Photos supplied In remote parts of Lesotho, feuds caused by jealousy over the musical success of accordion-playing Famo musicians have become hopelessly entwined in the battles between rival zama zama miners competing for the remains of scarce gold in the mined-out rock stopes of South Africa’s mines. The brutality has become all-pervasive. The pale heads […]
Photo by Pixabay: Photo/soldier-holding-rifle-78783 With this year marking the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War, Hamilton Wende reminisces on a piece he wrote that was originally published in the Citizen in April 2003. This original article is a first-hand account of Wende’s experience in Kuwait during the Iraq War. This year marks the 20th anniversary of
20th anniversary: A look back at the Iraq War – Hamilton Wende Read More »
A demonstrator holds a placard depicting a caricature of Russian President Putin as they listen to speeches during a peace rally against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Pretoria, South Africa, 11 March 2022. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Kim Ludbrook) Speaking to Russians living in South Africa reminded me of the fear that rules Russia. They may
The fear of Putin stalks the Russian émigré community – even in South Africa Read More »
It was well after midnight on a summer’s night in 1983. I was 22 and taking a well-earned break from training for the Comrades Marathon. The movie The Last Waltz was playing in the almost empty hall at the Bozzoli Sports Pavillion at Wits University. It was the tail end of some university gathering and
I Was the Victim of a Hate Crime Read More »
Image by Carola68 Pixabay.com My university maths tutor was an island of sanity, integrity and courage in the frightening, dangerous days of apartheid and he remains such an island in these sadly now treacherous times that we find ourselves in today. It was his eyes I remember best, carefully watching us through his glasses as
Image by Carola68 Pixabay.com Poetry speaks to us all in different ways and through its beauty resonates with the multiplicity of our experiences. Poetry must find you; and the way poems find you is through other people — and that’s the adventure of it. Poetry to me has always been a form of travel. I
Poetry is a gift, a boon bestowed on us by the small and big connections of our lives Read More »
Image by WikiImages from Pixabay The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 80 years ago and the madness of World War 2 are never-forgotten reminders that democracy and freedom are not the natural order of any society. We in South Africa have learnt now for certain what millions across the globe learnt 80 years ago –
Photo by Алесь Усцінаў from Pexels The Ukrainians’ determined, courageous and principled fight against Russian greed and aggression will come to define the meaning of liberty for the 21st century. And it will be because they largely chose to allow the freedom for the truth to be sought and told. The shell whistled over the
The First Casualty of War is Truth – and Humanity is Close Behind Read More »
As a brutal war rages in Europe, this writer considers what South Africa’s own violent history reflects to the wider world about reconciliation and even redemption. I have been haunted by this image for months: an old man in an ill-fitting, pale blue shirt and flapping khaki pants, wearing a grey woollen beanie on his
Reconciliation and redemption: The old man and the dark shadow of the past Read More »
The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. By Hamilton Wende and Niamh Kennedy, CNN CNN — South Africa has passed the peak of its Omicron outbreak, according to one of the country’s top scientific researchers. The country has “surpassed the peak of the Omicron wave now, driven by the
South Africa has Passed its Omicron Outbreak Peak, Top Researcher Says Read More »