As we celebrate yet another Africa Day, the question of what Africa really wants (and or what Africans, wherever they are, want) cannot be avoided. This question is forever lingering, and it becomes sharpened when Africa interacts with the rest of the world. The question must be confronted or posed directly especially given the fuzzy […]
Equality
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Decolonising knowledge doesn’t contradict ideal of academic excellence
By Shose Kessi Real and lasting social change does not take place without theory. Theory crafts, guides, sustains and legitimises social systems. In order to dismantle the social systems we live in, which are characterised by racism and other forms of oppression, we need to advance our theories. These theories should and must emerge from […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
White people have much to learn from Eugene de Kock
By Natasha Skoryk In the past few days, Eugene de Kock’s presence at the Franschhoek Literary Festival caused a popular furore. “He had no right to be there,” people have insisted, “He should have known better.” I understand what black South Africans mean when they say this. I can only imagine the unspeakable pain of […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
On decolonising Africa and studying abroad: A response to Zinhle Manzini
By Kgaugelo Sebidi As a Rhodes Scholar who will be heading to the University of Oxford in a few months to read for a master of philosophy in development studies, I must admit that the arguments made in Zinhle Manzini’s blog post “If you are serious about decolonising Africa, don’t study abroad” are short sighted […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, Health, Lifestyle
We’re all born naked, everything else is (a) drag
By Pierre Brouard When Caitlyn Jenner recently visited the Academy for Young Writers, an LGBTI-friendly school in a working-class New York neighbourhood, she was expecting some flak. In particular, from two youngsters, living non-binary lives, who had been vocal in their criticisms of her. Caitlyn was privileged, they said, had made disparaging remarks about “men […]
Posted inEquality, General
If you are serious about decolonising Africa, don’t study abroad
By Zinhle Manzini In 2017 I will hopefully be registering for my PhD in philosophy. In thinking about this decision, I was charmed by the idea of doing my postgraduate degree abroad, hoping it would broaden my horizons as a scholar, an academic and as a person. Most academics that I have interacted with during […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
#MabelJansen, as sober as a judge
By Sheena Jonker The idiom speaks not just of a lack of intoxication but of the clarity of mind that we associate with being a judge. We can also say that sobriety is about being solemn, which encompasses dignity, honesty, a sense of decorum and profound sincerity. So we get Judge Mabel Jansen and her […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, News/Politics
Mabel Jansen’s comments pathologise an entire people
Mabel Jansen’s comments rightly caused outrage this week. Unfortunately there have been a few that have come out in her defence (lingering in the comment section of articles and social media) after Justice Minister Michael Masutha made the decision to suspend her. I was utterly shocked at her pathologisation of an entire people. As a […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality, News/Politics
BASF, Lonmin and how the Marikana battle for justice is taken to Germany
BASF is a huge corporate that gives Lonmin a lot of business. Today, April 29, in Germany they are gathered for their annual shareholder meeting. Along with the usual shareholders who attend these meetings there’ll be some less familiar faces, two of the women made widows by the Marikana massacre. Thirty-four miners brutally gunned down […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, News/Politics
Outlaw speech: Contesting sexual coercion on campus
To law falls the privilege of demarcating and controlling a particular territory as its own. That which it cannot, or will not, claim is pushed beyond its borders to become that which is without law – or outlaw. This is one way to think about the release of a list of men accused of rape […]
Posted inEquality, General
My dream was to matter and not be invisible
By Lisa Thelma Sidambe Most of us enjoy a juicy, delicious and well-cut steak. Some like to have it casually and others have it to punctuate a celebratory mood. I am sure even now some of us are impatiently waiting for these festivities to be over so that we can have a lusciously juicy steak […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, General, News/Politics
#RUReferenceList could prove crucial in influencing the rape conversation
Is the time for South Africa to have the difficult discussion about rape finally here? Is it now time to do our utmost to provide protection and care for survivors and those vulnerable? The release of a list of 11 male students accused of sexual assault at Rhodes University, and subsequent protests by students, could […]