Should the Left celebrate Nelson Mandela?
The Mandela who needs celebrating is the Mandela who, if he was not Lenin, never pretended to be something else.
Search Result(s) for: “apartheid”
Why aren’t we discussing Nelson Mandela’s politics?
As much as the world wants to deify Mandela, to do so in the abstract with no reference to his actual politics is absurd.
Slavery: A view from the Other South
Slavery governed the Cape Colony, the origin of colonialism in South Africa, for nearly 200 years and left a lasting legacy.
Never becoming fully South African
Like many other African states, South Africans discharge their anger at political failings on easy scapegoats: those they deem foreigners.
What they don’t tell you about Stellenbosch
The brochures about the town left out the reality for Stellenbosch's black residents: poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
Baltimore Blues
Rather than spending money to fix massive inequalities, the U.S. funds militarizing the police, incarcerating black youth, and state violence.
The promise of revelation
James Matthews has the distinction of being one of the first Black Consciousness poets and publishers in South Africa. He is the subject of a documentary by director Shelley Barry.
The heart of whiteness, South African edition
We don't think Njabulo Ndebele minds that we liberally cutting and pasting from a speech he gave back in 2000, about whiteness in South Africa.
Playing cricket while Black
Black players are consistently reduced to their racial identities by the South African media.
The stranger among you
How does one ask the black church to offer hospitality after a white, racist stranger made the historic inner sanctum of the black community the space of death?
Losing London
Ishtiyaq Shukri writes about his deportation from London’s Heathrow airport in July 2015.
When Thomas Piketty went to South Africa
Bizarrely, for all the attention paid Piketty’s visit to South Africa, we've learned very little about what he actually said. So, what did he tell his hosts?
What is the university for?
We should not be tempted to idealize the university ‘as it was’ – especially in a country like South Africa.
Memory of the Present
Dominant culture in South Africa benignly recall slavery as part of a vaguely picturesque past that left us with beautiful colonial houses, award-winning wines and tourism.
Pan-Africanism was Peter Abrahams’ Country
Peter Abrahams lived pan-Africanism (in South Africa, Britain and Jamaica) and remained brave enough to challenge those within it.
