The party question
Marcel Paret’s book, "Fragmented Militancy: Precarious Resistance in South Africa after Racial Inclusion," tries to make sense of politics in South African urban informal settlements.
South Africa
Countering the narrative
If committed filmmakers want to reach and influence more people, and counter fake news, impact producing may help get us there.
Cursed heirlooms
The legacy of soap operas and state of television in South Africa. Now it is being exported to streaming services like Netflix for everyone everywhere to see.
The politics of imperial gratitude
South African discourse about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continually references Soviet support for the exiled ANC. But the past is more complicated than official Russian and South African statements suggest.
Not so quiet resilience
David Samaai was the first black (and coloured) South African to play at Wimbledon in 1949. He was 21 years old. He did so before the Americans, Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe.
Will the populist wave crash over South Africa?
With the globe-spanning rise of right-wing populism, there may be good reason to fear for South Africa’s fledgling democracy.
Israel and the geopolitics of a South African dairy strike
On The Africa Is a Country Podcast: Israel's entanglement in a strike by South African dairy workers, and its campaign to acquire accreditation at the African Union.
Letters of recommendation
On the South African-born anthropologist John Comaroff and the political economy of silence in academia.
A black sound
On AIAC Radio, Folarin Ajibade (@folarinistired) was inspired enough by Xavier Livermon's book "Kwaito Bodies" to make a mix.
A man of the people
Robert Vinson's biography of Albert Luthuli hints at how liberation histories might be reframed to better address the problems of the present.
The future of South Africa’s labor movement
South Africa's labor movement is in crisis. How can it rebuild? We try to answer that question with Karl Cloete this week on AIAC Talk.
Tweeting apartheid sport
What if the social media conditions of 2021 existed in 1981? A group of New Zealand writers tweeted the damned 1981 Springbok rugby tour as if it was happening now.
Corruption is a class project
Different factions of South Africa's ruling elite are implicated in looting and profiting from the state. South Africans should take an attitude of a plague on both their houses.
South Africa’s morbid symptoms
In South Africa, the old endures and the new is nowhere to be seen. What is to be done? Public intellectual Steven Friedman helps us make sense.
A dedicated teacher of the working class
Oupa Lehulere, revolutionary teacher and mentor, died on November 29. His approach to theoretical study and struggle was the same: there are no shortcuts.
Not much to see here
Don’t get to excited by the local election results in South Africa. The party system is fragmenting, but old apartheid divides persist.
The earth below the surface
The film, 'We are Zama Zama,' about illegal miners in South Africa, is a social commentary on the failures of post-colonial liberal democracies in Southern Africa.
A new star in the southern sky
The impressive debut album of the Malcolm Jiyane Tree-O marks the arrival of a unique genius in post post-apartheid South African jazz.
What’s happening in South Africa?
After unrest in July and municipal elections in November, it's clear South Africa is in the midst of a serious social, economic and political crisis. What are the roots of it? Listen to this episode of AIAC Talk to find out.
South Africa needs power, not apologies
In both the rebuke and lionization of F.W. De Klerk, who recently died, there is an attempt to squeeze power into the zone of emotional sentiment.