I was at a friend’s house, paging through “Annie Liebovitz at Work,” in which the photographer recounts details of famous shoots. I was struck by this passage of a visit Liebovitz took to Apartheid South Africa in 1975 to photograph Arnold Schwarzenegger, in the country to compete for Mr Olympia. (The picture above is not […]
Once you get pass Julius Malema’s ramblings or the fact that whites play the victim card so well, it is easy to forget who the real victims of the new South Africa are. Land is one way to find out. As political scientist Allison Drew recently reported in an analysis of political developments in South […]
An ode to Busi Mhlongo, the South African singer, composer and danger.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wlh_HF2Y8E&w=600&h=373] By now you’ve seen some version of this footage–in this case from a South African TV channel, ETV–of the events earlier today when Julius Malema, the leader of the ANC’s Youth League, kicked a BBC journalist, Jonah Fisher, out of an ANC YL press conference for interrupting him. Malema was there to talk about […]
There is something tail-swishingly devilish about the way Lionel Messi runs with a football.
The murder of South African white supremacist leader, Eugene Terreblanche, over the weekend, will surely be exploited in the next few days. (Terreblanche was beaten and hacked to death by workers on his farm on Saturday who, according to reports, had “argued with him over unpaid wages.” Terreblanche had a violent history himself, including spending […]
Celebrating the World Cup does not mean we can’t ask hard questions . No, not that the annoying vuvuzelas are banned, but that thousands of informal traders will lose income because of Fifa-imposed “exclusion zones” around stadiums which permit only approved businesses, that street children are forcibly removed from Durban’s city centre, and in Cape […]
And although we loathe the "resilience of Africans" trope, I can't stop celebrating the Kinshasa Synphony Orchestra.
Social progressives in South Africa would like to believe otherwise, but the country is mostly socially rightwing and conservative.
Die Antwoord is basically blackface. But blackface is also tricky, argues poet and writer Rustum Kozain.
Poor whites don't even make up 5% of the poor. Contrast that to more than 60% of blacks. But that's not a story for foreign media.
The Senegalese-American crooner's uninspiring "Oh Africa" reminds of bubblegum South African pop from the 1980s.
South African feminist academic, Pumla Gqola, takes on all the whataboutisms thrown up by Jacob Zuma's defenders.
No one mixes nationalism, tourism and sport in a feel-good cocktail quite like the South African advertising industry.
The film "Shirley Adams" is the story of a coloured mother in Mitchell's Plain in Cape Town, struggling to care for her recently disabled son.
The famed South African musician Hugh Masekela has a history of speaking his mind on postapartheid politics.
Don't expect "Invictus" to break from the "rainbow nation" narrative despite that symbolism's sell buy date having long expired.
Here's some things I did not have the time to blog about properly or link to this past week. It's Weekend Special.
It's no accident that so many South Africans watch and support English Premier League football teams.
Who are the real victims of crime and violence in South Africa?