Recently, yours truly, returned to Uganda, after a 10-year absence. For some reason Uganda, like Kenya, feels just like home to me. In the streets of Kampala, just like in the streets of Nairobi, I see so many people who I could swear I have seen before. I have seen them in Soweto, Gugulethu, Kwamashu […]
Tinyiko Sam Maluleke
Tinyiko Sam Maluleke is a South African academic (currently attached to the University of South Africa [UNISA]) who suffers from restlessness, intellectual insomnia, insatiable curiosity, a facsination with ideas, a passion for justice, a crazy imagination as well as a big appetite for music, reading and writing.
He has lectured briefly at such universities as Hamburg in Germany, Lausanne in Switzerland, University of Nairobi in Kenya and Lund University in Sweden - amongst others.
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Did you know Jesus was HIV-positive?
My favourite answer to the “Did you know?” question found in the yellow Chappies gum wrapper (probably a South African invention) is the one that goes: “Did you know? People with large heads are not necessarily clever.” The Afrikaans version of the same went something like: “Het u geweet? Mense met groot koppe is nie […]
Posted inGeneral
Stalking the sun on the island of Crete
The golden blue waters of the Aegean sea were not seeing this face of mine for the first time. Chania of Crete — one of the Greek Islands — is out of this world. I guess that’s why they call it an island. With the sea hedging one in at every turn, one needs little reminding […]
Posted inBusiness
Tripartite alliance on the rocks?
The biggest public-sector strike since Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi is nearing its end. Nay, I dare say, do not be fooled by the fiery utterances of the union leaders; the end of the strike has begun. Fighting on several fronts at the same time, the government has been both tactical and brutal with the unions. We saw […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Pitika Ntuli: Who is this man whose words bruise and heal?
I recall how in my teens I joined hordes of giggly village boys and girls to watch the Saturday graduation rites of traditional healers. This phenomenon, which takes place amidst the thunder of the pulsating rhythm of African drums, will hypnotise any curious young mind. For Pitika Ntuli, one such occasion changed his life forever. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Prison knocks at Selebi’s door
After a marathon trial, after suspicious political inventions and interventions, after the commendable investigative and prosecutorial work of members of the now disbanded special unit known as Scorpions, prison beckons for former South African police commissioner and former head of Interpol, Sello Jacob Selebi, known simply as Jackie Selebi. For some it’s hallelujah. For others […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Desmond Tutu — archbishop sans frontieres
Two recent events have drawn my attention to Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. Did I say two? Maybe three. Or four. The first was his announcement that he would retire after his looming 79th birthday — on October 7. The second is linked with an excellent doctoral thesis — based on virtually everything ever published by […]
Posted inNews/Politics
I could die soon…
There is no strange car with tinted windows tailing my red Toyota. No tall and burly mafioso tracking my movements. My telephone has not been bugged (I hope). None of my three dogs have been slain and hung by my gate. No one, save my few friends and small family, know who I am and […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Letter to Madiba
I jumped up and down, vigorously waving my arms and flashing my biggest smile towards you when you appeared briefly at Soccer City with Mamana Graça at the final World Cup game between Spain and the Netherlands. Nearly a hundred thousand people at the stadium and millions of others all over the world were doing […]
Posted inGeneral
The message of the vuvuzela is blowing in the wind
I recently wrote about the vuvuzela neither to praise nor to malign it. Mine was and still is an attempt — only an attempt — to interpret its bewitching power. It was not a perfect attempt. Otherwise I would not have come across as if I was saying people should either subject themselves to the […]
Posted inGeneral
Africa, don’t settle for WC crumbs
There is a Bible story about a fearless, stubborn, “non-citizen” outsider-woman who demands the intervention of Jesus in the “small matter” of her child’s sickness. When Jesus rejects her request, she becomes so insistent that a heated debate ensues. During the debate she (her like and kind) are likened to “dogs” that do not have […]
Posted inGeneral
An ode to the vuvuzela
Know the Tutu story? Or is it Kenyatta who first told it? When the white man came to Africa, Africans had the land and the white man had the Bible. The white man said “let us pray” and after the prayer the Africans had the bible and the white man had the land. Now — […]