The student protests of the last year are reminiscent of the 1976 student uprisings. Those protests were the precursor to a political change in South Africa less than a decade later. When young, educated “born free” South Africans express anger and impatience it’s time to pay attention. They have shown they want action. They want […]
equality
Posted inNews/Politics
Asinakuthula umhlab’ubolile: the poetry of Nontsizi Mgqwetho
Kaulirol’iqinga Siwavun’amazimba Hoha Mrs M. Maxeke Mti omde orara wakulo Deborah Bhikica emva kwabavumi Mrs M. Maxeke Ze nengcwaba lamagqwira Libe ndaweninye (Ho, Mrs M. Maxeke, Tall, bitter tree, Deborah’s sister, Give us advice On harvesting crops Glean in the wake of the reapers Mrs M. Maxeke So every witch Drops down dead) These are […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality, Gender violence, General, Lifestyle
Sexual orientation discrimination is never just that
In the late nineties, Prof Francisco Valdes from the California Western School of Law, set out to address what he saw as a dangerous loophole in American anti-discrimination law. The loophole existed in the context of sexual discrimination laws. At the time, discrimination on the grounds of sex and gender was outlawed, but, as a […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
High schools must transform and alumni have an important role to play
Sometime this week I saw some profound words that former Model C schools prepare learners for a world that no longer exists. I couldn’t agree more. I follow my alma mater on Facebook: Collegiate High School for Girls in Port Elizabeth. I need to state from the onset that I am incredibly proud of this […]
Posted inEquality, General
Children shouldn’t have to trade off their identity for a good education
It was 1998 and my nine-year old self was late for a phys-ed swimming class. I vividly remember walking into the swimming pool gates and being firmly reprimanded by the teacher who was furious at me. He then proceeded to call me a “kaffir” in front of the whole class. I had never heard the […]
Posted inGeneral
What’s in a woman’s [sur]name?
Last year I visited the bank to do some admin and I was informed that my surname on their system differed to that which was in my ID. I was enraged. It was a few months after my partner and I had gotten married. We had gone to the Randburg Home Affairs office and with […]
Posted inGender violence
Rape, the South African nightmare
By the time I was in matric three of my friends had told me they had been raped. Not by strangers in some dark alley the way I imagined rape happened. They were raped by people who were in their inner circle: friends, acquaintances. When I was in Grade 11 someone I knew was gang […]
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 inEquality, News/Politics
UFS clash was bound to happen sooner or later
By Danai Nhando The violent attack of black students that took place at the University of the Free State is a physical manifestation of the volatile state of racial tension in the nation. We have been sitting on a seemingly dormant volcano that has slowly begun to erupt. Many people have voiced their outrage at […]
Posted inEquality, General
The particularity of race and the universality of being human: Derrida on Mandela
Judging by the seemingly never-ending spate of articles, debates, and to-and-fro accusations that reflect a veritable obsession with race in this country — an obsession one might have expected to abate somewhat at this point in time, almost 22 years after the demise of apartheid — it appears to me a timeous moment to return […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
What is the colour of South Africa’s soul?
In the movie 12 Years a Slave, Solomon Northup asks, “What difference is there in the colour of a soul?” Such a question will raise eyebrows and tempers in South Africa, where the word “colour” sends a rush of emotions flooding down to angry hands from polarising thoughts. We are a rainbow — but our […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Racism, a distraction that keeps us explaining our existence
“The function, the very serious function of racism, is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language, so you spend 20 years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly, so you have scientists […]