“Today we’re going to look for the ‘Big Five!’” South African guide Eelco Meyjes announces from the front of his safari vehicle – a strange thing to hear on the streets of suburban Johannesburg.
Graffiti treasures in Joburg Read More »
I was commissioned to write a piece about my face years ago and for various reasons it never saw print. I thought it would be interesting to post now.
Thoughts on a mirror and its meaning Read More »
Memory is layered into our lives. Our understanding of what happened in the past grows as we grow. And the southern autumn for me for the last decade or so has always been a time for memories.
Autumn Thoughts on the Eve of Our Elections Hamilton Wende Read More »
A full moon emerges above the horizon. Slowly at first, and then rapidly, the sound of hard, calloused palms beating the skin of drums rises from the huts all around us.
Keeping a dream alive … Read More »
On a long ago trip to Alaska I met some fascinating people who are the type of people who now believe in Trump’s MAGA vision. We don’t have to agree with them to try and understand them.
The humanity of those we don’t understand Read More »
Years ago, in my childhood, I was being driven in a car down Louis Botha Avenue. Ahead of us, prominent on the Linksfield Ridge, was a magnificent white house. ‘That,’ the adult in the car told me, ‘is the house where the Shah of Iran lived during the Second World War.’
Jo’burg’s Forgotten Royal History Read More »
It was his eyes I remember best, carefully watching us through his glasses as he listened, and we spoke. It was the early 1980s. Apartheid was at its height. The power of white supremacy and the tyranny that went with it seemed unassailable.
Remember our heroes with integrity Read More »
The town of Jenin is a tiny enclave of Palestinian territory surrounded by Israel. Since the start of the new intifada over eighteen months ago, the town has been virtually sealed off by Israeli tanks and soldiers. As violence has escalated in Israel and the occupied territories in recent months tensions have spilled over into open conflict. Nearly 60 Palestinians have been killed in fighting with the Israeli military.
Memories of Jenin 20 years ago… so little changed and now Gaza today… Read More »
I am grateful for the deep joy that Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika still evokes in me. I cannot help getting tears in my eyes when we sing our national anthem, a reminder that despite our present problems — and they are serious — not all is failure.
Massed voices of Regina Mundi spirit me back to dreadful days of 1984 Read More »
5 January – EWN: The inquest into the deaths of former apartheid activists known as the Cradock Four has been reopened following new evidence.
Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkonto, Fort Calata and Sicelo Mhlauli were abducted and killed in 1985 while on their way home to Cradock in the Eastern Cape.
Adriaan Vlok – the old man and the dark shadow of the past Read More »