Since its first staging in the early 80s, Akerman’s play has lost none of  its explosive power. Chillingly brutal and grimly humorous all at once, it detonates in the present like a long-dormant mine – Ivan Vladislavić

Somewhere on the Border was written by Anthony Akerman in exile more than two decades ago. The play was  intercepted in the post and banned as a publication by apartheid censors because the language was considered ‘offensive’ and the portrayal of the South African Armed Forces ‘prejudicial to the safety of the state’.

This publication of a one-act version of the play brings the Border War back into public discourse and pierces through the armour of silence, secrecy and shame that still surrounds it. The script is complemented by an author’s preface an an afterword by historian Gary Baines, as well as photographs of its 2011 production.

Anthony Akerman went into exile in 1973 and lived in Amsterdam, working in the theatre as a playwright and director. He returned to South Africa in 1992 and has since written several award-winning plays. He also writes for radio and television.

Somewhere on the Border wins the English Academy of South-Africas 2014 Thomas Pringle-award for best short story or play

Wits University Press publication awarded the English Academy of South Africa’s 2014 Thomas Pringle Award for Best Short Story / Play