THE POVERTY OF IDEAS

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I was forwarded the front and back covers of a new book–edited by William Gumede (author of a book on Thabo Mbeki) and Leslie Dikeni (brother of poet Sandile)–on South African intellectual culture. I don’t have more information except that it appears to focus on the Thabo Mbeki era, a period characterized by virulent anti-intellectualism. Dikeni’s chapter is on “pseudo-intellectuals,” while Jeremy Cronin writes on the late exiled ANC intellectual, Comrade Mzala–remember Mzala’s 1980s book on Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, “Chief with a Double Agenda”? which had to be pulled from library shelves after the Chief objected?

The book also has contributions from Jonathan Jansen (the first black university president of the University of the Free State), US-based literature professor Grant Farred, Mahmood Mamdani, and poet James Matthews.

I am curious to read Cronin’s take on Mzala.

PHOTOGRAPHY: MACIEJ DAKOWICZ

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Link

PHOTOGRAPHY: CEDRIC NUNN

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“The wedding of Deborah Eksteen and Noel Norris, Mangete, KwaZulu-Natal, 2001″ from the series “Blood Relatives” by Cedric Nunn, South African photographer.

FILM: A PANTHER IN AFRICA

The full film, about a Black Panther who fled Kansas City in the American Midwest in 1970 for a new life in Tanzania (by director Aaron Matthews), is now online.

THE MOST UNEQUAL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD

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The kind of thing new multiracial South African elites–who are all victims now–do not want to talk about:

South Africa is the most consistently unequal society in the world, with its former equal in these stakes, Brazil, increasing the incomes of the poor through land reform and social grants. Not only has Brazil decreased its income gap but in South Africa the divide has widened, despite the government’s goal to halve poverty between 2004 and 2014.”

The Weekender

HT: Dan Moshenberg

SLUM TOURISM

In Kibera, the large informal settlement in Nairobi, the residents are paraded like animals on safari for foreign tourists:

The Dutch tourists came well prepared for the walking safari: strong shoes and sunscreen, backpacks and bottled water. Ahead lay an afternoon visiting one of Kenya’s most recognisable sights – but one that rarely features in tourist brochures. “It might seem a bit strange to come here,” said Eric Schlangen, as the guide led him towards the sea of tin-roofed shacks that constitute Kibera, often described as one of the world’s largest slums. “But I wanted to see how people live in this country, not just the animals.” Slum tourism is taking off in Kenya. Several local organisations have started selling guided trips through Kibera, a short drive from the luxury hotels that serve most foreign visitors in Nairobi. For about £20, tourists are promised a glimpse into the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people crammed into tiny rooms along dirt paths littered with excrement-filled plastic bags known as “flying toilets”, as one tour agency explains on its website.

The Guardian.

MUSICAL BREAK: NOISETTES

Indie-rockers, Noisettes, fronted by the brilliant Shingai Shoniwa (her mother is from Zimbabwe), is on a media tour in the US. Here’s the video of their live performance of “Never Forget You” on the David Letterman Show.

* By the way, I am still trying to figure out why mainstream bands on mainstream record labels that arranges for it to play on very bland American talk shows, still get to be called “indie,” when there’s nothing independent about their production or distribution. Anyway, let’s enjoy the music.

MUSICAL BREAK: SOME TOGOLESE FLAVOR

Toofan with “Deloger.”

It is Friday.

[Via Africaincorp]

SAVE DARFUR

The Onion lampoons US-based Darfur-focused pressure groups.

One question to the panel: How can the people of Darfur thank Americans? Best response: “I would like a clay pot.”

PHOTOGRAPHY: SUE WILLIAMSON

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From Williamson’s “Better Lives,” consisting of a set of photographs and audio interviews with a group of migrants, exiles and refugees, that will inaugurate a new gallery space, YoungBlackMan, in Cape Town, South Africa, next week. (The gallery, based on “… the business model of gross capital loss,” is a project of two white guys: artist Ed Young and writer M. Blackman)

Link.

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