Andre Marias is the owner of the only black-owned bookshop in Cape Town. His interest and passion for books goes back many years. Growing up in Lansdowne he would, as a child, immerse himself in books at the local library and this passion for books has never left him. He
started the serious collection of books in the early 1980s as a young activist in the Cape Town Youth Congress (CAYCO), an affiliate of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in the Western Cape and as a student teacher at Hewat Training College.
Apart from being the sole proprietor of Surplus Radical Books, he brings a wealth of personal experience in managing library book resource projects over more than 30 years. Originally a qualified high school teacher, he also has an extensive background as a cultural activist.
He was deeply involved in the establishment of the Congress of South African Writers (COSAW) Library, a seminal activist organisation that promoted literacy and the culture of reading in disadvantaged communities during Apartheid. He was further involved in numerous activist
libraries such that he was subsequently invited by the Catholic Welfare and Development Centre (CWD) to establish a library to service their constituency and the wider community.
He is a lifelong collector of books, reading, film and other audio-visual materials.