As a child, I thought that grownups weren’t afraid of anything. They killed spiders. They didn’t believe in monsters and ghosts. They weren’t scared of dogs or the dark or the deep end of the swimming pool. Of all the disappointing discoveries of adulthood, the realisation that grownups are in fact very frightened very often […]
News/Politics
Posted inNews/Politics
Zimbabwe: The triumph of hope over experience
Southern African politics is a rambunctious affair. It’s far removed from the predictable and safe parameters of the established Anglophone democracies against which we surreptitiously measure ourselves. It’s a bit like being slung into a tumble dryer with a sack of razor blades. One accepts that one is going to incur nicks and cuts, with […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle, News/Politics
Foucault and the courage of truth
The last course that Michel Foucault presented at the Collége de France in 1984, when he was already quite weak (he died in June of that year, and taught until March), was on The Courage of Truth – later published with that title (Palgrave Macmillan 2011; Kindle edition). Although I cannot do justice to it […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality, News/Politics
How the west destroyed the global south’s best shot at development
When it comes to international affairs, western politicians love to celebrate their devotion to development. In her flagship speech on development as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton offered stories about US aid transforming the lives of poor people in Indonesia, Nicaragua and South Africa. France’s minister of foreign affairs recently hailed his country’s commitment to […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
The art of hypocrisy: Appeal to re-constitute Shackville
By Shobane A wave of condemnations and outrage hit the media after University of Cape Town artworks were burnt on campus. Even those academics, who from the rooftops declared their support for the fees must fall movement were very quick to distance themselves from what they saw as a particularly “senseless” act. This violence, it […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Protests herald the emergence of new democratic subjectivities
We are in Valletta, Malta, at a conference at present, and I have just done a presentation on the reasons for the widespread nihilism in the world today. What struck me was the fact that a number of the other delegates who came to me afterwards to talk to me about my presentation expressed their […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Time to act against the EFF
Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande, who was noticeably absent from the sites of student protest over the past months, has surfaced. Blinking his eyes in Rip Van Winkle befuddlement, true. But mercifully surfaced. The police, he reassures, will in future take “decisive action” over violent protests. Lest we be misled into thinking […]
Posted inEquality, Health, Lifestyle, News/Politics
Grand racism vs petty racism
By Sduduzo Mncwabe In South Africa racism and psychology had a difficult marriage consummated by Professor Hendrik Verwoerd in 1948 and dissolved by Professor Sathasivan “Saths” Cooper and company when the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) was founded in 1994. As a profession we have gone from having “one of our own” construct the […]
Posted inEnvironment, Equality, News/Politics
Violence is a necessary process of decolonisation
By Zinhle Manzini On February 25 it was reported that two buildings and a car were burnt at the North West University Mafikeng campus, yet this incident is not the only occurrence of violence that has disrupted some of South Africa’s universities. One would recall that a bus was also set alight a week ago […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Swazis deserve to know why controversial judge Ramodibedi got away
By Caroline James In April 2015 Swaziland’s judiciary was rocked by a scandal involving its chief justice, two high court judges, the registrar of the high court, and the minister of justice. Bizarre scenes followed as the judges appeared in the dock in court to apply for bail, and the chief justice, Michael Ramodibedi, spent […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
Student protests as ‘acting out’
The recent, and still continuing university student protests across the country call for a more fundamental theoretical approach. Although one could always address them at the level of “common sense” or everyday discourse (which is what I have done here before), it is perhaps time to elaborate on the fruits yielded by a psychoanalytical perspective […]
Posted inNews/Politics
SA’s politicians crash and burn on Armed Forces Day
Armed Forces Day this past Monday was marked by what the media described as a “spectacular” show, including a large fly past that included four Gripens, four Hawks, three C-130s and several Oryx helicopters, as well as the Silver Falcons “in tight formation”. In other words, the South African Air Force (SAAF), which has been […]