By Kelebone Lekunya I think we have to acknowledge the big role that Nelson Mandela played for the “liberation” of the blacks and whites in South Africa. Nevertheless, I don’t think we should be obsessed with him to the extent of thinking of everything as being Mandela. The man played his part and left us […]
Madiba
Posted inNews/Politics
Plotting the parameters of genocide – the SACP and Zuma booing
The ancient Chinese thinker Confucius is reputed to have said: “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper names.” At the risk of inviting the vitriol that attracts calling things by their proper names, I will testify, hopefully not in a kangaroo court, that the SACP’s statement of December 11 2013 which […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Lessons in speechwriting: Obama on Madiba
By Rob Turrell I listened to Barack Obama’s speech about Nelson Mandela at FNB Stadium last Tuesday week in awe. I had read his tribute on Mandela’s death and I wondered if he would repeat it or give a new speech. He gave a new speech. I was amazed. I’ll tell you why. Rhetorically speaking […]
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What the fake signing man really told us
Gibberish or not, what the fake signing man so pithily exposed about our society, is that white privilege and commonsense racism continue to permeate and dominate the South African public conversation. This was evident in the many educated and colloquial responses to this debacle which, rather than focusing on the grave disservice done to the […]
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The danger of making Mandela apolitical
By Nhlanhla Mtaka It is true, nature has the capacity to force us humans to act. This was evident the day former president Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela died. On that day the message from Mother Nature seems to be clear: stop individualising the multiple and avoid the trap of making Mandela apolitical. Mandela died on December […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Nelson, nostalgia and the nation
By Nedine Moonsamy In South Africa, we’ve never had an easy time with nostalgia. For some citizens being nostalgic about the past is often tied to the guilt of a privileged, white childhood. For others it holds the concern about whether nostalgia glamorises the indignity of poverty under apartheid. In both cases we censor our […]
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Mandela’s death exposes white opportunism
For the past two weeks, the nation has been mourning the death of its first democratically elected president and one of the most respected global icons, Nelson Mandela, a man fondly referred to as Tata, father of the nation. The grief that penetrates the atmosphere, like a coiling miasma, has suffocated the life out of […]
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Booing deepens democracy
Booing is now part of our democracy, whether you like it or not. It is so mainstream; it cannot be taboo. It happened at the ANC’s Polokwane conference and it happened at Mangaung. It will happen at the next conference. Should it have happened at former president Nelson Mandela’s memorial is the question? Booing shows […]
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The hunt for the Mandela gene
I arrived back from a holiday in India to tragic news. Nelson Mandela had died. The next few days at work were laced with jet lag, sleep deprivation and constant news updates. Many of them, no, most of them involving the verbose sentiments of the current government which spews forth the notion that everyone needs […]
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The eloquence of the fake signing man
I won’t lie. A lot of this is bloody funny (read some of the best jokes about it here). The fake sign language interpreter is now a cultural phenomenon, featuring on major US comedy shows and catalysing a new meme. And yet, at the heart of this, is a terrible sadness. I felt tremendous pity […]
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Tata will forgive us but we must not forgive ourselves
By Binwe Adebayo While I generally try to avoid public screenings of hopped-up political events, the Mandela memorial held at FNB Stadium presented an exception to my rule. It was an opportunity for the world to pay homage to a great leader, whose ability to embody the “fruits of the spirit” was unparalleled. Wanting so […]
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If that was Madiba’s memorial – God help us all
I was deeply moved watching this video of Johnny Clegg with Madiba. Songs like these make me shiver. They reduce my feelings to ash, the kind of ash that sweetens and embitters you with the memories of the promises most South Africans held closer than the breath in their lungs in the heady days of […]