9 Articles by:
Suren Pillay is currently a senior researcher at the Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape. From August 2023 he will hold the AC Jordan Chair in African Studies and directorship of the Centre for African Studies at the University of Cape Town.
Contemporary approaches to the legacy of colonialism tend to narrowly emphasize political agency as the solution to Africa’s problems. But agency is configured through historically particular relations of which we are not sole authors.
What does it mean when a community takes justice into its own hands? Revisiting the case of People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (PAGAD) in Cape Town.
Where do these debates about the place of coloureds and Indians in South Africa come from?
Karl Marx can be useful to people fighting for social justice and who at the same time are deeply religious.
What to do with the universities South Africa inherited from the violences of Apartheid.
How we harness knowledge to the ethical injunctions we uphold against marginality, pain or suffering, on a global scale.
“Jazzing” on the Cape Flats, almost similar to salsa as developed in New York City. It’s the dominant sound of parties in Cape Town.
For some of us, the official celebrations are missing a crucial element: Celebrating Nelson Mandela as a figure of armed struggle and the liberation movement.
From nationalism, we have passed to chauvinism, and finally to racism. Why are South Africa’s middle classes not mobilizing against xenophobia.