A story of love in the time of the constitution
The relationship of South African former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela with her daughter is a perfect metaphor for the state of the country's politics.
Search Result(s) for: “apartheid”
Jazz as Tradition in Cape Town
"Jazzing" on the Cape Flats, almost similar to salsa as developed in New York City. It's the dominant sound of parties in Cape Town.
The argument over J.M. Coetzee
J M Coetzee, South Africa's most decorated and celebrated writer, gets the country's literary scholars and biographers, all worked up.
Who’s Been Sleeping in My House
On prime time television in South Africa, the country is often a place without a past.
A black boy with blue eyes
Introducing the South African writer, K. Sello Duiker's novel 'Thirteen Cents' to US audiences.
Limping towards irrelevance
How can South Africa's biggest trade union federation, Cosatu, remain relevant in the face of declining membership and a failing formal economy?
Morbid nostalgia
What's wrong with the 'Africa' journalism of Aidan Hartley, a staple in rightwing UK media like 'The Spectator' and 'The Daily Mail."
A voice that is incessantly in exile
South African jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin's life complicates jazz history and shows how Africans reshaped American jazz in the 20th century.
My New York Times column about Cape Town
The author wrote a column about racial and class inequalities in the city where he lived. The usual backlash by those in power followed.
Violence against children doesn’t take place in a vacuum
A government proposal to outlaw violence by parents against their children exposes how widely acceptable the practice is in South Africa.
Performing Society’s Provocations
Comedian Mpho "Popps" Modikoane is the spokesman of South Africa's "Born Frees."
Does it matter where an African film ends and begins
The eleventh edition of African films we'd like to get on people's radars. We can't guarantee that these films will be available everywhere.
Rearranging the furniture in Stellenbosch
The vigorous disruption by social movements and artists of the thuggish racialized mythmaking that dominates Stellenbosch’s cultural memory.
Chris Hani’s political legacy
Chris Hani should not be made into an ideal type or used to settle political scores in the present.
‘Township’ is a Planet for Aliens
If you only visit South African townships to confirm your prejudices and not to experience them the way they are, stay away.
The magical disposition
Township "Living," white people and the limits of "empathy"
The triumphant end of Africa’s liberation struggle
The one individual the African continent was unanimously proud and infinitely grateful of, was Nelson Mandela.
The Black Man with the Bible in his Hand
An encounter on a Cape Town bus forces the writer to think about religion, especially Christianity, and queerness.
What’s in a name
What we don't talk about when we spend time learning about Lupita Nyong'o's family and getting her name right.