Malema’s visits to the hospitality industry are about the greedy business owners, not their workers
xenophobia
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Atlanta killings illustrate the intersection of xenophobia and misogyny
Stereotypes of and violence against Asians in America, and Chinese people by those who fear Covid or by Zulu monarchs are all part of the same unconscious need for “othering” which also drives violence against women
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, General, Health, Media, Tech
Walls and razor wire, or acceptance of different others?
Two days ago, November 9 2019, marked 30 years since the fall of the Berlin wall, and the irony has not escaped some people, that today one witnesses walls going up again everywhere. Nick Miller, in the Sydney Morning Herald (November 2 2019), for example, writes: Thirty years ago the Berlin Wall fell, pulling the […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, General, News/Politics
The war on our women, children and fellow Africans
I am ashamed to be a South African man today. How have we fallen so far as a nation? From being celebrated globally as the ‘Rainbow Nation’ — for our peaceful transition to democracy; for our Constitution which stood as one of the best in the world because of the weight afforded to protecting basic […]
Posted inEnvironment, Equality, General, Health, Lifestyle
The resilience of a Somali community in Joburg
By Jennifer Sigamoney Globally, South Africa’s democracy is venerated and remains a symbol of hope for the rest of the continent. Consequently, however, to the initiation of true, representative egalitarianism in 1994, South Africa has attracted more asylum seekers than any other nation. The focus of this article is a small Somali community of political […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Beyond Trevor Noah and Mandela’s rainbow: Towards a politics of empathy
I’ve been thinking about Trevor Noah’s op-ed in the New York Times, and its angry critiques, since the Day of Reconciliation in South Africa on December 16. Reconciliation is a thorny topic in our moody democracy, a reminder that the road to postcolonial hell is paved with good intentions. If you missed it, Noah argued […]
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, General, Lifestyle
Please, mind your language
By Yolanda Mitchell Human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms. This is a core value on which the Constitution is founded. Who doesn’t want to live in a country founded on such a noble base? It sounds like the Promised Land after all — especially to as many […]
Posted inEnvironment, News/Politics
SA govt must face court for xenophobic violence, migration policy
By Evans Wadongo The South African government will soon be in the country’s high court because petitioners from countries like Nigeria, Malawi and Zambia are displeased by the spate of xenophobic attacks and murders of migrants from their countries. These attacks and deaths have also sparked the #WeAreAfrica hashtag on social media, a 30 000 person […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
The lice in the Zulu king’s blanket
By Alois Rwiyegura If South Africa fails to achieve an objective reading of what we simplistically call xenophobic attacks and take the correct actions, it will have to brace itself for a turbulent and unsafe future. Nobody would deny that the basis of these attacks on foreigners is the economic situation of the country. The […]
Posted inNews/Politics
How do we restore our common humanity, our human dignity?
I don’t know how to introduce myself anymore. I don’t know which hat to wear in public, or in identifying myself. Last week Friday, April 17, I wrote that “I’m not even sad or disappointed. I am pissed off and angry that there are South Africans who are attacking our brothers and sisters — fellow […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
The charm of Vienna cannot obliterate the abjection of SA
The conference that my partner and I are attending was supposed to be a welcome opportunity to visit the city of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert and Strauss, to mention only some of the greatest composers in the western musical canon. And then I haven’t even scratched the surface of Viennese artists and architects of various […]