Joe Pillay launches TAKING UP THE SPEAR

​With the support of local poets Peter Midgley and Alice Major, we're pleased to welcome South African anti-apartheid activist Joe Pillay as he launches his book Taking Up the Spear: Shadrack Maphumulo’s Struggle Against Apartheid (Daraja Press). Joe's biography not only highlights the importance of ordinary people in the historic anti-apartheid struggle, but holds enduring lessons in the era we witness of resurgent white supremacist, fascist, and far-right ideologies. Come join us for an evening of readings, conversation, and celebration of this important work.

​Doors at 6pm, launch starts at 6.30pm. Drinks (coffee, tea, beer, and wine) available for purchase from our in-house coffee bar.

​About the author: Dhayiah (Joe) Pillay was born in 1945 in Durban, South Africa. Joe has been living in Alberta since 1985, mostly in Edmonton where he lives with his Canadian wife. He is a South African anti-apartheid activist and the author of Taking Up the Spear. Living as a refugee in exile in Swaziland in 1983, Pillay was a fellow traveller in the liberation struggle and an active member of the ANC’s underground network. He wrote and recorded Shadrack Maphumulo’s stories over several weeks, driven by the belief that the sacrifices of ordinary people needed to be told to inspire greater awareness of the struggle against apartheid.

​About the book: Taking Up the Spear is the firsthand account of Shadrack Maphumulo, an ordinary South African who becomes a freedom fighter against apartheid. The narrative traces his life from a rural Zulu childhood, shaped by stories of the Bhambatha Rebellion, to his early working years in Durban where he faces systemic racism, slave wages, and the humiliating pass laws. His entrepreneurial dreams—first a taxi, then a shop—are systematically crushed by a white supremacist government that reserves prosperity for whites, forcing him to realize that individual effort cannot overcome the oppressive system.