The advertising industry seemed to be working really hard to get the consumer’s attention this festive season. A few ads caught my eye — for the wrong reasons. While browsing at Stuttafords I was confronted with an image of a woman’s legs while the rest of her body formed the shape of a Christmas tree […]
Athambile Masola
A teacher in Johannesburg.Interested in education,feminism and sometimes a bit of politics (with a small letter p).
Posted inLifestyle, Media
The problem with the Rémy Martin man
Mayihlome Tshwete is the face of Rémy Martin. The billboard is plastered arrogantly in Rosebank (you can’t miss it if you’re driving down Bolton Road). The kind of masculinity advertised by the campaign — “You only get one life. Live them” — features young men such as Tshwete as the “product” of the slash generation. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Dear Mr President, I was hoping to see you at the Union Buildings
The podium was ready and your police officers were there ready to protect you. I was told you would address us at 12 noon. Some of us were naïve enough to think that you would really come. We are always full of hope. Some of us stood by the fence doing a countdown for your […]
Posted inEquality
On assimilation and double consciousness
“In common with many Bombay-raised middle-class children of my generation, I grew up with an intimate knowledge of, and even sense of friendship with, a certain kind of England: a dream England composed of Test Matches at Lord’s presided over by the voice of John Arlott, at which Freddie Trueman bowled unceasingly and without success […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
It is too soon to forget about apartheid
I recently watched the movie Woman in Gold. It is based on a true story about Maria Altmann’s journey in getting the Austrian government to return to her a Klimt painting that was stolen from her family during the Nazi occupation of Austria during World War II. This women’s journey towards justice is a long […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
#Luister: Black skin a burden in Stellenbosch
How does it feel to be a problem? — WEB Du Bois Stellenbosch University’s exclusionary language policy has once again made it into the news. It’s an open secret that the university has been hostile towards students who question the policy and more importantly, the town is hostile to black people who live in the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Lest we forget: What Marikana means to me
Your blood asks, how were the wealthy and the law interwoven? With what sulphurous iron fabric? How did the poor keep falling into the tribunals? How did the land become so bitter for poor children, harshly nourished on stone and grief? So it was, and so I leave it written. Their lives wrote it […]
Posted inEquality
The problem with ‘buying, swapping and selling’ domestic workers
I recently came across an advert about a domestic worker. The advert was a Facebook post written on a group called “Westville buy, swap and sell”. The group is used by a variety of people wanting to get rid of household appliances. I became uncomfortable when a black woman was made part of the list […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Let’s talk about ‘black tax’
The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife — this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost … he simply wishes to make it possible for a man to […]
Posted inEquality
Education for all: Is it possible?
While driving to school this morning I heard on the news that a school in Limpopo has been without textbooks and teachers since the beginning of the year. The story was framed as yet another example of government inefficiency and an echo from the past when the same thing happened to a few schools in […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The problem with #RhodesMustFall
South Africa has been consumed with statues in recent weeks. Statues have become a symbol of all the racial conflict bubbling beneath the surface of the “rainbow nation”. All at once, we agree that we need to talk about race and the colonial and apartheid history but at the same time we are afraid that […]
Posted inNews/Politics
A state of panic: What is our response?
While witnessing the farce that was the State of the Nation address (SONA) last week, the cynic in me wondered, why are we surprised? We may not have predicted the chaos that unfolded in parliament, but the sentiments behind the event should not be a surprise. There are moments in South Africa’s political life that […]