JM Coetzee’s Cricketing Life
The news that J.M. Coetzee had contributed to a book entitled "Australia: Story of a Cricket Country" rankled the author, a committed Coetzeephile, slightly.
South Africa
Steve Biko’s Son
Nkosinati Biko on a close and present relationship with his father that is unusual for children in general and for the children of activists in particular.
Inbox
It has come to this. Don’t focus too much on the ‘your scholarship’ line. An email
Colonial Fantasies
Just a sample: A "Heart of Darkness"-themed ship, Tarzan in South Africa and a travelogue on the Congo River.
Oprah’s expensive South African education
The talk show host started a private school for girls in South Africa. Shocker: it mostly makes things worse.
Cape Town is ‘the most dangerous’ city in Africa
A Mexican research group has listed the world's most dangerous cities based on homicide rates. South Africa's cities finish tops.
The New South African Superstar
Zahara has become the top pop artist in South Africa in a fairly short time but
Benetton Politics
South Africa’s Democratic Alliance, usually very slick and media savvy, have really outdone themselves with a
Nelson Mandela and the ANC
Nelson Mandela has always elicited divergent, incorrect and unrealistic reactions among his detractors and supporters.
Afrikaner Bloods
Factual media reporting on how South African relationships and attitudes, especially between blacks and whites, evolve are hard to come by.
Remember Caster Semenya
The story of Caster Semenya was always a story of a Black African woman, and was equally always the story of a Black woman.
An acute deficiency in generosity
Some journalism and "analysis" about postapartheid South Africa by outsiders amounts to hysteria dressed up as analyses.
Africa’s oldest liberation movement is 100 years old
Does South Africa's ruling ANC still fight for the same values it championed 100 years ago?
The Year of Frantz Fanon
What gives Fanon's thinking its force and power is the air of indestructibility and the inexhaustible silo of humanity which it houses, argues Achille Mbembe.
Helen Zille’s ‘AIDS Gestapo’
The leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance makes offensive remarks about AIDS, then smears her critics, AIDS activists and journalists, as Nazis.
The business of selling beer
SABMiller's new Impala Beer is marketed to poor people who don’t buy other commercially distributed beers because they are too expensive.
The fear-riddled DNA
A new ad for how DNA works feeds into a fear-riddled white South African state of mind about black crime and blacks-as-a-class as criminals.
Shameless Self Promotion
Occasionally we have to promote our day jobs. Here are some excerpts from an op-ed that
Beginning Workout
Talking about running: some ad people can make any city look good.
Brakpan
Brakpan is a declining mining town east of Johannesburg in South Africa. Photographer Marc Shoul‘s images