Winnie Mandela and the people’s doctor
The murder of Abu Asvat has clouded Winnie Mandela's legacy. Their deep friendship symbolized what could have been in the struggle for freedom.
South Africa
You strike a woman, you strike a rock
What is it like to be a woman leader in South Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters?
Action on land reform lags behind debate in South Africa
Land reform dominates public debate in South Africa. But it comes with a lack of data and a clear policy.
Wokeness and the professional outrage machine
Social media group-think derails any chance for a progressive political movement.
No platform for Apartheid
30 years ago, free speech advocates were more willing to tolerate far-right voices than oppose them. It's now happening again.
David Goldblatt at the Centre Georges Pompidou
The South African photographer has a complicated place within his country's photographic culture.
The peculiar nostalgia for the former Bantustans in South Africa
Some South Africans are looking back on the apartheid era's Bantustan homelands with reverence. Here is why.
Cape Town’s exceptionalism
Cape Town has always been like other African cities in how it treats its poorer, black, residents. The water crisis just amplifies these divides.
The water point
The author returns to her home town, Cape Town, which may soon become the world’s first major city to run out of water. The crisis also exacerbates old divisions.
The Lame Duck President
Reflecting upon the Jacob Zuma tenure at the head of South Africa and the prospects of a Cyril Ramaphosa presidency.
How to subvert the Hollywood Western
An interview with the South African director and writer of 'Five Fingers for Marseilles,' a Western set in that country, and starring an all black cast.
The New South Africa’s original ’State Capture’
The elite compromise of the early 1990s emphatically excluded the possibility of a comprehensive redistribution policy.
Hugh Masekela’s musical modernism
Masekela wanted to craft a sound that avoided “world music” caricature while not simply mimicking the American Bebop he was so enamored of.
A Lion Among Men
In praise of the late Keorapetse Kgositsile, who became South Africa's national poet laureate in 2006.
The Cyril Ramaphosa model
The election Monday night of Cyril Ramaphosa as president of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress…
The New Testament
Much of black youth culture in South Africa celebrates constant self-invention, and is built on the gospel of entrepreneurship.
How not to talk about corruption in South Africa
How media and anti-corruption campaigns reinforces, or fail to adequately address, racialized and ahistorical accounts of corruption as a problem in South Africa.
The rise and fall of Mangosuthu Buthelezi
South African public life is rife with revisionism, often opportunistic. Take the case of Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
The roar of the ocean’s many waters
South Africa’s Constitution begins with a bold statement: “We, the people of South Africa, Recognise the
The Sons of Africa in World War I
Interview with Fred Khumalo, author of a novel about the sinking of the SS Mendi, a warship carrying hundreds of black South African soldiers.