By Danai Nhando Bob Marley’s famous lyrics in Redemption Song have been a silent anthem in my head of late. “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.” The more I ponder on the state of my beloved continent, the more I realise how ironic it is that he sung this […]
Equality
Posted inEquality, Lifestyle, News/Politics
Are activist youth our agents of real social change?
By Zukiswa Mqolomba Today’s youth are no longer the “lost generation” apathetic about the societies surrounding them. They are acutely conscious of their marginal structural position. Now, they no longer trust the state’s willingness and ability to find solutions to their problems. In their shared marginalisation, young people have developed a sense of common identity […]
Posted inEquality, General, Media, News/Politics
Whites only Oscars and black sour grapes
The recent announcement of an exclusive all-white list of actors who are the finalists for this year’s Oscars has provoked a lot of negative black reaction. Big names in the movie industry like Spike Lee, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, among others, have criticised and condemned the list of nominees. Many other black people […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence
Hostile response to #ForBlackGirlsOnly shows why we need it
With all the racial tension brewing over the past few months it’s no surprise that an event called #ForBlackGirlsOnly has caused a stir. Many think the event counters nation-building in a time when people are losing their jobs over racial slurs, and the amount of melanin you have can trigger an online shouting match. This […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
They herded us into the aircraft like cattle
By Robtel Neajai Pailey I thought I’d become immune to the indignities of travelling with an African passport, but an encounter last month proved me wrong. After a series of meetings in Dakar, I travelled back to London via Madrid on a red-eye Iberia Airlines flight. Disembarking from the plane in Madrid in the early […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Peace is not an event
Over the weekend I watched Particle Fever, a documentary that follows six of the 10 000 scientists who joined forces to build the Large Hadron Collider and find the so-called “god particle”. It was a long-term experiment initiated in the 1990s that was successfully completed in 2013, nearly 50 years after the existence of the particle […]
Posted inEquality, General
The particularity of race and the universality of being human: Derrida on Mandela
Judging by the seemingly never-ending spate of articles, debates, and to-and-fro accusations that reflect a veritable obsession with race in this country — an obsession one might have expected to abate somewhat at this point in time, almost 22 years after the demise of apartheid — it appears to me a timeous moment to return […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
The dark side of the global village
We are constantly being reminded that because of instant digital connectivity, we live in a global village. Along with another over-worked modern metaphor — that it takes a village to raise a child — this is a phrase generally used with approval or, at worst, resignation. The less salutary aspects of village life are rarely […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, Health
It is quite possible for women to have sex and get a degree
I saw an article today that I found extremely worrying. It suggested that 16 bursaries were awarded to female matriculants who underwent a virginity test, and passed. In order to keep these “maiden” bursaries, the women must “remain pure” and undergo regular testing throughout their undergraduate degree. These bursaries are premised on the idea that […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
The battle for the heart and soul of the DA
Two out of three ain’t bad South Africans are continuously singing the same tune to the DA, to borrow from the artist Meatloaf “I want you, I need you, but there ain’t no way I’m ever gonna love you”. But unlike South Africans Meatloaf goes on to say, “but two out of three ain’t bad”. […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Racism, we have to deal with it every day
By Siphumelele Zondi I was recently tagged in a tweet asking how long black people will complain about racism and blame everything on it. Whenever I engage a group of white people about racism, whether in the work place or social settings, there will always be those that would say racism is over and we […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, Lifestyle
Not all women want men to be fathers
Not all men are fathers. Some men will always be just males. Until you have been a “childless father” or watch the Mzansi Magic television series Utatakho you will never know what that means. You will never know the pain, the emptiness that echoes in the heart of a man who is deprived an opportunity […]