Nativism and narrow nationalism in South African politics
The question of who belongs in South Africa, stains any project that aims to build a more equal and inclusive society.
500 Search Result(s) for: “apartheid”
Long live Ruth First
The great South African writer and activist, Ruth First, was assassinated by a letter bomb sent by the South African Security Police in Maputo, Mozambique on this day, 17 August, in 1982.
Durban gets a new literary festival
What happens when ike's, a legendary bookstore in Durban, South Africa, creates a literary festival? For one, synergy.
Nelson Mandela’s Humanity was a Political Education
The author, remembering Mandela, writes how South Africa galvanized progressive energies in the US in the 1980s.
The genuine goema captain of Cape Town
The musician Mac McKenzie, who passed away in April 2024, helped pioneer a sound that captured the Mother City’s Creole heritage.
The Woolworths ‘Tribute’ to Nelson Mandela
Are corporate entities really well intentioned in celebrating Mandela the freedom fighter or are they merely using these tributes to position their brands on the right side of history?
Rescuing Nelson Mandela from sainthood
There is a lively, angry, often chaotic debate about the role and place of the father of the South African nation.
Born coloured, not born free
Jazz bassist Benjamin Jeptha’s latest project interrogates the meaning of Creole identity in South Africa, thirty years after the end of white-minority rule.
“Happy Africans”
…a radio broadcast. The show, “Gun Owner’s News Hour,” was discussing the “differences” between Africans and
Cape Town’s Inner Ugly
Patricia De Lille, one of South Africa's most popular post-apartheid politicians, claims she tried to redress spatial apartheid in Cape Town, but the legacy of her seven year run as mayor is one of violent forced removals and a refusal to upgrade informal settlements.
The Stay At Home Strike
Before the Soweto Uprising in 1976, students and workers organized one of the largest strike actions in South Africa’s history.
Who gets to define borders?
What will the renewed land debate in South Africa mean for the border woes of neighbors such as Lesotho?
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.
Punching above its weight
South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel is the latest example of its ability to act as a normative superpower, exceeding even the great powers in shaping global moral discourse.
The Cape Doctor
Robbie Jansen is a key figure in what is referred to as South African, especially Cape Town, jazz.
The Importance of Reading ‘Khwezi’
The Jacob Zuma years were especially damaging for re-introducing South Africans to political leaders who did not fear shame.
Brenda Fassie’s revolution without harmony
Brenda Fassie was a woman who stepped out of line, talked out of turn, wore the pants, pulled up her skirt and loved women and men.
The slow cancellation of the future
Anxious and isolated, living in poverty or financial precarity, we sink into ourselves and adopt self-destructive coping mechanisms.
The proper course of justice
Existing models of racial healing center whiteness and demand the emotional labor of Black folk, fetishizing reconciliation but forsaking justice.
Henry Kissinger’s Angola
In 1975, seeing how a communist victory in Angola’s civil war would boost the morale of Vietnamese freedom fighters, Henry Kissinger wanted to plan a covert operation against the MPLA.