Njabulo Ndebele's prize-winning stories from South Africa's black townships first began appearing in the early 1980s in Staffrider, a magazine given out to Soweto's black commuters, many of whom could not afford the fares into work in Johannesburg, and who thus had to "ride staff" outside or on top. In 1983 the stories of Fools and Other Stories were collected and published, and they won the 1984 NOMA award, Africa's highest literary award. These stories have remained in print ever since, and the author has taken a leading role in developing black culture and education post-apartheid. He now heads the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Looking back around 2020 at his career, Ndebele noted the key influence of Steve Biko's writing in Black ViewPoint and Biko's work with the 1970s Black Consciousness Movement on the Fools collection (Biko was killed in police custody in 1977):

". . . In Fools and Other Stories I deliberately explored a world in South African townships without white people in it. The kind of communication Biko

envisaged ought to be normal in South Africa today. But it isn't yet where it should be. . . ."

This Readers International US edition marks thirty years from the first post-apartheid election in South Africa in 1994.