The long wait for freedom for South Africa's slaves

In this special episode, we are honoured to be joined by Karen Jennings, a former Booker Prize longlist nominee, to discuss her powerful new novel, The First of December.

Set in South Africa during the final days of November 1838, the book explores the fraught moment of full emancipation for the enslaved. We delve into the brutal reality of the "apprenticeship" system that followed the 1833 Abolition Act, the unique Asian roots of Cape slavery under the Dutch East India Company, and the cynical economics of a system where human beings were mortgaged like property.

Karen s...