It was the Hunchback of Notre Dame that first showed me television was a powerful medium. It was 1976 at boarding school in Makhanda on a Saturday night and we were all crammed into the common room, waiting for a prefect to turn on the TV that was installed in the top left corner. Like […]
TV Arrives in South Africa Read More »
Oral history and written memory combine to tell us who we truly are. Years ago, I was filming on the banks of Lake Victoria when I met a Luo fisherman. I’ll call him Ochieng. But it was what he showed me about his life that mattered, and it is something I will always remember. We
The memory of our generations Read More »
I covered the marches on Monday and Tuesday. This is the story of those days. A thin haze of smoke rises against a blue winter sky. Men are standing around a fire made of eucalyptus logs, trying to warm themselves in the cold winter morning. Women and children are mostly sitting on their bundles of
South Africa’s Xenophobia – Rage and Pain Read More »
Even small shards of history that survive help us to remember who we truly are One afternoon in autumn I stood at the ruins of the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia in the ancient city of Sparta. There was little left of the temple except a few stone walls with two eucalyptus trees standing at the
Solitude and the Ruins of Ancient Sparta Read More »
A winter morning in Johannesburg. Chilly, dark clouds scudding through the sky. Silence. Too much silence. I wait for the few melodic sounds of birds: dark-headed bulbuls, mostly, with a few Cape robins. A thin, sporadic set of utterings, not like the magnificent dawn chorus of summer. This relative lack of birdsong is what I
Winter Meditation on Birdsong Read More »
I was shocked to find so relatively little interest in commemorating this powerful event The rhythmic tap of iron shod hooves echoes through the cold air as the winter sun rises over the street. It’s June in Soweto, and the sound of a horse cart working its way through the township is unusual, but there
Soweto 1976 and the meaning of memory Read More »
In a News24 opinion piece, Hamilton Wende reflects on a chance encounter with a stranger on a New York subway shortly after Nelson Mandela’s release from prison. The conversation challenged his assumptions and taught him the value of engaging with people whose views differ from his own. Drawing on that experience, Wende argues that dialogue,
OPINION | A subway stranger taught me to engage… even with ambassadors like Bozell Read More »
I shall never forget the haunting voices in Boipatong that day, calling out ‘Rooikop! Rooikop!’ — trying desperately to bear some witness to what had happened and to who they believed was responsible.
Some years ago I hiked deep into the Drakensberg to see these marvels of human creativity
The Mystery and Magic of Rock Art Read More »
I have always loved travelling on trains. My best memories from high school were taking the train down from Joburg to what was then Grahamstown. These are the memories of a particularly fascinating journey I made a decade or so ago.
A train Journey Through Africa Read More »