Sandile Memela Neither black editors nor their white counterparts in capitalist-controlled newspaper institutions have addressed the issue of internalised racism among black media professionals. Yet, the issue deserves intense scrutiny. Over the last few years, there have been far too few black journalists who have challenged the impact of white supremacy and racism on their […]

The white tenants of the flat blocks lining Church Street in Pretoria had all packed their belongings and fled, where I still wonder because a day or so after Nelson Mandela’s inauguration as the first democratically elected leader of South Africa they had all returned. The revolution they had feared never materialised on the lawns […]

Emmanuel Dongala When, on the verge of the 21st century, we look at the world around us, we cannot be other than amazed — indeed stunned — by the spectacular transformations on our planet wrought by science(*); that particular branch of thought that, as history has progressed, has acquired its autonomy by breaking loose from […]

A story by Webster Whande She held the small axe in her right hand and a small bag of seeds in the other. ‘Either you are right hand or you are not, a man or not’ She examined her left hand, rubbing the blisters as if to feel the veins and blood flow underneath. ‘I am what I […]

Achille Mbembe, author of On The Postcolony and Senior Researcher at the Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research (WISER), University of the Witwatersrand, spoke to Christian Hoeller. (more…)

Taban Lo Liyong is the author of several books of poetry including Frantz Fanon’s Uneven Ribs and Another Nigger Dead. He has also published some collections of essays, the most recent being Images of Women in Folktales and Short Stories of Africa. He is professor of literature at the University of Venda. He spoke to […]

Ishtiyaq Shukri Surely every nation must have these two kinds of citizen, the one who out of choice or lack thereof, lives at home, and the one who out of choice or lack thereof, lives away from home: the migrant worker, expatriate, refugee, wanderer, student, exile. I am of the second type, a South African […]

by Koffi Kwahulé Au coin de la rue de la Paix tourner. Rue 12. Aller jusqu’au bout de la rue 12, et là, le cinéma El Hadj, à l’angle de la rue 12 et de l’avenue du 7 août… Rue de la Paix… Rue 12… Avenue du 7 août… Cinéma El Hadj… Enfin le pont […]

by Pumla Dineo Gqola I remember in the eighties that some Black people were in the habit of taking offense at being called “my people” by comrades all over South Africa. And I never saw the big deal. Nonetheless, I sit here, on another continent and I know exactly who my people are and what […]

Greg Tate Toni Morrison and Samuel Delany both say they write novels they’d like to read but cannot find. In humbler moments I imagine Burnt Sugar my self-pleasuring answer to the void. I invented a band I wanted to hear but could not find. Three guitars two drummers two basses a flute one trumpet one […]