
Why I left the most beautiful place on earth
The appeal of living off the grid, in a small, hippy bubble on the tip of Africa is what drew the author to Scarborough in Cape Town but the reality - especially the casual racism - drives him away.

The appeal of living off the grid, in a small, hippy bubble on the tip of Africa is what drew the author to Scarborough in Cape Town but the reality - especially the casual racism - drives him away.

To what extent has South Africa and South Africans failed to address the aftermath of Apartheid, the resonances of which can be felt to this day? To what extent are we living in a post-traumatic space?


White South African cricket writers should stop commenting on cricket as if the game is apolitical or the national team is still as all-white as when the country was first allowed back into international cricket.

We should not be tempted to idealize the university ‘as it was’ – especially in a country like South Africa.




After the reawakening of South African student activism, what next? It is at the point of the rub between race, class and gender politics that the difficult questions present themselves.

"Shutting Down the Rainbow Nation" lets mostly women students, mostly from Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape, articulate for themselves what is going on in this moment.

Muholi on inspirations: "Audre Lorde will always be my favorite because she informed a lot of us, gave us a new way of thinking."

The fearlessness with which South African students confront their society's contradictions, suggests much more than fees may fall.

Demands for racial justice and concerns about economic inequality are coming together in a powerful call for change that cannot be ignored or easily dismissed.


Bizarrely, for all the attention paid Piketty’s visit to South Africa, we've learned very little about what he actually said. So, what did he tell his hosts?


Achille Mbembe argues that “decolonization” is in truth a psychic state more than a political project in the strict sense of the term.


