Some Burn Too Bright: Remembering Tshidiso Moletsane

The winner of the 2022 Sunday Times Award and finalist of the UJ Prize for South African Writing, Tshidiso Moletsane’s novel Junx (2021) made an indelible mark on the South African literary scene with its powerful portrayal of a young Black man frantically attempting to escape his mental anguish while roaming the nightly streets of Johannesburg, sinking deeper and deeper into his own depression, yet never losing his self-deprecating humour. Far from being a city of gold, the Joburg of Junx is “a city in enormous discomfort, a city in mourning” (94) —a city symbolic of larger struggles that continue to shape Black life in South Africa. As it offers an unflinching lens onto post-apartheid society, Junx ultimately suggests that the consequences of white supremacy, anti-Blackness, and racial inequality are nothing less than devastating for poor Black South African youth.