General

Over the past 25 years, there have been a number of coconuts, non-whites and whites who have, overtly or covertly, accused authentic blacks of being racists. This is uncalled for and untrue. When blacks are self-aware, love and embrace blackness in their own terms, it does not mean that blacks are anti-white. As the chief […]

After being criticised for the title of my previous blog I thought it necessary to write a response. Perhaps some of the readers of Thought Leader are so very worried about race that they carry around a little race injection to squeeze into unsuspecting blog posts whenever they can. Crafty of them, but endlessly tireless […]

In the same week that the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict is to visit Britain, the Roman Catholic Church continues to be embroiled in scandal. In a provocative gesture, the Vatican lashed out that sex abuse is rife in other religions as it seeks to contain a paedophilia scandal which has cost the American church […]

There are many things that Africans do which give Africa and Africans a bad name or rather there are things that folks with black skin do which tarnish the image of those with black skin. However, as one of the greatest pan-Africanists ever alive — Marcus Garvey — once argued: “The black skin is not […]

I don’t read much, I am black after all, but I found myself perusing the sacred pages of the weekly Sunday Times yesterday evening. You see, my housemate buys the paper, I think out of habit more than anything else because he constantly complains about the content now carried on the pages. And since there […]

Towards the end of the 19th century, a belief in the innate superiority of the Nordic, or “Aryan”, races — specifically of the Germanic and Anglo-Saxon variety, but by implication including others — started to become fashionable. This way of thinking would reach its gruesome culmination in the catastrophe of Nazism, with its cult of […]

So there were Frank and Danny, just moseying along on the front of their wagon, thinkin’ about nothin’ in per-tick-u-ler, their two hosses ridin’ up front, wagon clattering over the stones through the plains of Tennessee. It came to Danny’s attention there was a whole bunch of flies around Frank’s horse’s posterior. He realised another […]

The foundation stone of a person’s character and belief system is the culmination of not just one moment, but most likely hundreds or even thousands of moments. Everything we do, and every experience we go through is comparable to an ever-changing ball of putty. As a South African cricket fan, we have gone through some […]

“I don’t know why you should think I have a Chinese girlfriend,” seethed Malcolm, a young American teacher speaking to me in an office we once shared together in Shanghai. “She is a Canadian.” His beard bristled around his clenched teeth. “I think you should have just let that information come out naturally in conversation.” […]

I was fortunate last week to attend the Fourth World Summit on Arts and Culture at Museum Africa in Newtown last week. The theme of the summit was “Meeting of Cultures: Creating Meaning Through the Arts”. For three days, we talked about intercultural dialogue and cultural diversity and everyone was agreed, roughly, on the need […]

Melbourne or Mandela Bay? The decision as to which franchise gets the 5th Australian-based and 15th Super Rugby franchise, will be announced on October 21 by Sanzar. This has not been a simple bid process in which prospective Super Rugby franchise teams simply respond to the criteria of the bid document (See it here1-sanzar-super-15-application.pdf) in […]

The object of every anti-disestablishmentarian is to ensure that the state and the church remain enjoined and act as one. On the one side we have the all-seeing power of God, which gives credence to the other side where we have the all knowing power of the monarchy whose monopoly over the threat of violence […]