The people need a new myth
The Brother Moves On is not anti-ANC. Their new music rather speaks to the ideals of the liberation movement and asks if this is what we fought for.
South Africa
The triumphant end of Africa’s liberation struggle
The one individual the African continent was unanimously proud and infinitely grateful of, was Nelson Mandela.
Madiba: I Remember
The writer, originally from Cape Town, remembers Nelson Mandela's impact on his life.
The loser mentality of white South Africans
On the rather extraordinary claim that white South Africans have been politically and economically marginalized since the inception of majority rule in 1994.
Street Photography in Johannesburg: Akinbode Akinbiyi
I love the way that Nigerian photographer Akinbode Akinbiyi works. I mean his approach to photography and the way that he uses his camera. At least in the video below, he’s shooting with a Rollei Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) camera, using the sports finder. That immediately makes him one of my favorite photographers. I adore Rollei TLRs, and it’s tremendous fun to use the sports finder. The technique, like the camera itself, went out of fashion in the early ’60s, except among fans and eccentrics. (I’m both, I’ll admit.)
My Own Private Mangaung
Heard about Mangaung? No, not the site of the 1912 founding of the ANC nor last year’s ANC Conference. The real Mangaung. The prison. Mangaung Prison, run by G4S, is the world’s second largest private prison in the world. G4S is proud of that. They’re not so proud of last month’s allegations, revealed by Ruth Hopkins of the Wits Justice Project, of gross, brutal and widespread torture, forced anti-psychotics and shock therapy, and general anarchy and chaos on the part of the staff.
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.
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."
Julius Malema’s EFF and the South African Left
It is not often that analysts of diametrically opposed ideological tastes in South Africa agree, except about Julius Malema.
T.O. Molefe makes his New York Times debut
The website of the international edition of the The New York Times website debuted two dozen new "international" columnists this week. One of them is an AIAC contributor.
How about booking a night in this ‘shantytown’?
A resort in South Africa's Free State province offers guests accommodation in "a Basotho village and a shantytown." Who comes up with this offensive stuff?
Anthony Bourdain goes to South Africa
For his CNN food travel show, Bourdain picks black Gauteng rather than pretend-European Cape Town and the Western Cape.
The most superficial politician in South Africa
Mmusi Maimane, despite his apparent reputation in opposition circles as a “man of the people,” appears to possess a rather limited political imagination.
Capitalizing on a mess
Johannesburg: the city where criminals don’t discriminate, but property developers do.
The new South African family film
The idea that a post-racial South Africa can only be achieved through the adoption of white ideals, culture, and norms by black South Africans.
Cape Town hip-hop got interesting again
The difference between Isaac Mutant and Die Antwoord is that Mutant is the real deal.
Ayn Rand in South Africa
In its current form libertarianism and its worship of the market is utterly irrelevant to South Africa.
Confronting Afrikaners’ cultural masochism
The frustration or inability to establish an identity that is free of hegemonic constructed myth – that ceases to be at odds with current reality.
A black boy with blue eyes
Introducing the South African writer, K. Sello Duiker's novel 'Thirteen Cents' to US audiences.
Weekend Music Break: The Brother Moves On
I followed The Brother Moves On around South Africa once. True story, I even wrote about it here. I’ve seen them many more times after that, and each time was a trip. On their recent trip to Cape Town, they stopped over to record some songs for the Big Leap sessions, an initiative by Assembly […]