining a wide range of novels, short stories and poetry, and drawing on the work of writers like Yaa Gyasi, Jennifer Makumbi, Chinelo Okparanta, Koleka Putuma, Nakisanze Segawa, Makhosazana Xaba, the thesis demonstrates how contemporary African writers, in writing about queer subjectivities, intercept this archive to produce what he has called a restorative archive, one which humanises queer Black African people.

More generally, Mushwana’s research interests lie at a nexus between postcolonial African literature, postcolonial urbanism, gender and sexuality studies, memory studies, queer theory, archival practice, literary ecologies and creative writing.

I am extremely grateful to the Centre for African Studies and English Literary Studies for this opportunity to contribute to the important work they do. The English Department has taught me that there are many ways to do literary studies — an apt lesson as I join both CAS and ELS. Both departments are fertile ground for my intellectual curiosity and growth, and I am excited to contribute to each.