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It was the Hunchback of Notre Dame that first showed me television was a powerful medium. It was 1976 at boarding school …
Oral history and written memory combine to tell us who we truly are. Years ago, I was filming on the banks of …
I covered the marches on Monday and Tuesday. This is the story of those days. A thin haze of smoke rises against …
Even small shards of history that survive help us to remember who we truly are One afternoon in autumn I stood at …
A winter morning in Johannesburg. Chilly, dark clouds scudding through the sky. Silence. Too much silence. I wait for the few melodic …
I was shocked to find so relatively little interest in commemorating this powerful event The rhythmic tap of iron shod hooves echoes …
A look inside the discipline, craft, and consistency behind award-winning feature journalism. I received the National Press Club and UNISA Journalist of …
Don’t look for quick or easy solutions to the Iran war conundrum, says author and ex-CIA analyst David McCloskey. When I meet …
The story of Dietrich in Joburg is complex and inspiring, one of the many ghostly, fragile strands of our half-remembered city. It …
The unveiling of a mask reveals the magic of Venice and the duality of memory that we carry with us This article …
I remember the house in Majwemasweu township near Brandfort so vividly. It was a clean, neat house, painted white. There was a green …
A trip to the virtually unknown enclave of Karakalpakstan brings dislocated memories of Stalin Read the full article on Substack Our plane …
I have infinitely evocative memories of a trip to Timbuktu before the present civil war. Read the full article on Substack The …
In a News24 essay, Hamilton Wende explores the lives of zama zamas trapped between poverty, danger and hope. Rather than reducing illegal …
Our creative work should not be judged only by its monetary value. And we should honour that more within ourselves. Read the …
With the fragile ceasefire in Iran taking place this week, I thought of the aftermath of another war I witnessed in Cambodia …
A trip to the Tsodilo Hills in Botswana was a poignant reminder of how much we have lost in our sundered connection …
Read the full article on Substack These days I find myself turning more and more to nature and memories of my times …
Read the full article on Substack A long ago walk through the Sudd, the swampy headwaters of the Nile reminded me how …
This article originally appeared on 14 March 2026 in Al Jazeera https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2026/3/14/kill-the-people-how-men-were-left-to-starve-in-a-south-african-gold-mine Ayanda Ndabeni watched the faint glow from his headlamp fight …
This article originally appeared on 8 March 2026 in The Daily Maverick. Their presence is as silent as bone, inhabiting a language …
In a News24 opinion piece, Hamilton Wende reflects on a chance encounter with a stranger on a New York subway shortly after …
This article originally appeared on 28 Mar 2012 in The Daily Maverick. Some of the most successful tales in recent years have …
As I take out the old fishing pliers, I can smell the sea on the old Transkei coast and hear the surf …
Military Fiction By Hamilton Wende
Red Air
When CIA operative Al Morris is kidnapped in Afghanistan, it sets off a dizzying chain of international terrorist intrigue. His son, Danny, is a foreign correspondent who has never respected his father’s choosing a career in spying. However, he writes an article about the terrorist group which unwittingly betrays an Afghan warlord, Azmaray Shah, and leads to his son Turan’s capture....
Only the Dead
Deep in the Ugandan jungle, a mysterious new presence has infiltrated the Claws of God – a cult of child soldiers led by the depraved General Faustin. The children are now being controlled by the sinister Papa Mephisto, and believe he is possessed by the magic and power of a lion. Psychologist Tania Richter is struggling to penetrate the minds of these dangerous and brainwashed children.
House of War
Sebastian Burke, a British academic, has spent his whole life trying to understand the secret life of Alexander the Great and his slave bride Roxane. Now, with the Taliban forced underground, he finally has the opportunity to undertake the journey he has dreamed of for almost his entire adult life, a journey into the heart of Alexander’s world, a journey to the lost city of Ay Khanoum in northern Afghanistan.