The politics of reforming traditional land in South Africa
Land reform in South Africa has to not only tackle racial inequalities of ownership, but also the power of chiefs and the Zulu royal family.
500 Search Result(s) for: “apartheid”
Learning Zulu
The author, a German journalist new to South Africa, writes about her first impressions and experiences, especially with local whites; so different from anything she knew or experienced before.
Never again should be for anybody
South African writer, publisher and curator Zukiswa Wanner explains why she is surrendering her 2020 Goethe Medaille.
Voice of the Cape
Rapper YoungstaCPT's headspace is shaped by Cape Town’s history.
Decolonizing Africa’s past
On national anniversaries and democratic survival.
Black authors, maids and madams
How black South African authors have written about domestic workers. There's a rich archive there.
Reading List: Faeeza Ballim
What does the history of South Africa’s power utility, Eskom, tell us about the apartheid and post-apartheid state?
The myth of the apolitical commission
In response to the Johannesburg fire disaster, the South African government has announced a ‘politically free’ commission of inquiry. But there is no such thing.
Projecting radicalism
Noni Jabavu was one of South Africa’s most trailblazing writers. Her commitment to elite ambivalence makes it difficult to hail her as a black feminist icon.
Paralyzed with Fear of the Past
J.M. Coetzee wondered in the late 1980s what price white South Africans are willing to pay for fraternity with Black South Africans.
A cinema for (some of) the people
South African film production house kykNET's dominance skews storytelling on the country's screens.
Detritus of revolution
Nthikeng Mohlele’s novel Small Things (2013) provides a rejoinder to J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace (1999), depicting a black man’s perspective on the failures of South Africa’s transition.
On conspiracy theories
A resurgent conspiracy theory that Nelson Mandela died in 1985 reveals the growing hopelessness in South Africa that rampant inequality is irreversible.
Selling fencing as freedom
What happens when companies start to sell the idea of a frictionless consumption that helps people at the same time?
Seven Things To Tell Young Black South Africans
Being Black in South Africa today must be a baffling, sometimes humiliating experience.
The existing order of things
As the South African ruling class wages a protracted war against the poor and working class, it grows comfortable with the idea that people have more or less accepted the status quo.
More morbid symptoms
Much of what passes for politics these days is actually just anti-politics: not a function of too much politicization, but a severe lack of it.
Against the youth fetish in politics
Politics is about effectiveness, and casting youth as a political subject (rather than simply a demographic), is a bad way to do politics.
The two mutually irreconcilable Nelson Mandelas
Both Nelson Mandela’s historical role in the South African transition to democracy and his own management of his legacy paved the way for vacuous treatments of his life.
Shake My Head Mandela “Moments”
We collected a ton of odd (including flat out racist and objectionable) media that circulated on social media and by journalists in the last few days about Mandela's passing.