Ending the polarization around South Africa’s lockdown
In South Africa, we are not in a situation where we need to choose between saving lives and protecting livelihoods. It is far worse. We are in danger of losing both.
South Africa
It has no place
COVID-19 exposes the continued inability of most white South Africans to critically reflect on privilege or engage constructively about the handling of the pandemic.
The picture is a beginning
There’s a certain humanity in the work of late South African photographer Santu Mofokeng in how he approached his subjects and the politics of representation.
Masks off
The revival of an elite technocratic rationality is starting to undo South Africa's lockdown, now in its second month.
How to steal a country
Rehad Desai's film celebrates the investigative journalists who expose the corruption of Zuma's regime in South Africa, comes with a depressing note: To date, no one has gone to jail.
Mandela and the Others
What can we learn from the 256 hours of audio recordings of the 1964 Rivonia Trial's proceedings?
‘Queen Sono’ and Netflix’s future in Africa
Queen Sono may be Netflix’s most popular series, but it may not be the right home for the new wave of African film and television.
Reclaiming digital platforms for African feminists
The Hub of Loving Action in Africa (HOLAA), promotes conversations about African experiences with sex and sexuality.
The real pandemic
The South African government's COVID-19 "rescue plan" is an opportunity to rethink its economic model, if it can break with market orthodoxy.
Home is the space
From exile, bassist and composer, Johnny Mbizo Dyani (1945-1986), explored and promoted the folk music traditions of South Africa.
Unpacking South Africa’s COVID-19 “rescue package”
South Africa's R50bn ($26bn) rescue package is 10% of its GDP. It is a major step forward, but some warning lights are flashing.
Solidarity under quarantine
Nelson Mandela's life teaches us that being quarantined is not the end of politics, but for the regeneration of politics.
Out of sight
In South Africa, social distancing to bring down COVID-19 infections takes a decidedly local shape. In a racialized society, it manifests primarily as white melancholia and black Afro-pessimism.
To remember selectively
How partisanship distorts the construction and narration of public memory about historical events, especially the resistance against apartheid.
South Africa’s one-sided lockdown: coercing the poor, coddling the rich?
The Ramaphosa Presidency has been praised for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, but the compensating measures that accompany it are inadequate to protect much of the population.
At the limits of inequality discourse
Race reductionism is stunting the possibility for radical change in an ever unequal South Africa.
The virus of whiteness
COVID-19 has been used to justify xenophobia and anti-Asian racism, but a white South African woman’s hoarding behavior illustrates the global anti-black and anti-poor response to crises.
How COVID-19 reveals the paradoxes of neoliberal logic
Pandemics force even neoliberal thinkers to admit government action and collective solidarity are urgently needed.
Who will watch the watchmen?
Who will watch the police and the army in South Africa as they act on behalf of the state to enforce COVID-19 regulations.
Why xenophobia is bad for the health of all in South Africa
South Africa mustn’t forget the public—and that includes migrants and refugees—in its public health response to COVID-19.