We are proud to announce the June 2025 release of Rootbound by Manthipe Moila, the debut of the Johannesburg-born, Seoul-based poet.
This has been a collection long in the making, and we’re pleased to be publishing it as uHlanga celebrates ten years of publishing South African poetry books.
An absent father dies. Home is no longer so homely. And yet, wherever you go, you cannot escape yourself. Moila’s captivating debut follows a young woman as she finds her place between the blossoming South Africa of her past and the blustery South Korea of her present.
How does one grow in a new place, in a new language? Is it possible to grow new roots, or does pain forever bind us to the past? Drawing on the botanical environment – as well as a self-made jungle of houseplants – Moila meditates on memory and loss, the thrills of exploration, and the journey of becoming. A fresh, inventive and essential new voice in South African literature.
Photograph by Rae Ann Bochanyin
Manthipe Moila was born in 1994 and is from Johannesburg. She holds a BA Hons. in English Literature from Rhodes University, Makhanda. Her poetry has been published widely, including in New Contrast, 20.35 Africa, Kalahari Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Agbowó, A Long House, and Saranac Review.
She is currently based in Seoul, South Korea, surrounded by far too many houseplants.
This book features beautiful collage work by Taipei-based South African artist and poet Leora Joy Jones. A real cross-continental collaboration!
Manthipe Moila will be in South Africa later this year to launch Rootbound in Cape Town and Gauteng. Sign up to our newsletter, or follow us on Instagram or Facebook, to make sure you don’t miss out on her events – as well as the clutch of new books we’ll be bringing out later this year.