The Xhosa literary revival
The writer Mphuthumi Ntabeni's new novel explores the deep history of colonialism and resistance in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.
Search Result(s) for: “apartheid”
Julius Malema’s Tailored Revolution
The color red, berets, and plain workers’ clothing have all become potent aesthetic symbols for South Africa's EFF.
The triumphant end of Africa’s liberation struggle
The one individual the African continent was unanimously proud and infinitely grateful of, was Nelson Mandela.
What to do about South Africa’s flailing economy
Any deviation from economic orthodoxy in South Africa is made coterminous with the most extreme cases, like Zimbabwe and Venezuela.
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.
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.
Windhoek characters
Netta Kornberg watch film trailers so you don't have to: This time, Namibian short films are the focus of her #TrailerTakedown.
The most powerful currency today
Passport privilege remains an entirely unaddressed, unsustainable inequity, and the most consistently overlooked factor that defines every single immigration debate and "crisis" of movement and migration.
That’s Not Rugby
Don't expect "Invictus" to break from the "rainbow nation" narrative despite that symbolism's sell buy date having long expired.
Inequality and more inequality
Reading maps, the interventionist state and another $15 billion missing from Nigeria's government.
No, Africans don’t remember Margaret Thatcher fondly
Thatcher’s energetic opposition to sanctions and support for right wing forces prolonged the state of violence across the breadth of Southern Africa.
Two index fingers
Our weekly update post of things we did not blog about includes a derby goal, a film about the Williams sisters and the passing of a major 20th century South African intellectual.
Burying Comrade Nelson Mandela
For some of us, the official celebrations are missing a crucial element: Celebrating Nelson Mandela as a figure of armed struggle and the liberation movement.
South African photographer Kitty’s puzzling characters
The subjects, who were mostly black and Indian, were photographed around Durban by Singarum Jeevaruthnam Moodley, aka Kitty (1922-1987).
The infamous Cape Town hospitality
Will Barack Obama get a frosty reception when he visits South Africa this weekend?
When Nelson Mandela had an Ethiopian Passport
In April 1962, Mandela traveled on an Ethiopian passport in the name of David Motsomayi. He visited Morocco, Algeria, and Mali.
The Indominable Lion
Samuel Eto'o is the official face of the 2010 World Cup. He is also the most impressive African footballer of the last decade.
South Africa’s fatigued, narcissistic nation-building discourse
Springbok rugby projects itself as progress, but preserves the way things are in the popular consciousness of South Africans.
Nelson Mandela and how we talk about the state in Africa
It may be better to ask what Nelson Mandela's leadership means for how we assess the state in Africa.