Forty years after the students uprisings of 1976, South Africa is again in the midst of a political movement led by students.They have changed the tenor and shape of political discussion around education.
It is exactly forty years since the Soweto uprising in June 1976 where the South African police met the students with brutal force. How much has changed in terms of policing?
Red berets, hard hats, overalls and domestic workers’ uniforms have become a prominent part of South African politics. But these are more than just props for the EFF political party.
Two recent controversial cartoons depicting people as apes have raised an important question: what are the legal and philosophical distinctions between harm and offence?
The retirement of Dikgang Moseneke, one of South Africa’s eminent judges and the Constitutional Court’s deputy chief justice, is a moment to reflect on the court’s place in society and his legacy.
Leo Zeilig, School of Advanced Study, University of London
For the revolutionary Frantz Fanon it was not enough to celebrate the achievements of decolonisation. It was necessary to educate, to strain at the limits of national freedom and to provoke debate.
Fifty years ago US Senator Robert F Kennedy visited South Africa. A new documentary about RFK’s visit puts the spotlight on an important part of the country’s history.
Sex workers in South Africa are all potential criminals due to the country’s regressive laws. But their status may change soon, making South Africa the first African country to decriminalise sex work.
Robin Kelley, University of California, Los Angeles
It took ages for one of African jazz’s hidden masterpieces to be reissued. Still today, four decades later, 1976’s ‘African Songbird’ tells volumes about the politics of the time.
Hip-hop artists do it differently in a town in one of South Africa’s poorest provinces. Eschewing the archetypal hip-hop lifestyle, Grahamstown’s rappers propose a surprising alternative.
Colourism - or discrimination based on the skin tone - manifests in different ways across the world. In the main it means that light skin is seen as desirable and dark skin as undesirable.
How do Afrikaners find a place in post-apartheid South Africa? A look back at the dissidents who took on the apartheid state over decades offers some examples.
University students in South Africa tend to fall into a “single story” trap, ignoring other individuals’ experiences to construct an understanding of the country’s political realities.
South Africa’s foremost contemporary dance festival is celebrating its 28th birthday in 2016. It has remained relevant, vital and – despite the format’s esoteric nature – hugely popular.
Apartheid South Africa started a war in which it could not maintain a strategic advantage. It misread the quest for national liberation and international opinion that undermined its effectiveness.
South Africa has never reached an embedded democratic state. Its post-apartheid experience more realistically reflects ongoing oscillation between a deepening and a reversal of democratic liberties.
South Africans’ faith in the post-apartheid system of democracy is clearly slipping - and some even suggest that a return to apartheid would be a good thing.