Looking beyond beauty
An interview with the artist Lalla Essaydi who seeks to challenge Orientalist mythology in her work.
Blog
The care you are entitled to
Why do the middle classes in South Africa - regardless of race or ideology- pay their domestic workers such low wages?
What are the “unintended consequences of Dutch colonialism”?
In their documentary installation piece “Empire: The unintended consequences of colonialism,” filmmaker team Eline Jongsma and Kel O’Neill seek out the residue of centuries of Dutch imperialist projects, highlighting what they have referred to as the “humanity” in colonization.
The Story of South African Farming is a Women’s Story
The story of South African farming, especially small hold or small scale, independent, subsistence, emerging or peasant farming is a women’s story, and not peripherally or secondarily. It always has been and continues to be. But you wouldn’t know it from reports on farming. Take the case of Kenalemang Kgoroeadira. In 2009, Kenalemang Kgoroeadira founded […]
Make Bono History
For those whose hatred of Bono is as deep as mine or who are merely looking for concrete reasons to despise this particular celebrity do-gooder.
Oscar Pistorius to be allowed to visit ailing Mandela–but without his gun
The visit would be a good opportunity for the nation to collectively heal; after all, both Oscar and Madiba have been through adversity.
Who’s Been Sleeping in My House
On prime time television in South Africa, the country is often a place without a past.
Zimbabwean Diaspora Diaries
The UK is jokingly referred to as Harare North for its sizable Zimbabwean diaspora, second only to South Africa. This photo essay captures that world.
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.
Some of my best friends are braaiers
Barbecuing may be the perfect activity to remind South Africa that inequality is the first heritage we need to overcome.
The Politics of Spectacular Violence
The reactions to the Westgate Mall attacks in Nairobi makes clear the differentiation between human lives that are worthy of grief, and those that are not.
The Algerian Ministry of Culture
Why is the great director Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep) making a state-sponsored biopic?