I recently attended a public lecture by acclaimed author, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, titled The Language of Justice in Africa. The lecture was on how the English language has assumed its powerful status in Anglophone Africa and how the justice systems in these countries, premised on English codes, may actually be miscarrying justice by virtue of […]
News/Politics
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Of walls and refugees
Well, hallelujah! Turkey has started to build a wall along its border with Syria. Guess what, most of the wall is 2m tall and in some stretches will be over 2.5m high. The first part of the wall will extend for over 900km. Walls separate people and break up families. Walls cut people off from […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Politically savvy teens don’t need no education
Many sniggered at activist Julius Malema’s underwhelming matriculation results. But that much-derided F he got for woodwork proved to be no impediment in his stellar rise to multi-millionaire status by his mid-twenties. Alas for young Julius, the tax man has since bankrupted him and corruption charges make the future murky. However, the lesson is clear: […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
A comprehensive guide to white privilege in South Africa
After spending two hours on Aubrey Masango’s Radio 702 show Talk@9 this week, fielding questions and accusations around my views on racism and attempting to explain white privilege to white callers, I decided to write an extensive guide to recognising white privilege, borrowing from this anonymous Thought Catalog document, which extrapolates from Richard Dyer’s work […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Dear Dan: about Red October
Dear Dan You know what? I get it. I really do. The anger, the fear, the frustration. Murder and torture, the traces of unimaginable anguish left in photographs that have left me gasping for breath with the sheer horror of them. I will not post links to them. That is suffering that is real and […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, Media, News/Politics
Concourt ruling against ‘teen sex’ law protects rape survivors’ rights
Last week’s Constitutional Court ruling decriminalising consensual sexual relationships between teens was met with moralising outrage across the country. Sensationalist media fanned the flames of indignation by failing to contextualise the law’s effect on teen sexual relations – including rape.
Under the impugned sections 15 and 16 of the Sexual Offences Act (SOA) teenage rape survivors, especially girls, run the risk of being criminally charged for being raped.
Posted inNews/Politics, Sport
The loyalty we have to soccer teams is the same as we have to the ANC
In the past few days I have been asking myself why I get peeved each time I discuss the performance of my dearest club with my fellow Manchester United supporters. Oftentimes I find myself wondering why everyone does not see that David Moyes is technically inept, a minnow and completely out of sync as manager […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
The ‘new’ South Africa #BroughtToYouByTheANC
I was reading through status updates on Facebook when I saw one in particular that caught my attention. It was a photo of a DA billboard with lettering that reads: “E-tolls, proudly brought to you by the ANC”. I then decided that I’d provoke a discussion on my wall about what people thought of the […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
The eight ways of being white
As the recipient of much anger from the white liberal echelon to the intolerant right, I was relieved to be sent this link by a Facebook friend and anti-racism activist from Canada. The writer of this blog has extrapolated the essential messages from Professor Barnor Hesse’s course “Unsettling Whiteness”. This is ground-breaking work around whiteness […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Glenn Greenwald vs Newsnight – when did the BBC become the lackeys of the security state?
Something deeply disturbing is going on in Britain, right under the nose of one of the oldest democracies in the world. Watch the video embedded below to see what I mean. For those of you unable to see the video, it’s an interview of Glenn Greenwald by veteran BBC journalist, Kirsty Wark. Her first question […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
The problem is the Englishness*
I teach English. People often have a quizzical look when I respond to the question: “Which subjects do you teach?” (I won’t belabour the race issue that underpins the subtext of the quizzical look seeing as there aren’t many black English teachers in the southern suburbs of Cape Town). I often try to explain to […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
A birthday card for the Arch
Dear Archbishop Emeritus, Happy birthday! May October 7, the day of your 82nd birthday, be filled with joy. You are very special to many of us, and we are blessed to celebrate 82 years of your presence among us. This is a very short story of why you are special to me, and why I […]