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 […]
Nelson Mandela
Posted inNews/Politics
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 […]
Posted inNews/Politics
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 […]
Posted inNews/Politics
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 […]
Posted inNews/Politics
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 […]
Posted inNews/Politics
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 […]
Posted inNews/Politics
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 […]
Posted inNews/Politics
So we booed the president…
By Melo Magolego On December 10, 2013, I, like thousands of others, descended on the pavements of Johannesburg. We made a long walk, a pilgrimage to the memorial of uTata Nelson Mandela at FNB Stadium. As we bore witness to the dignitaries present, the unrelenting rain made us feel as though we were in a […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The myth of Mandela the violent liberation war hero
There was never a time when people have spent so much time and energy to reclaim what they think is the correct brand or label of Nelson Mandela — to redefine and project him as a revolutionary fighter. Their efforts are to shatter what they consider the myth of portraying him as a saint or […]
Posted inNews/Politics
You can represent Mandela in his absence
By Amukelani Mayimele This is one of those days where society is watching everything we say about Nelson Mandela. We are almost challenged to sound politically correct in our writing and in our sharing of memories of Madiba. Many have succumbed to the pressure and society’s dictatorship on how we should react and think about […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Israel joins the world in mourning Madiba
While the press focused on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision not to attend the memorial service to honour Mandela at FNB Stadium, it failed to give due credit to the high-level Israeli delegation that did attend. It is especially notable and poignant that this delegation comprised human-rights protagonists and activists. Leading the delegation of five […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Now that Mandela is gone, we need to talk
The passing of Nelson Mandela has found the country without the iconic leader that served as the glue that held the fragile, fragmented pieces of this rainbow nation together. His death had the world mourning but also nursing a somewhat morbid curiosity as to what will happen now. It has the people asking: “Did reconciliation […]