Clarke’s is not just an aesthetically pleasing bookshop to walk by on your walk through Long Street. It is history.
Clarke’s Bookshop/Miriam Kimvangu
Clarke’s Bookshop has stood since 1956 as a beacon for readers in search of African stories. Founded in the years before South Africa’s literary landscape truly took shape, Clarke’s quickly established itself as one of the few places where local voices could find a home on the shelves. From the very beginning, its mission has been clear. To collect, preserve and celebrate African stories in all their forms.
If you step inside today, you’ll see it immediately. The shelves lean heavily toward South African and African literature of all genres including novels, poetry, academic works, art catalogues and so much more. Unlike many mainstream bookshops, the shelves were stocked to the brim with more unknown authors. “We focus on getting a range rather than just bestsellers,” one bookseller explains. “We get self-published authors coming to us. Other bookshops won’t necessarily stock them, but because of our focus, we get to do that.” Clarke’s philosophy is what has kept the legacy of the store alive until today.
Clarke’s Bookshop/Miriam Kimvangu
Beyond the shelves
For how long the bookstore has been around, it is not surprising how many people already know Clarke’s. But their contribution to South African heritage goes beyond stocking local literature. The shop also runs a lesser-acknowledged operation: supplying libraries and universities across the globe with South African books and historical/archival material. There is no better teller of our nation’s stories than stories from our nation.
“Something that’s cool about us is that we also do library supplying to university libraries overseas,” one of the team explains. “Because we are very specialized, a lot of libraries… Cambridge, the British Library, Frankfurt, Basel… they rely on us. We make sure that things published in South Africa get into library collections all over the world.”
It’s a behind-the-scenes task, but a vital one. It ensures that South African literature in all forms is the leading voice of the nation’s story abroad and doesn’t vanish into obscurity. Instead, it becomes part of international scholarly collections, where current and future generations of researchers, students and readers can access it.
Closer to home, Clarke’s also plays a role in keeping the public record complete. The Western Cape Provincial Library often directs writers their way, knowing Clarke’s is meticulous about stocking and supplying local works. “The library says, go to Clarke’s, because they know we are focused on getting the local stuff into the libraries”
The bookshop operates as both a cultural custodian and a distribution hub ensuring that South African publishing reaches far beyond its borders.
Clarke’s Bookshop/Miriam Kimvangu
Treasures from the past
Clarke’s work doesn’t stop at contemporary publishing. The shop is also known for its remarkable collection of secondhand and rare books, sourced from downsizing private libraries, estate sales, and unexpected donations.
Sometimes, the discoveries are astonishing: anti-apartheid pamphlets once banned in the 1980s, ANC publications, or fragile 19th-century travel books that include the first illustrations of gorillas. For the staff, these finds aren’t just curiosities but also fragments of history. “I get really excited when I see these sorts of things,” one bookseller says. “My dad was a librarian during apartheid. He worked to advocate for buying things that were banned, and then also trying to unban them. I’ve got that sort of story in my history.”
It’s this combination of preserving the new and safeguarding the old that gives Clarke’s its unique role in the cultural ecosystem.
Clarke’s Bookshop/Miriam Kimvangu
Why Clarke’s work matters
As South Africa celebrates Heritage Month, Clarke’s Bookshop stands as a reminder that heritage is also about words. Stories in every form are the threads that weave together memory and identity. By ensuring that these stories are preserved, circulated and valued both locally and abroad, Clarke’s performs an act of cultural stewardship. It protects voices that might otherwise be lost and it makes them available to a much wider world.
In a country where so much of the past was deliberately silenced, Clarke’s commitment to collecting, curating and sharing South African literature is an act of quiet resistance.
This Heritage Month, stepping into Clarke’s is about stepping into a living archive, one that has kept South Africa’s stories alive for nearly seventy years and will continue to carry them across borders and generations.
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