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.
Sisters Mirusha Yogarajah (left) and Yanusha Yogarajah, who started the #unfairandlovely campaign with Pax Jones.
Pax Jones/Instagram
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.
Birds flock around a statue of Boer War leader Paul Kruger at Pretoria’s Church Square.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
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.
Racial tensions are becoming increasingly common among South African university students.
EPA
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.
The Tribhangi Dance Company performs Circles and Squares at the South African Dance Umbrella in Johannesburg.
EPA/John Hogg
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.
Cine Petro Atletica, once Huambo’s finest cinema, was destroyed during fierce fighting in Angola’s bloody civil war.
Reuters/John Chiahemen MH/WS
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 Africans are increasingly taking to the streets to demand accountability from government.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
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.
More South Africans are taking to the streets to hold government accountable.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
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.
A student beats the statue of Cecil John Rhodes with a belt as it is removed from the University of Cape Town.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
The Randlords left a big dilemma in their wake: contemporary South Africa is not sure whether to thank them for bringing civilisation, or to curse them for complicating future race relations.
An image of Martin Luther King is projected onto the court ahead of a basketball game at Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
EPA/Erik Lesser
Martin Luther King’s legacy must be contextualised within a larger global struggle against racism and hatred. Africans should revisit the values he espoused and continue with the anti-racism crusade.
Young South Africans are angry with the failure of the country to deal with racism.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
The central thrust of Haffajee’s book is compelling. It argues that black South Africans, especially the new generation of young, black ‘born frees’ are obsessed with whiteness and white privilege.
Grim, single sex workers’ hostels are still common in South Africa’s economic capital Johannesburg.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
Architects and those working on the built environment can learn valuable lessons about their discipline – how it’s taught, and how it’s carried out – from the 2015 student protests.
Scientific evidence shows overwhelmingly that people across the world are genetic refugees from Africa.
Shutterstock
Despite science refuting the existence of different human races, people have used “race” throughout history to divide and denigrate certain people while promoting their claims of superiority.
South African rugby coach Heyneke Meyer sings the national anthem at the World Cup.
Reuters / Eddie Keogh
South Africa’s rugby administrators are facing increased criticism for their failure to shed its white image. The tone of the debate is different this time, amid growing protests against inequality.
Former presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. Both men had clear ideas about South Africa’s foreign policy.
Reuters
Over the past two decades, it has not been easy for any country – let alone a newly freed one, like post-apartheid South Africa – to understand the rapidly changing world.
Retailers offer ‘rewards’ programs and loyalty cards that can trap customers into a debt cycle.
Deborah James
Deborah James, London School of Economics and Political Science
In the global South, where some argue that “everyone is now middle class”, people are reluctant to acknowledge that they need to borrow money – and the stigma drives them to dodge their debts.
Supporters of the Economic Freedom Fighters protesting outside the Johannesburg stock exchange.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Since the 1940s, it’s been common for political moderates to move to the fore in South Africa – then, intermittently, to the background. They are replaced by radicals or exclusivist nationalists.
A racially segregated train station entrance during apartheid.
Apartheid Museum
The egalitarian society envisioned by political activists and thinkers Rick Turner and Steve Biko has not been realised. But, they continue to inspire critiques of post-apartheid South Africa.