General

The concept of ubuntu has been bandied about quite freely and mostly carelessly by writers who associate the term with the language in which it often appears. Ubuntu is bigger, broader and deeper than its Nguni “appearance”. I do not recall ever reading or hearing anyone say that ubuntu means that black people are morally, […]

Ask anyone what it is that makes them a Zulu, Afrikaner, white, black or anything else and, chances are, they’ll be able to give you an answer. Ask them what defines us all as South Africans and they’ll probably not be as forthcoming. What are the common denominators that define South Africans? British journalists have […]

Submitted by Michael Tsingo To think that I used to respect cops here! Is it that South African police have been informed to be ruthless and unreasonable when dealing with Zimbabwean offenders? Watching SABC3’s Special Assignment on Tuesday March 11 2008, I was surprised at how cops peacefully rounded up Vaal University of Technology students. […]

North America, specifically the United States, has been a land peopled by descendants of Europe. At least, that’s how I perceived it to be. If you are ever in New York on St Patrick’s Day, check out the parade. It’s an endless procession of Irish descendants. The numbers could, of course, be attributed in part […]

This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: How much did your religion cost this month, and what did you get out of it?

At a public meeting, just after an eminent scientist had painted a very scary picture of the looming climate-change crisis, I heard a frightened person ask: “So it’s like we are on this steam-train trip to hell and even you scientists can’t stop climate change from destroying people and our planet — is that right?” […]

Late in the 1990s, a groundbreaking interdisciplinary study appeared that shed light on an age-old struggle, and did so in a novel way. In his book The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict between Word and Image (published by Penguin Arkana, New York, 1998), Leonard Shlain, neurologist and neurosurgeon turned philosopher, offers a novel argument […]

Driving to work on Saturday morning, I was listening to the soundtrack of Milos Forman’s film, Hair, based on the 1967 Broadway hit musical, and I was swept away by the sheer force of the first track, Aquarius, sung by a woman with an unbelievably powerful, yet melodious voice. The beat, the rhythms and the […]

For a country that is expecting to host the football World Cup in less than 900 days, here’s how the International Arrivals section at OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg is currently going about its business. I arrived at the dire baggage claim area just after 17:00 on Tuesday 4 March after a flight that had […]

A few years ago I used to play in an inter-departmental indoor football league at work. The departmental team I played for was, at that time, an assembly of pathetic riffraff masquerading as football players. In short; they sucked seventeen lemons and their peels. I remember one particular fellow who used to take tiny Mr. […]

Submitted by Boitumelo Magolego Being called African and/or South African, in my estimation, is a politically correct euphemism or synonym for calling one black (black referring to a non-homogenous people originally called the Bantu). An euphemism, because depending on one’s so-called race, calling a person black may be construed as being pejorative. A synonym, because […]