Stuart Hall in Africa
Though Hall's work was written from the vantage point of the black immigrant experience in the UK, some of it resonated in South Africa.
South Africa
The news from South Africa
...or the constant deferral of reconciliation
Roger Young’s ‘Keys, Money, Phone’ explores the heart of young whiteness in Cape Town
Something is shifting in South Africa. White privilege is a hot topic, specifically in print and social media, and for good reason. In the past few months, a number of racially motivated assaults on black people in Cape Town’s affluent suburbs have surfaced. This month Nelson Mandela’s former personal assistant Zelda La Grange had a […]
The Five Phases of Blackness: Why #WhiteLivesMatter
You are probably wondering about the title. I suspect that you are eager to get to the clever (perhaps desperate) twist. There is no twist. White lives matter! You may even be wondering what I mean by blackness. Blackness is exactly that, suffocating darkness. Imagine being in a dark tunnel that is shut on both […]
Some observations on race and security in South Africa
The writer, an anthropologist, gets a quick lesson on race and crime on a visit to South Africa.
Who is Dulcie September?
The author stars as the famed South African activist in a new play. Dulcie September was murdered by a conspiracy of South African and French death squads.
Explaining Racism to a White South African Liberal
Highlighting spectacular incidents of racial violence is that they overshadow the daily, unrecorded anti-black racist acts.
Remembering Slavery in South Africa
People forget that for 176 years, racial slavery was the central institution in a large part of the territories that would come to form South Africa.
Remembering Differently
Slavery, despite its centrality to South Africa's founding, remains on the periphery of popular and institutional memory there.
Soweto Punk Revolution
A punk festival comes close to what one would imagine the DIY-embracing, eccentricity-accepting and obedience-ignoring CBGB’s of the ‘70s to have been like.
How To Use a Sjambok
This and other lessons from the South African front lines.
Has the giant fallen?
The split within South Africa's largest trade union federation, COSATU.
The Bullshit Files: The “Mandela Ray Ban Sculpture”
Public art, the vandalism of Nelson Mandela’s legacy for commerce and the spoiling of public space in Cape Town.
The Spear of the People
The KwaZulu-Natal Midlands has a bit of a reputation as a “sleepy hollow.” But it was a crucial node in the struggle against apartheid.
Making African celebrity culture
Considering the proximity of celebrity culture to how capitalism operates in Africa, why is it not given more serious attention?
The Politics of Postapartheid Housing
Rather than the endpoint of the post-apartheid urban crisis, deficient delivery reproduces it anew, accentuating discontent in the process.
Angry farmworkers on a tractor
Done 'debating' whether “Larney Jou Poes” is free speech? Let's talk about the conditions of farmworkers.
The Dookoom Debate
What role should media play in the midst of controversial cultural expressions, like songs that address racist violence by white farmers against their workers in South Africa?
Dookoom Rises Up
A Cape Town hip hop group causes a huge stir with its music video "Larney Jou Poes" (roughly translated: Boss, your cunt.) depicting an uprising by farmworkers.
South Africans lack table manners and posture.
The country’s first School of Etiquette situated in one of Johannesburg’s rich northern suburbs is more evidence of how much its public culture has slid to the right.