As we bid farewell to the older generation that brought us political freedoms, we must never forget where we come from as a society
Rainbow Nation
Posted inGeneral
To all South Africans: In memory of who we are
When we critically inspect our histories, none of us come out completely faultless, but we will find something, and we can learn
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
The rainbow nation needs a paint job
By Franklyn Odhiambo Theorists say race is a representation of social differences in a code that defends interests and conflicts by referring to apparent physiological characteristics and the treatment of fixities from these references as social facts and thus empirical truths. They say too that racism and a race project occur when a group has […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Non-racism in a racist South Africa – the opiate of the chattering class
In Racism without Racists, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva writes: “Nowadays, except for members of white supremacist organisations, few whites (in the United States) will claim to be racist. Most whites will claim that they don’t see colour — just people; that although the ugly face of discrimination is still with us, it is no longer the central […]
Posted inGeneral
Why white South Africans should learn the grammar of blackness
Twitter does funny things to former cabinet ministers. Just before midnight on Sunday, Tito Mboweni started a discussion about hair extensions. Why, he wanted to know, did black women not want their natural hair? So there we had it: our former reserve bank governor talking about weaves. Imagine Tony Leon talking about fake tan. That’s […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
There are many Oranias in SA
By Athambile Masola As a product of a Eurocentric, former white educational institution, I was once very quick to embrace non-racialism (that race should no longer be used as a marker to understand our experiences). I’ve been living in Cape Town for over a year and have come face to face with the politics of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The problem in SA is not the ANC
The oldest liberation movement on the continent, the African National Congress, is facing a crisis of great magnitude. Not only are there power struggles within the organisation but a sense of resignation towards the organisation in broader society. The masses have evolved from a state of defeatism — induced by the post-1994 euphoria — to […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Reflections on an epistle to white people
By Sekoetlane Jacob Phamodi Yesterday morning, on my breakfast online media trawl, I ran into Gillian Schutte’s latest epistle to white South Africa. “Dear white people,” it opens, “[I] implore you to wake up and smell Africa with a fresh white nose.” Intrigued by what Schutte might have say to whites following a year of […]
Posted inGeneral
The second new South Africa
By: Frederik de Ridder Watching powerful individuals erode the dream of promise and a better life for all in South Africa, it is natural to fall back and review whether this could have been predicted. As a young person, I wonder what I would have done had I been of age or relevance during the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Why (I think) I don’t have more black friends
A comment by Sunday Times columnist and author Ndumiso Ngcobo on Twitter got me thinking recently. Ndumiso tweeted that “in a country with an 80% black population it must take some effort to not have any close black friends” – or something along those lines. Ndumiso is of course spot on. While I lived in […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Finding rainbows in the gutter
Why are South Africans so good at doing bad things together, but not good things? A lot of people like to say “the rainbow nation is dead, we can never get on”. But every day people are proving that fact wrong. White and black policemen working together, manning the machine guns like brothers, mowing down […]
Posted inGeneral
Hanging out with Zuma
Is it racism or is it art? What is this thing? What the hell has happened to us as a country during this last week? Whatever it is, I’m afraid there’s no going back. Never again would an innocent phrase such as “honorary member” be spoken in Parliament or anywhere else without someone in the […]