The South African Youths
An edited version of this post appeared in the South African newspaper, City Press, as part of "Thought We Had Something Going," an e-anthology exploring post-1994 experiences.
500 Search Result(s) for: “apartheid”
A Metaphorical Biography
Santu Mofokeng’s photographs keep you wanting to know who are these people, what's their sophistications, and what's going to happen to these aspirations?
Joe Slovo is still one of my heroes
Slovo was a key leader of the armed and exiled resistance against Apartheid and one of the most visible white face of that movement, even after apartheid.
An undignified democracy
Three decades after apartheid, South Africans are still waiting for housing, land, and dignity—while elites ask for patience that serves only themselves.
The mine dumps of Silicon Valley
While it might be cathartic to compare Elon Musk’s tech firms to apartheid-era mines, the connection between ex-South Africans and American capitalism is complicated.
Speaking as one African to another
South African anti-apartheid revolutionary Robert Sobukwe is often understood as a black nationalist. So what should we make of his close friendship with a white liberal?
Punks of the Witwatersrand
The Rise and Fall of National Wake, South Africa’s first multiracial punk band at the height of apartheid, that sang about state violence and political freedoms.
Soft targets
What was behind the assassinations in the 1980s of two key anti-apartheid figures: Swedish Prime Minister, Olof Palme, and senior ANC official, Dulcie September?
The Erasure of Dulcie September
South African activist Dulcie September would have turned 84 today had she not been assassinated in March 1988. The podcast series They Killed Dulcie revisits the murder and her legacy.
A tribute to Ron Dellums, radical
Former US Congressman and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, who passed away recently, played a leading role in the global fight against South African Apartheid in the 1980s.
The mourning of a man, the mirror of a nation
Charlie Kirk was not a household name in South Africa. Yet, as evidenced by the local outpouring of grief that followed his death, South Africans must confront the truth: his ideas were already at home.
We too are culpable
Israel’s impugnity in Gaza and the West Bank is enabled not only by its backers in the West, but by the widespread indifference of large parts of society.
Black women write
In her new biography of South African writer Lauretta Ngcobo, Barbara Boswell shows how the publishing industry historically excluded Black women, and how they wrote in spite of that.
Through the lens of queer Indian South Africans
Queer Indians are largely invisible in South Africa's LGBT discourse. But representation is not enough, we need political transformation and multi-racial class solidarity.
The politics of imperial gratitude
South African discourse about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continually references Soviet support for the exiled ANC. But the past is more complicated than official Russian and South African statements suggest.
The cry of Black worldlessness
Poet Mongane Wally Serote’s 40-year lament, still haunts Black South Africans: “it is only in our memory that this is our land.” The land haunts our memory, and, in turn, we haunt the land’s memory.
The most wanted man
The legend of Nelson Mandela was built years before his lengthy jail sentence catapulted him to global fame.
Pushed to the Limit
…and discusses the unnerving continuities that link key post-apartheid economic policies with the fitful neoliberal adjustments
A meditation on home
A new memoir by South African-American Stephanie Urdang offers a remarkable and feminist view of love, longing and revolutionary struggle.
Laughing pains
Stand-up comedy, especially black stand-up, and the political in South Africa.