News & Events, December '02

Takes

WSSD: Good to be on the march again!
     SideA: Gael Reagon (Alex street mix)
     SideB: Nicole Turner (Sandton lounge mix)

Andile Mngxitama on meeting Marti, Neruda and Langa in the streets

Oliver Barlet on African filmmakers' strategies vs. the postcolonial gaze

Mzwakhe Mbuli on Freedom

Juanita Balkisson on Indian racism in SA

Sandile Memela on volunteer racism in SA newsrooms

Sean O'Toole on Branding the new SA

Zimbabwe!
      Rehad Desai on re-inventing the revolution
     Webster Whande on the condemnation of the small axe
     Sean Jacobs & Jessica Blatt on Martin Meredith's Robert Mugabe: Power, Plunder, and Tyranny in Zimbabwe

Conversations

Salif Keita: "The ones who control music piracy in Mali are religious leaders. The biggest mafia of pirates are the religious ones[...] They make counter-propaganda: ‘You mustn't listen [to the musicians who complain]. These are Kaffirs!' You understand the game? That's it." (talking to Banning Eyre and Sean Barlow)

Achille Mbembe: "As far as Africa is concerned, colonialism is over. Apartheid is over too. Africans are now the free masters of their own destiny. This is why from an intellectual and political point of view, there is no turning away from the difficult work of freedom. It is very risky work because it involves a transformative relation with our past as a condition sine qua non of our control over our own future." (talking to Christian Hoeller)

Taban Lo Liyong: "Mazrui was an African when he was in Makerere. When Mazrui went to America he recovered his standing in the Muslim world. He is their best scholar, he is their best informer on us and against us. Underline that one, against us." (talking to Sam Radithlalo – circa 1997)