Nechama Brodie

Dr Nechama Brodie has worked as a multi-media journalist, editor, producer and publisher for nearly twenty-five years. During this time she has dodged the secret police in Burma, explored tunnels underneath Johannesburg, gotten dusty at rock festivals, and reported on the myth of ‘white genocide’ in South Africa.

Nechama’s work has appeared in leading South African newspapers like the Sunday Times, the Mail & Guardian, and City Press, and in the Hindustan Times (India) and the Guardian (UK). Nechama also previously headed up the training and research division TRI Facts for independent fact-checking agency Africa Check.

Nechama has a PhD in journalism and is a part-time lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Journalism and Media Studies. Her research work focuses on interpersonal violence and media representations of violence.

Books
Nechama is the editor/author of the critically acclaimed The Joburg Book (Pan Macmillan), a contemporary history of the city that was long-listed for the Alan Paton Award and has sold over 10 000 copies; and Inside Joburg (Pan Macmillan), a guide to the city’s most interesting spaces. Nechama’s best-selling history of the city of Cape Town, The Cape Town Book (Struik Travel and Heritage), was released in 2015.

Nechama is also the co-author of memoirs I Ran For My Life (Pan Macmillan), with best-selling musician Kabelo Mabalane, and Rule of Law (Pan Macmillan), with MP and former state prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach.

Nechama has published short fiction in the inaugural Short Sharp Stories Award anthology Bloody Satisfied (Burnet Media); written about Joburg’s past in My Joburg : Guide de la scène artistique (Fage editions); and worked on the second edition of Maverick (Umuzi), a non-fiction history of extraordinary South African women with award-winning author Lauren Beukes.

Nechama’s first novel – a supernatural thriller called Knucklebone (Pan Macmillan) – was published in 2018 and was long-listed for the Barry Ronge Prize for South African fiction and short-listed for the Nommo Award for African speculative fiction. The sequel to Knucklebone, Three Bodies (Macmillan) was published in March 2020.

Nechama’s non-fiction work Femicide in South Africa (Kwela) was released in July 2020.

Nechama lives in Johannesburg with her sons, a magnificent cat, an over-enthusiastic dog, several guitars, one piano, and too many books if there even is such a thing. Nechama is also a musician and singer and (unrelated) a martial artist, holding a second dan in karate.