The story of jazz in the ANC army-in-exile, Umkhonto we Sizwe culture is far more nuanced – and positive – than depicted in a new film.
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The protest song “Malcolm’s gone” not only pays tribute to one of the most influential black leaders, but provocatively likens him, as a Muslim and so-called enemy of the state, to Jesus Christ.
Perhaps it is time to return to the belief that graffiti is a political act. Maybe then we can embrace it as an agent for social change.
A 1981 odd and eerie protest song, ‘Ghost Town’, still resonates today. It remains a cry out against injustice, against closed off opportunities by those who have pulled the ladder up.
Ségou in Mali has successfully developed its urban cultural economy in ways that’s inclusive, sustainable and context-sensitive.
Russian revolutionary Nadezhda Krupskaya, like other leading women in the new Stalin-led state, was marginalised. But in her case, because she was Lenin’s widow.
The unprecedented media interest in the first human heart transplant 50 years ago transformed many of the rules that governed the relationships between medicine and the media.
Sport participation in South Africa remains rooted in the dilemmas of colonial society. It necessitates an ongoing need for discourse, debate and dialogue on decolonisation in sport history.
Hip-hop may benefit from a return to the crew and collective mentality, where the DJ once again is valued and plays a central creative role.
South Africans supporting visiting New Zealand rugby teams took root in a tumultuous time as an expression of defiance against apartheid.
South Africa’s perilous decline under Jacob Zuma’s presidency is set out in two non-fiction books that provide unsettling, but essential reading.
From a heritage perspective, the transformation of Cape Town’s grain elevator into an art museum delivers an innovative and creative solution to retaining and reusing industrial heritage sites.
With its “Pro hijab” Nike has mainstreamed what is generally considered as an oppressive and marginalised garment.
South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela made an impact across the world during his decades-long musical career.
If Rosa Luxemburg and her comrades had been successful with their German revolution in 1919, history would most probably have taken a very different course, avoiding the rise of fascism in Europe.
What if the current cultural context is informing the production of mumble rap? In the contemporary western world, daily life is fuelled by widespread consumption of both products and images.
Africa’s broadcasters have a large role to play to ensure that country and western grows to its full potential on the continent.
Two South African “romance” struggle auto/biographies have focalised the anti-apartheid struggle through the lives of heroic women who were bound by love.
Singing, music, films and dances are crucial in promoting and protecting the human rights of Africans with albinism.
There is a thriving counter-current of transnational African literary life that confounds rather than caters to an international taste for “digestible” fiction.
When women are remembered as part of the Communist or any other political tradition it’s often as an afterthought, or as part of the support system of the revolution.
South Africa has changed since Jacob Zuma’s 2006 rape trial. In recent years, a new and assertive feminist movement has emerged and attacks on the president have become common cause.
The returned musical “King Kong” embodies the germinating seeds of two potential and mutually exclusive South Africas.
Island philosophies can be used to decolonise university courses and teaching. They can also advance sustainable development models and, ultimately, achieve responsible tourism.
Bootlegs will continue to be manufactured.
The future of the bootleg might just reinvent the official release.