Banyamulenge community members at the funeral of one of their own in eastern DRC.
Alexis Huguet/AFP via Getty Images
The Banyamulenge have been viewed as strangers in their own country – the violence targeting them revolves around this misconception.
The aftermath of the looting and violence of July 2021 in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.
Rajesh Jantilal/AFP via Getty Images
South Africa needs a multi-pronged strategy for building peaceful, sustainable neighbourhoods, communities, and a nation where the rule of law prevails.
Cardiff Philharmonic came under fire for removing the Russian composer Tchaikovsky from its performance schedule, in response to the Ukraine war.
IanDagnall Computing | Alamy Stock Photo
Russian citizens in the west are being targeted in much the same way Germans, Italians, and Japanese were during the second world war.
Residents clean up the streets and local businesses after looting incidents in Alexandra, Johannesburg.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
Much of the commentary on the July riots, which cost over 300 lives and billions of rands in damage to the economy, has neglected the long history of violent protests in the country.
Marie Coetzee and her husband Fanie Coetzee live in the poverty stricken shanty town community of Munsieville, west of Johannesburg.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
There is no substance to the view that poor people are lazy and prefer to live on handouts from the state rather than seek work.
South African Defence Force troops on patrol in Alexandra, Johannesburg, following recent violence and looting.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
The army may help create a more stable and secure environment in the short term, but this is unlikely to result in sustainable and lasting peace.
Trucks and business were looted and burnt during recent riots in South Africa.
EPA-EFE/Stringer
The violence wreaked its damage because South Africa’s journey to democracy remains incomplete. It sends a sharp message that the country must look its past far more squarely in the eye.
Police enter a flooded mall that had been ransacked .
Photo by Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images
An uncomfortable reality is that looting is perceived by the looters to be socially acceptable and is often encouraged and endorsed within social and community networks.
South African soldiers interrogate a pedestrian outside a mall in Soweto.
Photo by Emmanuel Croset/AFP via Getty Images
After 1994 efforts were made to embed democracy. The focus was on policy and institution-building. What was missing was ensuring all South Africans were on board.
Fuel storage tanks at South Africa’s Durban harbour. Blocking the transport of fuel will stop the transport of food.
Photo by Hoberman Collection/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
South Africans should not panic about the food system. But authorities will need to act swiftly and assertively to restore stability.
Private armed security officers take a position near a burning barricade during a joint operation with South African Police Service officers in Jeppestown, Johannesburg.
Photo by Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images
Corruption thrives in a destabilised state with weak institutions. South Africa cannot be allowed back to that space because there will be no turning back.
Fragments of Sappho? The 2014 discovery was of five stanzas of one poem and portions of a second.
('Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene,'1864, by Simeon Solomon)
In 2014, reports of a new discovery of Sappho’s poems were remarkable. New research argues the papyrus had a fabricated backstory.
Training museum staff in Iraq in how to mark priceless heritage artefacts using SmartWater.
Ali Al-Makhzoomi
Archaeologists working with museums in Iraq have protected more than 270,000 artefacts using SmartWater liquid technology.
An Islamic State photo purports to show the destruction of a Roman-era temple in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra in 2015.
Islamic State/Handout via Reuters
Armed conflict in Syria has been a disaster for the area’s cultural heritage. A displaced archaeologist describes what’s being lost.
A Syrian archeologist holds an artifact that was transported to Damascus for safe-keeping during the Syrian Civil War.
AP Photo/Hassan Ammar
According to a new study, a small portion of a site can yield thousands of objects, adding up to millions of dollars.
Zimbabwe erupted in violent protest after the government doubled the price of petrol.
EPA-EFE/Aaron Ufumeli
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s decision to double the price of petrol shows very poor judgement and bad leadership.
h.
There is a surprising amount of support for the destruction of antiquities in the Middle East.
The exhibition ‘Gurlitt: Status Report Nazi Art Theft and Its Consequences’, at the Kunstmuseum in Bern, Switzerland.
EPA-EFE/Anthony Afex
The discovery of an apartment crammed with art has revealed the dark history of collaboration and looting during the days of the Third Reich.
Four people died in the latest violence and looting to hit shops owned by foreign nationals in Soweto, Johannesburg.
Sowetan/Thulani Mbele
Framing xenophobic violence as a question of immigrant victimisation invites divisions between neighbours.
h.
What’s needed is a comprehensive international strategy to combat the illicit trade in antiquities.