Solani Ngobeni holds a Masters degree in Publishing Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and an Advanced Management Programme certificate from the University of the Witwatersrand Business School.

In 2000, he joined Juta & Co, one of South Africa’s oldest and largest publishing houses, as a Higher Education Publisher specialising in psychology, political science and education. After building a formidable catalogue list, he was in 2004 appointed as Managing Director of Juta Learning, publishing Further Education and Training titles.

In 2007, following his dream to establish his own business, he opened S & S Publishing. An academic publishing house, it specialises in social sciences and humanities, and Further Education and Training.

Solani has written and published articles on publishing management, the lack of book reading and buying in Africa, and the dearth of work by black academics in South Africa. He strongly believes his country’s publishing industry needs to integrate marginalised black authors and readers into the mainstream of the knowledge economy.

Book Pitch

Welcome To Our Hillbrow
by Phaswane Mpe (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press)

Welcome To Our Hillbrow is an exhilarating and disturbing ride through the chaotic and hyper-real zone of Hillbrow – microcosm of all that is contradictory, alluring and painful in the changing South African psyche. Everything is there: the shattered dreams of youth, sexuality and its unpredictable costs, AIDS, xenophobia, suicide, the omnipotent violence that often cuts short the promise of young people, and the Africanist understanding of the life continuum that does not end with death but flows on into an ancestral realm. Phaswane Mpe teaches African Literature and Publishing Studies at Wits University. He has worked extensively in the South African publishing industry as a freelance researcher and editor. Welcome To Our Hillbrow is his first novel.

The three other books Solani is presenting from South Africa are:

Social Psychology: Identities and Relationships edited by Kopano Ratele and Norman Duncan (University of Cape Town Press)
Using current socio-political thought and research, the authors of Social Psychology: Identities and Relationships examine topics such as violence, social and political transition, race and racism, and sexualities. Identities and interpersonal relations are used as ordering themes to create a book that is truly distinctive. Special attention is paid to class, sexuality, gender and race, making psychology in general, and social psychology in particular, relevant and exciting.

The Gender of Psychology edited by Tamara Shefer, Floretta Boonzaier and Peace Kiguwa (Juta Academic Press)
Psychology as a discipline has been criticised for perpetuating sexism, reproducing gender inequality, and neglecting marginalised perspectives. Making an important contribution to this critique and written by a team of experienced authors, this book addresses the diversity of psychological knowledge and practice through the lens of gender.

Baba: Men and Fatherhood in South Africa edited by Linda Richter and Robert Morrell (HSRC Press)
Baba: Men and Fatherhood in South Africa provides answers to some of the most difficult questions about fatherhood in South Africa: Who is a father? What does it mean to be a father? What evidence is there of new fatherhood styles emerging in South Africa? Authors from a range of backgrounds and disciplines break new ground as they explore the centrality of fatherhood in the lives of men and in the experiences of children.