If you arrived at the Johannesburg Art Gallery today hoping to see the celebration of national progress and African achievement, you would truly be very disappointed. One of South Africa’s renowned visual artists, Kay Hassan, has mounted his latest exhibition titled Urbanation. This makes it hold the promise of a rebirth, a renaissance, a new […]
Media
Posted inLifestyle, Media
Oprah’s African women don’t love themselves
Not too long ago I was frightened by words of a young, gifted and African woman who expressed a desire to be recreated in Oprah Winfrey’s image: confident, aggressive and, of course, American. This beautiful soul is a high-flying creative achiever who wants to be what she is not: a poor imitation of an African-American […]
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle, Media
50th birthday for the credit card: priceless
On this, the fiftieth birthday of the credit card, it’s appropriate to reflect on our relationship with that most fantastic of plastic. The credit card is a global phenomenon, but also a deeply personal issue. Until recently, I was wading unsteadily through glutinous swamps of debt, but I am happy to report that hallelujah, I […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media, News/Politics
The threat of Indian globalisation
The last 30 years have seen a particular type of culture permeate the world. Driven by the microchip, fast food chains and David Hasselhof, this process has conceived an entity named globalisation. The economic and cultural mast of globalisation, (the naughty Americanised democracy-for-McDonalds version we all love to hate) has sown popular uprisings, iconic protests […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Maybe next time?
I missed Thabo Mbeki’s farewell speech on Sunday night and was desperate the next morning to catch a glimpse of his apparently wet eyes bidding goodbye to a nation. I rush over to the SABC website hoping to find an uploaded video of the evening’s drama. I don’t find anything. Instead, I come across videos […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
GP’s toxic and seductive phenomenon..
One Friday night, not long ago, I wondered why the youth of GP were dancing. What are they cheerful about in the midst of the countless ills besetting our country? My attempt to find the answer to this question also gives clues to where I have been hiding for the past year. I scribbled the […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
To be a young, tired and ‘angry African racist’
I was neither hurt nor surprised when an ill-advised young, gifted and African film director condemned me as an “angry black racist” in the company of a white female colleague at John Matshikiza’s memorial service recently. Of course, it is a dangerous political activity bordering on career suicide for an African artist to confront white […]
Posted inMedia
Loving MK to protect the African male image
The much vaunted pseudo political thriller Jerusalema on circuit should teach Africans to do their own movies themselves. You see, as long as the hunter writes South African history, the lion will always be a victim. It is the same case with the portrayal of Africans in movies, literature, theatre and, of course, film. After […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Zapiro, Zuma and us – Part 2. Using rape against rape
Recently Dr Mamphela Ramphele astutely observed that the problem with African leaders is their inability “to envision their roles as agents of fundamental transformation of their societies”. I want to extend her point to those in the business of manufacturing public opinion, in particular journalists and cartoonists. Ramphele uses the example of Zimbabwean President Robert […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
The day Percy pitched me onto the street
I’m pretty damn sure I was the first white person in South Africa to be fired by a black person. I am revealing this little-known truth now in the hope that such credentials might earn me a place at the back of the queue behind those gay, disabled, half-Chinese women standing in line for some […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, News/Politics
In memory of Deon Basson, a great forensic business journalist
South Africa lost one of its greatest investigative journalists and a fine thinker when Deon Basson died this week. What endeared him to me, aside from my admiration of his understanding of insurance companies and the determination that made him one of South Africa’s finest investigative business journalists, was a lack of obvious vanity. The […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Right-wing Zapiro, or a guy who gets it right?
The country’s visual conscience corrected his balance with his revised cartoon on Sunday that switched the Jacob Zuma rape of justice image, with members of the Thabo Mbeki camp. Both, according to his accompanying caption, are valid. I analysed this development for the Daily Dispatch as regards his basic message. Which is: South Africa needs […]