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About Features News Sport Analysis Editorial Culture Podcasts

Culture

At play in the realm of political assassinations

A drama from Limpopo tackles the disturbing reality of politicians killing each other for positions. It is a cry from young South Africans for this deplorable situation to change.

Anna Majavu
1 July 2022

Pierre Kwenders’ evolution will not be silent

The artist’s third album traverses a new musical terrain as he keeps on expanding his sound and working with friends from around the world.

Lloyd Gedye
30 June 2022

Artists in residence reflect their Makhanda life

Two collectives, Spaza and orangcosong, took up residencies at the National Arts Festival and created projects that speak to the town and the spaces they found themselves in.

Atiyyah Khan
29 June 2022

The good works of the Sir Alba Arts Academy

Dancers from the small academy in Etwatwa are winning locally and qualifying internationally, but will never compete overseas unless the institutions meant to support such initiatives actually do s…

Tonderai Chiyindiko
29 June 2022

Facing the beast of rape, femicide and child murder

Gender-based violence is highlighted in several heartbreaking performances at the Makhanda National Arts Festival.

Anna Majavu
28 June 2022

Long Read | Frida Kahlo: A ribbon around a bomb

In this extract from her recent lecture at the Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation, Helena Chávez Mac Gregor reckons with the memory and place of Frida Kahlo in our contemporary imagination.

Helena Chávez Mac Gregor
27 June 2022

Green light spells danger

In Text Messages this week, monomania takes many forms. Most deadly perhaps is Jay Gatsby’s hunt in the present for the possibility of bringing the past back to life.

Darryl Accone
23 June 2022

Terry-Ann Adams draws finely with ‘White Chalk’

In their second book, a collection of short stories, the author takes from their own life and losses and aspires to create a new world that is better for all its diverse inhabitants.

Sazi Bongwe
21 June 2022

Black women artists in a monumental exhibition

Spanning six decades and featuring more than 150 Black South African women, this art curation is an important intervention between the artists and the archive.

Pumla Dineo Gqola
21 June 2022

Coming of age, lost in the forest

Yellowjackets explores environmental and gender horror through a then-and-now storyline that offers insight into the long-term effects of trauma, with a hint of the supernatural.

Christopher McMichael
17 June 2022

Remembering George Lamming’s spirit of generosity

The Barbadian novelist, poet and essayist was a consummate ‘mental worker’ who played a profound role in shaping the postcolonial Caribbean national identity.

Richard Drayton
15 June 2022

Warsan Shire builds a home of words

The British Somali poet draws readers into migrant life in Bless the Daughter, a collection that reflects her attempts to create a sturdy sense of home and belonging.

Zanta Nkumane
14 June 2022

Beyond binaries and boundaries with Gabisile Motuba

The composer and vocalist’s new project finds its roots in liberation theology, and the idea that innovation in sound – what good jazz does best – needs to be encouraged.

Gwen Ansell
13 June 2022

Mike Mzileni, the gentle giant of photojournalism

He may have been a quiet man, but the reverence afforded him by the photographers in his orbit speaks volumes about his passion for photography, music and passing on his knowledge.

Atiyyah Khan
10 June 2022

Death by hanging in the real world

In Text Messages this week, the literary deaths of Alan Paton’s Absalom Kumalo and George Orwell’s ‘one mind less’ come to life in Myanmar with the junta’s ominous declarations.

Darryl Accone
9 June 2022

The geometry of grief

The South African-Nigerian novelist Yewande Omotoso has reimagined her deepest loss in An Unusual Grief, the darkly funny story of a mother who infiltrates her dead daughter’s life.

Carlos Amato
8 June 2022

The geometry of grief

The South African-Nigerian novelist Yewande Omotoso has reimagined her deepest loss in An Unusual Grief, the darkly funny story of a mother who infiltrates her dead daughter’s life.

Carlos Amato
8 June 2022

The geometry of grief

The South African-Nigerian novelist Yewande Omotoso has reimagined her deepest loss in An Unusual Grief, the darkly funny story of a mother who infiltrates her dead daughter’s life.

Carlos Amato
8 June 2022

Rangoato Hlasane salutes kwaito’s intellectual legacy

The cultural worker’s film Sesasedi sa Tsodio explores the sociopolitical contexts of one of kwaito’s biggest songs, honouring music as an archive of migrant culture.

Gopolang Botlhokwane
7 June 2022

Feni Chulumanco takes his home to the galleries

The young artist’s paintings tell the story of his upbringing and his determination to create excellent, original pieces. Now the long hours and hard work are paying off.

Barry Christianson
6 June 2022

Exposing the gender rules that need to be recast

In her new exhibition, Jenny Nijenhuis’ consistent wrestling to understand the origins of violence has led her to highlight the devastating damage of gendered messaging for children.

Ufrieda Ho
3 June 2022

Jamie Bartlett, the beloved

The actor, who will be remembered for his roles in Rhythm City and Isidingo, was an icon of stage and screen who moved through the world with immense heart.

Buntu FY Hweshe
2 June 2022

Papers from the Left

Revolutionary Papers is a forward-thinking archive of anti-colonial zines, newspapers and flyers that taps into popular print culture to offer historical context and present-day relevance.

Atiyyah Khan
1 June 2022

Zikhona Valela’s campaign against erasure

The historian’s debut book documents Black Consciousness leader Mapetla Mohapi’s remarkable life and death in detention, and his widow Nohle Mohapi-Mbetshu’s fight for justice.

Sindi-Leigh McBride
31 May 2022

A cop story, through the eyes of his son

Rofhiwa Maneta elegantly documents his father’s career as a police officer while interrogating violence in South Africa and exploring fatherhood, fear and faith.

Rufaro Samanga
30 May 2022

Oumou Sangaré’s trans-Atlantic blues

The Malian superstar’s new album Timbuktu is a thrilling fusion of folk music from West Africa and the United States.

Lloyd Gedye
27 May 2022

Deborah Fraser leaves a legacy of love and respect

Apart from a rich musical legacy, the beloved gospel singer will be remembered by a generation of artists to whom she was an inspiration, a caring mentor and a friend.

Mpho Tshikhudo
26 May 2022

An African take on fictional futures

Afro-speculative fiction anthology Our Move Next imagines a different reality, bringing together storytellers, healers and activists in Africa to write into the future.

Dela Gwala
25 May 2022

Giving power to Sudan’s Beja people through music

A rare album of music typical of this isolated and neglected community sheds light on their traditions and what they hold dear, and invites the world to get to know them.

Atiyyah Khan
24 May 2022

The apocalypse after the apocalypse

Two new books, Anthem by Noah Hawley and It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way by Alistair MacKay, explore what comes after Covid-19.

Christopher McMichael
23 May 2022

​​Nakhane’s muscle memory

As the artist returns to the stage with their first live performance in two years, and an album on the way, they contemplate what this means through their look, approach and sound.

Danielle Bowler
20 May 2022

Sakhile: a singular band remembered 40 years on

Making music to respond to the times, the popular group left a huge legacy despite not fitting prescribed notions of what jazz at the time should sound like.

Percy Mabandu
19 May 2022

Saxophonist Shannon Mowday bridges the gender gulf

The multidisciplinary initiative Bridge Over Me Too works to confront the sexist prejudices of jazz classrooms and stages to create space for everyone.

Gwen Ansell
18 May 2022

Yes, we Can!

Siphiwo Mahala’s biography of Can Themba, the Drum-generation journalist and short-story writer, is a kind of resurrection, underlining how his work is both vital and enduring.

Sandile Ngidi
17 May 2022

Kinshasa’s Fulu Miziki are sonic explorers

Fulu Miziki spent the Covid lockdown refining, isolating and recording their handcrafted instruments, resulting in their truly spectacular Ngbaka EP.

Lloyd Gedye
16 May 2022

New Shane Cooper & Mabuta album gets into the groove

With the band’s second release, Finish the Sun, the bandleader finds inspiration anew in rediscovering his love of the guitar. As a result, he leans into funk and African groove.

Atiyyah Khan
13 May 2022

The album the Stones pulled out of the basement

Recorded in debauchery at a French villa, Exile on Main Street has been trashed, dismissed, hailed and revered in the 50 years since its release in 1972.

Tymon Smith
12 May 2022

A story like one’s own

In Text Messages this week, Arthur Miller’s classic play The Crucible reminds us of the imperishable value of conscience, integrity and keeping one’s good name.

Darryl Accone
12 May 2022

Nomfundo Moh always believed she was a star

Prominence has come quickly for the 21-year-old Afro-pop artist, whose breakout single is one of the biggest hits in South Africa so far this year.

Sabelo Mkhabela
10 May 2022

Horace Andy’s midnight music

The new album from the roots reggae veteran and Massive Attack collaborator brings listeners some nocturnal dub in what is sure to be an instant classic.

Lloyd Gedye
6 May 2022

The struggle for art at a no-fee school

PJ Simelane Secondary is the last no-fee school in Soweto to offer visual arts up to matric. Artist Senzeni Marasela and the staff are fighting to hold on to the programme.

Tonderai Chiyindiko
5 May 2022

CA Davids, a quiet revolutionary

In both her novels, the South African author asks how people and nations can become accountable, mapping complex narrative threads that span the globe and probe the heart.

Sindi-Leigh McBride
4 May 2022

The divine message of ‘Good News From Africa’

Abdullah Ibrahim and Johnny Dyani’s 1973 album was the realisation of a journey in music and spirituality, combining Islamic and Xhosa influences to create something unique.

Percy Mabandu
3 May 2022

South African history, through Rashid Lombard’s lens

The struggle photojournalist, activist and jazz photographer has given UWC custody of his archive, with plans to digitise it and start an accessible photography centre.

Atiyyah Khan
29 April 2022

The spirit of ‘Tshona!’ endures

Pat Matshikiza and Kippie Moeketsi’s four-track project got to the heart of the 1970s’ defiance that produced it, appealing to listeners of popular music and jazz.

Gwen Ansell
28 April 2022

Betebuciko eSwatini bayala kujutjwa umlomo

Loku lisha lela live, badvwebi bemifanekiso, bacophi bemafilimu nalabanye labenta umsebenti wetebuciko batsi angeke bayekele kukhombisa lobunuku nebudlova lobentiwa nguhulumende.

Magnificent Mndebele
26 April 2022

The sputnik moments that launched Thabiso Tsotetsi

The pioneering producer and sound engineer played a large part in altering the course of South African hip-hop with his contributions to both kwaito and motswako.

Gopolang Botlhokwane
26 April 2022

Somi takes on Miriam Makeba’s mantle

The musician’s new album displays an intimate awareness of the icon’s life and legacy, demonstrating a deft and delicate handling of not only Mama Africa’s music but her politics, too.

Nombuso Mathibela
25 April 2022

To Mama Africa with love

Grammy-nominated musician Somi launched her new album reimagining Miriam Makeba with a live performance that amplified the work made in honour of the late activist and musician.

Aneesa Adams
22 April 2022

Art transforms waste, space and people in Brixton

Waste Not Want Not, a new exhibition at Shade Artist Studio, tells the story of a street, a suburb and the powerful possibilities of space.

Marie Huchzermeyer
21 April 2022

Wits Art Museum focuses on a year of women

Representivity, inclusivity and accessibility can’t be tick-box exercises if the world of art and museums has any hope of actual transformation and sustained relevance.

Ufrieda Ho
20 April 2022

‘Moya’ weaves a narrative in movement and song

Artistic collaborators Gregory Maqoma and Simphiwe Dana joined forces once again for Moya, a spiritually themed performance at the Joburg Theatre.

Phendu Kuta
15 April 2022

A Friday of ‘bonds and burning’

Would that Good Friday were the catalyst for a coming together in Ukraine, as Father Yánaros implores in The Fratricides.

Darryl Accone
14 April 2022

The courage and catharsis of Tracey Rose

The artist’s retrospective, Shooting Down Babylon, presents a wide-ranging body of work that demands both quiet contemplation and a macabre sense of humour.

Sindi-Leigh McBride
13 April 2022

Intifada 1987: The story of a rare Palestinian album

A rare recording featuring Palestinian artist Riad Awwad and poet Mahmoud Darwish has resurfaced, found amid a collection of 12 000 old cassette tapes in the West Bank.

Atiyyah Khan
12 April 2022

Reabetswe Moeti’s justice will be televised

The filmmaker continues to craft stories that confront abuses of power in South Africa. She also advocates for better working conditions for women in the entertainment industry.

Buntu FY Hweshe
7 April 2022

Book Review | CA Davids’ mission against forgetting

The writer’s second novel takes on memory, drawing together disparate threads across continents and epochs to construct a story with humanity at its heart.

Bongani Kona
6 April 2022

The weight and want of Noviolet Bulawayo’s ‘Glory’

After a profoundly successful debut, Noviolet Bulawayo’s second novel – which began as non-fiction – leaves realism for allegory to confront the Zimbabwean present.

Percy Zvomuya
5 April 2022

‘The Batman’ and vigilantism in pop culture

In the latest film, the dark knight’s revenge fantasies are exposed as unhinged, as his foes no longer only hide under bridges but also brazenly roam the corridors of power.

Christopher McMichael
1 April 2022

Ukraine, from pea to matchbox

In Text Messages this week, Mikhail Bulgakov proves prescient about Russia’s war in Ukraine in his posthumous 1966 novel The Master and Margarita.

Darryl Accone
31 March 2022

The political is personal for Sam Fender

The British artist’s latest album reflects the self-awareness that he has developed in the past decade, as he refuses to succumb to despair on Seventeen Going Under.

Sazi Bongwe
30 March 2022

Imarhan’s ‘Aboogi’ finally brings Tuareg blues home

The Algerian band’s latest album was recorded in Tamanrasset, a city of great significance for the Tuaregs that finally boasts its own professional recording studio.

Lloyd Gedye
29 March 2022

Soweto Book Café builds word worlds and connections Copy

Started by Thami Mazibuko, the Zondi space is a library, classroom and community literacy centre, built to serve its residents across generations.

Tonderai Chiyindiko
28 March 2022

‘ISoweto Book Café isondeza izincwadi kubantu’

Le ndawo eseZondi yasungulwa nguThami Mazibuko kanti ingumtapo wolwazi, igumbi lokufundela iphinde ibe yilapho umphakathi uthola khona ulwazi lokufunda nokubhala. Yakhelwe ukusiza zonke izigaba zom…

Tonderai Chiyindiko
28 March 2022

The reclusive Gayl Jones re-emerges

Reflecting on the hidden figure that altered the course of African American Literature, who has returned to the literary scene with her novel Palmares and two upcoming books.

Lethabo Mailula
28 March 2022

Soweto Book Café builds word worlds and connections

Started by Thami Mazibuko, the Zondi space is a library, classroom and community literacy centre, built to serve its residents across generations.

Tonderai Chiyindiko
28 March 2022

Making Black intellects central to music teaching

Tracing the history of guitar music and its players, guitarist Billy Monama’s new South African guitar book continues the struggle to decolonise the curriculum.

Gwen Ansell
24 March 2022

Thandiswa Mazwai pens a letter of love to Azania

Admittedly pessimistic and disillusioned by the many ills in South African society, the influential singer has nevertheless resolved to fight for the country she wants.

Carl Collison
23 March 2022

Improvising the future of decolonised jazz

Music studies in their current form are a good example of the need to decolonise South African universities’ curricula. But how, and what comes after it’s been done?

Gwen Ansell
21 March 2022

Parusha Naidoo’s cookbook builds community

Least Effort Most Reward contains 21 beautifully illustrated plant-based recipes to inspire you to cook easily for yourself and to share meals with others.

Mary Fawzy
20 March 2022

Playing is all: artist-driven jazz gigs hit Joburg

Covid starved musicians and fans of live music, but jazz nights at venues across the city are banishing those blues by bringing back the blues.

Lloyd Gedye
18 March 2022

Ari Sitas’ poems revisit Ethiopia

In his republished collection, the South African poet, theatre maker and sociologist connects the dots between the country on the Horn of Africa and a song liberation soldiers sang.

Setumo-Thebe Mohlomi
16 March 2022

Labour of love is a treasure trove of jazz history

Journalist and author Sam Mathe’s ‘From Kippie to Kippies And Beyond’ profiles four generations of South African musicians, most of whom had been languishing in obscurity.

Atiyyah Khan
15 March 2022

Fake it, then make it: How con artists capture us

The popularity of shows such as ‘The Tinder Swindler’ and ‘Inventing Anna’ show the links between late capitalism and the grifters who use the allure of wealth and success t…

Christopher McMichael
14 March 2022

A tale of three bears

In Text Messages this week, the rulers of Russia, China and the United States slug it out in a Tolkien-esque saga to determine who will rule them all.

Darryl Accone
10 March 2022

Play it again, Samantha

Three pioneering women in three very different eras stand out for having broken down barriers in the male-dominated music industry.

Drew Forrest
9 March 2022

It all comes together on McCoy Mrubata’s new album

The saxophonist has long dreamt of working with the community of musicians he’s built up over time. He has realised this dream on ‘First Green’, which he hopes to see performed at scale…

Gwen Ansell
7 March 2022

A play about Cape Town’s history of slavery

Nadia Davids and Jay Pather fused text, dance and movement to create an award-winning play about the uncovering of a slave burial ground that touches hearts and nerves.

Jay Pather
1 March 2022

Zambian gallery a rainmaker for the nation’s talent

Modzi Arts, which supports the creative community in a country that otherwise ignores them, showcases two artists who interrogate climate change, culture and charity in Africa.

Chaze Matakala
25 February 2022

Riky Rick was hip-hop’s selfless big brother

Countless South African musicians are where they are today because of the rapper’s big-hearted approach to the industry. His death at the age of 34 has left many reeling.

Sabelo Mkhabela
25 February 2022

Live recordings from Mauritania deserve a shout-out

A reissued compilation offers a fascinating gateway to the country’s thrilling post-independence music that is rarely heard outside its borders.

Lloyd Gedye
24 February 2022

Betty Davis, a nasty gal to the end

The American funk pioneer ruffled feathers in the 1970s, creating a feminist message spanning three albums that still resonates today.

Lloyd Gedye
21 February 2022

The myth, music and magic of Club Pelican

By its very existence, Soweto’s first nightclub defied apartheid. And as people of all races mixed, many budding musicians got the chance to fine-tune their talents too. Now a new album honours it.…

Atiyyah Khan
18 February 2022

Odes to the moon

In Text Messages this week, humans continue to desecrate the lunar body despite centuries of prose and discovery ​​that capture its elusive and alluring magic.

Darryl Accone
17 February 2022

The calling of Mandisi Dyantyis, a true believer

Inspired by the choral tradition, the accomplished musician’s career is rooted in the power of collective and collaborative work. His second album, Cwaka, is testament to this.

Percy Mabandu
16 February 2022

A shack personified reveals a nuanced interior life

Tebogo Chologi’s The Shack invites a more imaginative way of considering the structures in impoverished settlements and the lives of the people who inhabit them.

Gopolang Botlhokwane
15 February 2022

Becoming a father has grounded Earl Sweatshirt

The rapper confronts isolation and rebirth on his latest album Sick!, tying up neatly with his career-long theme of fatherhood.

Rofhiwa Maneta
14 February 2022

Lata Mangeshkar, Bollywood’s iconic soprano

Often feted as an Indian cultural icon, the singer embodied the art of playback singing in Hindi cinema. But her legacy is also marred by her pro-Hindutva beliefs.

Haris Zargar
11 February 2022

Nikki Giovanni’s gospel is pure spiritual bliss

The collaborative album between the poet and saxophonist Javon Jackson is inspired by the music that has sustained Black communities through generations.

Gwen Ansell
10 February 2022

Quiet activist Khaya Dladla won’t be a stereotype

The actor, who is playing another gay character in his latest role on television, speaks about being typecast and the significance of realistically representing members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Naledi Sikhakhane
8 February 2022

Zexie Manatsa, bringer of good music and good news

The Zimbabwean musician, who died recently, forged a very specific musical tradition while championing multilingualism and cultural egalitarianism.

Percy Zvomuya
7 February 2022

Busiswa is proof that collaborations rock the world

At a recent music conference, the chart-topping singer discussed why joint projects are a vital component in banging the drum for Africa’s music on a global stage.

Sabelo Mkhabela
4 February 2022

‘Cion: Requiem of Ravel’s Boléro’ back in Joburg

Novelist Zakes Mda and composer Maurice Ravel meet in a dance piece that examines loss, grief and issues of mourning.

John Hogg
3 February 2022

George Orwell is watching you

In Text Messages this week, the author would have approved of Raymond Zondo’s and Sue Gray’s plain-speak, even if Aristotle disagreed with him on justice.

Darryl Accone
3 February 2022

The evolution of Louis Maqhubela’s modernism

The artist went from township iconography to expressing ideas rather than observed events. He leaves a legacy of magical works that go far beyond the art of a life in exile.

Tymon Smith
2 February 2022

Yrsa Daley-Ward harnesses the power of poetry

The British poet found freedom in publishing her work on social media, leading to a renewed interest in the literary form and mainstream publishing deals for two collections so far.

Zanta Nkumane
1 February 2022

‘It’s not the notes, it’s how they’re played’

Pianist Sibu Mashiloane’s new album enacts the collective dance of South African jazz. It is his sixth album in six years, and a work of many trusted hands.

Gwen Ansell
28 January 2022

Soweto’s centre for human development through music

Many young people in Jabavu and White City are on a long waiting list for a place at a music institution that teaches more than music and is a portal to potential success.

Tonderai Chiyindiko
27 January 2022

Sidney Poitier, a beautiful dark light

By portraying dignified, powerful Black characters at a time when this was a radical act, the quiet authority of the self-taught actor and activist inspired a generation.

Lewis R Gordon
24 January 2022

A couple of slippery fish

In Text Messages this week, Novak Djokovic and Boris Johnson have both tried to talk their way out of sticky situations. But happily for Plato, the truth (a possible Wordle solution, btw) will out.

Darryl Accone
20 January 2022

Fugitive collaborations in art and jazz

South African jazz artists tend to immerse themselves in art spaces other than music. It is a visual and musical communing across forms that meet not only in artistry, but also in politics.

Percy Mabandu
19 January 2022

Dzimbanhete knows how to cultivate artists

Terrence Musekiwa is the latest in a slew of artists from the arts and culture centre on the outskirts of Harare to represent Zimbabwe at the Venice Biennale.

Percy Zvomuya
17 January 2022

Ayanda Sikade honours his grandmother on ‘Umakhulu’

The drummer has fond memories of his childhood home in Mdantsane, where his grandmother allowed him the freedom to immerse himself in music. Hence his latest album is dedicated to her.

Atiyyah Khan
14 January 2022

Zamrock and psychedelic soul fuse on ‘Johnny!’

German funk legend Jan Weissenfeldt’s new album takes a decade on the road playing music from 1970s Africa and translates it into an explosive new sound.

Lloyd Gedye
14 January 2022

The poetic humanism of Iranian cinema

Notwithstanding state censorship and limited resources, Iran’s rich legacy of humanistic cinema is flourishing, often tackling sensitive social and cultural themes.

Haris Zargar
11 January 2022

Wayne Snow drops the mask on ‘Figurine’

If the musician’s debut album in 2017 got the world to sit up and take notice, his follow-up is sure to cement his name as a virtuoso of his craft.

Lloyd Gedye
7 January 2022

Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s final experiment

The last album on which the dub pioneer features is a collaboration with New Age Doom. It’s genre-defying and a fitting end to a spirited musical career that spanned six decades.

Lloyd Gedye
29 December 2021

The inescapable Umm Kulthum

The ubiquitous artist’s politics and sound evolved over the years, pointing to culture’s potential to shape and shift society, memory and identity.

Mary Fawzy
27 December 2021

Msaki: Bridging the divide between protest and hope

The musician’s new offering is a double album of widely divergent styles but with a central quality: she finds each song’s soul and in the process lays bare her own.

Gwen Ansell
22 December 2021

Wisdom and fire from jazz’s ‘midwife generation’

Postapartheid’s musical pioneers are back with new albums and old concerns after spending much of lockdown teaching, learning, collaborating at a distance and creating.

Gwen Ansell
17 December 2021

Goodbye to a rhythm king

The death of Robbie Shakespeare brings an end to Sly & Robbie, one of the greatest musical partnerships of all time.

Lloyd Gedye
17 December 2021

Isaac Mutant, in and out of focus

The documentary Mutant presents a portrait of the rapper that, while unmuted, is strangely silent about many questions of coloured identity and his version of it.

Sean Jacobs
16 December 2021

Sharp Read | Phaswane Mpe’s one great novel

Welcome To Our Hillbrow was a turn-of-the-century exploration of Johannesburg’s inner city, migration, xenophobia and Aids, by an author who never shed his sense of ubuntu.

Percy Zvomuya
14 December 2021

Thomas Mapfumo on music, politics and unity

Mukanya’s heart will always reside in Zimbabwe, but calling out politicians in his music has made it difficult for him to live there. He is also ready to pass on the mantle.

Atiyyah Khan
13 December 2021

Identity and indenture, in fact and fiction

The new novel, Children of Sugarcane, reckons with the “colonial fingerprints” on our contemporary society, while providing a nuanced view of indenture and its afterlives.

Niren Tolsi
9 December 2021

An African tragedy at the heart of Soyinka’s satire

The author delivers a searing and unforgettable take on the spiritual corruption that has engulfed his homeland and the wounds it leaves on a quartet of friends.

David Attwell
8 December 2021

Betebuciko eSwatini bayala kujutjwa umlomo

Loku lisha lela live, badvwebi bemifanekiso, bacophi bemafilimu nalabanye labenta umsebenti wetebuciko batsi angeke bayekele kukhombisa lobunuku nebudlova lobentiwa nguhulumende.

Magnificent Mndebele
6 December 2021

Protest artists in eSwatini refuse to be erased

Creatives in different mediums, from filmmaking to fine art, are documenting and depicting their experiences in the beleaguered country for all the world to see.

Magnificent Mndebele
6 December 2021

25K’s ‘Pheli Makaveli’ is a kasi trap gem

The rapper’s debut album offers us Atteridgeville’s rhythm and flow while telling the story of hustling as part of a generation of young people that the government has failed.

Sabelo Mkhabela
3 December 2021

Kings, queens and knights: A saga for the ages

In Text Messages this week, the timid world championship chess match taking place in Dubai has nothing on the battle almost 50 years ago in Iceland between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer.

Darryl Accone
2 December 2021

Queer migrants find their spiritual sanctuary

Behind a book that highlights how important their faith is for LGBTQIA+ migrants, refugees and asylum seekers is a very special ministry in the heart of Johannesburg.

Carl Collison
1 December 2021

Herbie Tsoaeli’s temple of timelessness

The acclaimed bassist returns with a second album, At This Point In Time launched in early November. It is rooted in heritage and pays homage to his jazz ancestors.

Atiyyah Khan
30 November 2021

Theatre giving voice to the oppressed

Theatre, besides being a form of entertainment, can be a powerful medium of protest too. Residents of a land occupation in Tembisa recently staged a participatory play to illustrate the point.

Nomfundo Xolo
29 November 2021

Drawing everyday heroes out of the archive

A new comic book anthology inspired by the Supreme Court of Appeal archive brings to life an era of popular resistance during the early 20th century.

Carlos Amato
26 November 2021

The evolution of Common

The veteran emcee from Chicago is finally getting his dues with a series of albums inspired by the struggle for racial justice. But his political ambiguity endures.

Gopolang Botlhokwane
25 November 2021

English workers sing for the countryside

A new album of folk songs sung by people who work and walk the land across the United Kingdom has a powerful message about the politics of accessing our shared heritage.

Lloyd Gedye
24 November 2021

‘I am Samuel’, an African love story against all odds

The makers of I Am Samuel about a daring relationship in a queerphobic society, went to extraordinary lengths to let their project see the light. Their government is not impressed.

Carl Collison
23 November 2021

Growing and giving back through dance

The Soweto Moves Project, on famous Mputhi Street, promotes dance across many styles while emphasising the social importance of the arts.

Tonderai Chiyindiko
22 November 2021

Film Review | ‘Dreams are messages from the deep’

The film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel Dune is a wild, techno-gothic epic for dark times.

Christopher McMichael
19 November 2021

For Barney Rachabane, jazz was a way of life

Starting with a penny whistle as a child on the streets of Alexandra township, the saxophonist went on to leave an indelible mark on South Africa’s musical landscape.

Gwen Ansell
18 November 2021

Jazz original Malcolm Jiyane plays it forward

The multidimensional trombonist goes beyond tradition, experimenting with form and genre in his fresh and distinctive five-track album Umdali.

Gwen Ansell
17 November 2021

Sharp Read | The yoke of neoliberalism revisited

A new book co-authored by Noam Chomsky updates his critique of capitalism with insightful comment on what has allowed the tyranny of the common sense consensus to flourish for so long.

Cedric de Beer
16 November 2021

Long Read | Simon Gush’s art is labour as concept

The artist’s new exhibition at the Stevenson gallery continues his enquiry into the meaning and realities of labour, drawing on Mexican muralism and progressive theory.

Niren Tolsi
15 November 2021

ANTI-MASS’ queerness is in both genre and gender

Connecting singeli, gqom, techno and more, the Kampala-based collective draws lines between music, merging sound and politics.

Lloyd Gedye
12 November 2021

Artists cannot live on streaming revenue

With no live gigs, musicians in South Africa and abroad have struggled financially. The UK is looking at new legislation to ensure creators are fairly compensated when their songs are streamed.

Lloyd Gedye
12 November 2021

Mother Earth is a victim of gender discrimination

In Text Messages this week, if the world started ‘thinking like women … it would end violence against women and children’ – and against the planet.

Darryl Accone
11 November 2021

Niq Mhlongo and the return of the short story

The novelist and editor capitalises on South Africa’s genius for short fiction in his new collection, which considers how we are haunted by the ghosts of our past.

Nthikeng Mohlele
10 November 2021

‘Wild Imperfections’ moves womanism forward

Compiled and edited by Natalia Molebatsi, Wild Imperfections opens up, enhances and expands Black feminism in new and liberating ways, flattening geography and privileging solidarity.

Barbara Boswell
10 November 2021

Thando Doni’s theatre without translation

The 2021 Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre Award is a well-deserved recognition of the Cape Town theatremaker’s exceptional skill, talent and hard work.

Faye Kabali-Kagwa
8 November 2021

Cara Stacey wants to move the music forward

The Standard Bank Young Artist award winner finds working with other musicians inspiring, despite the mainstream establishment view that collective work suppresses individuality.

Gwen Ansell
4 November 2021

Remembering history with Kudzanai Chiurai’s library

The Zimbabwean artist has created an extraordinary listening space filled with vinyl records of historical import ranging from political speeches to African struggle songs.

Atiyyah Khan
3 November 2021

Jazz artists go solo in lockdown

Five solo piano albums released in South Africa during the Covid-19 pandemic give shape and sound to our search for meaning amid the isolation of the moment.

Percy Mabandu
3 November 2021

Still rioting under Sly’s sun and stripes

Five decades after its release, Sly & the Family Stone’s ‘There Is a Riot Goin’ On remains confounding and inspiring in equal measure.

Lloyd Gedye
1 November 2021

Tina Campt’s radical vision

The cultural criticism scholar argues in A Black Gaze that certain art transforms viewers into witnesses, pushing them into an encounter with themselves as seen through the complexity of blackness.

Danielle Bowler
28 October 2021

When bread and circuses lose their appeal

In Text Messages this week, democracy has been degraded and devalued, with elections providing only cyclical, cynical and farcical distractions. It’s time for the ballot box to go.

Darryl Accone
28 October 2021

Squid Game, Kafka and the horror of daily life

The popularity of shows like Squid Game suggests the horror genre is moving away from depicting the supernatural towards a critique of the cruelty of capitalism’s power over our everyday lives.

Christopher McMichael
27 October 2021

Abdulrazak Gurnah’s search for home

In the Nobel Prize-winning writer’s novels, migration is a process in which ordinary people are caught between the memory of violence past and present. For some, healing is possible.

Dilip M Menon
27 October 2021

A new take on the work of Caluza

Philip Miller and Tshegofatso Moeng inject new life into the 1930s recordings of the composer and choirmaster on Reuben T Caluza – The B-Side, showing how choral music can be reimagined.

Thembela Vokwana
26 October 2021

The human side of Joburg’s mosaic master

Andrew Lindsay was widely known for his mosaics and murals, but he’ll be best remembered for making art and heart matter in a city that can be as hard as stone.

Ufrieda Ho
25 October 2021

Long Read | Claudia Jones’ strange magic revealed

The foreword to the new edition of Claudia Jones: A Life in Exile by Marika Sherwood contemplates the memory of a revolutionary life in search of the communist horizon.

Lola Olufemi
22 October 2021

Aymos’ star is on the rise

The popular musician integrates his Afro-pop sensibilities with amapiano in debut album ‘Yimi Lo’. He talks about life after making it big.

Sabelo Mkhabela
20 October 2021

Sharp Read | The hymns of a ‘kheleke’

In Wayfarers’ Hymns by Zakes Mda, a boy-child narrates his journey through tradition and modernity, masculinity and the female spirit, old and new as he seeks to emulate a great musician.

Maureen Isaacson
19 October 2021

Madala Kunene tells his story through his guitars

The maestro’s music is tied to his lifelong connections to the places in the city where he was born and raised, learnt to play his beloved instruments and still makes a living.

Nomfundo Xolo
19 October 2021

Body of bodies: Art as a language of history

With his first solo exhibition, Kaelo Molefe transforms his trauma by merging his experience of being an emergency room doctor with art critical of the history of medicine.

Setumo-Thebe Mohlomi
18 October 2021

On rituals and revolutions in the mines of Bolivia

After miners in the tin-rich country helped bring a democratically elected leader to power by overthrowing the military, they honoured their spiritual traditions in celebrating with the community.

Benjamin Dangl
15 October 2021

Gurnah was ahead of the curve

In Text Messages this week, literature Nobel winner Abdulrazak Gurnah is a superb writer who was telling stories of migrants long before it became fashionable in literary circles.

Darryl Accone
14 October 2021

Long Read | Poison and warfare

Imraan Coovadia’s new book connects the programmes of poisoning in Rhodesia and South Africa in five essays about the circumstances and men at the centre of their making.

Percy Zvomuya
13 October 2021

Album Review | Playing on our musical heritage

The Brother Moves On has created a ‘time capsule in vinyl’ with its latest album, which pays homage to South African jazz greats both new and old while capturing the spirit of an era.

Gwen Ansell
12 October 2021

Book Review | Memories and images of District Six

A Cape Town architect photographed the buildings and people of District Six at the height of forced removals. His work is finally available to a much wider audience, thanks to his nephew.

Barry Christianson
11 October 2021

Richard H Kirk’s 50 years of cutting-edge sound

The British electronic music veteran and Cabaret Voltaire member knew how to push the boundaries and deliver groundbreaking music.

Lloyd Gedye
8 October 2021

Sharp Read | Zimbabwe’s faithful literary son

Charles Mungoshi did not work in exile and paid the price in bans and relative obscurity at home. Now many of his beautifully spare stories have been gathered in a fresh anthology.

Percy Zvomuya
5 October 2021

Independent theatres create access to the arts

Small theatres give artists across disciplines a home in which to experiment and realise their artistic visions when they are shut out of South Africa’s traditional cultural spaces.

Tonderai Chiyindiko
4 October 2021

Long read | Workers as artists, artists as workers

Inclusive creativity has the power to remake the world – it is potentially revolutionary, but only if artistic production is wrested away from capitalist exploitation.

Gwen Ansell
30 September 2021

‘Nevermind’ at 30: an enduring legacy of rebellion

The album that catapulted Nirvana to stardom still stands as a symbol of resistance to consumer capitalism, drudgery and alienation, even as it has been co-opted by these very forces.

Christopher McMichael
29 September 2021

The soul of a country in crisis

The essays, letters and poems by the contributors to There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love question the roots and realities of the state in which America finds itself.

Bongani Kona
28 September 2021

Kampala is an inspiring incubator for global sounds

Alongside its Boutiq Studio in the Ugandan capital, the Hakuna Kulala label is attracting artists and producers from around the world and electrifying the electronic music scene.

Lloyd Gedye
27 September 2021

Desert winds blow through Azu Tiwaline’s work

The musician found a new sound in the silence and space of Tunisia’s el-Djerid region, resulting in an album that is ‘organic, minimal and natural’.

Lloyd Gedye
24 September 2021

In a US war on China, Australia would suffer

In Text Messages this week, fiction and reality blur as Aukus increases the possibility of a real-life confrontation as seen in the second film adaption of Nevil Shute’s On The Beach.

Darryl Accone
23 September 2021

Inquisitive show seeds its ideas in the viewer

An exhibition by Sisipho Ngodwana and Sinazo Chiya presents an expansive inquiry into being, engaging with questions rather than resolving them.

Setumo-Thebe Mohlomi
21 September 2021

Makoanyane’s historic figurines made digital

This colonial-era Lesotho artist carved sculptures that were so close a depiction of their reality that they could well have been mistaken for machine-made reproductions.

Melody Emmett
17 September 2021

Great men or the people: who makes history?

New books by Sudhir Hazareesingh and Jean Casimir offer fresh ways to make sense of the huge significance of the Haitian revolution and its afterlives.

Michael Neocosmos
16 September 2021

Music in space, music in place

Kenyan sound artist Joseph Kamaru, known as KMRU, uses field recordings to create new sonic worlds that make people more keenly aware of their own environments.

Lloyd Gedye
15 September 2021

Derrick Nxumalo’s art finds humour in paradise

Widely collected in South Africa and internationally, the artworks the KwaZulu-Natal visual artist creates are a layered critique of degradation and hope.

Setumo-Thebe Mohlomi
14 September 2021

Sharp Read | Losing ground in the promised land

Damon Galgut’s use of irony in his Booker Prize-nominated new novel, The Promise, toes the line between the ironic and the allegorical in masterful fashion.

Robyn Bloch
14 September 2021

Michael K Williams had a future as a Left activist

He wasn’t just one of the most talented actors in America. He was also in the middle of a political awakening, speaking out on issues ranging from police reform to reducing poverty.

Ryan Zickgraf
13 September 2021

The indefinable genius of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry

A personal reflection on the legacy of Jamaican producer and artist Lee “Scratch” Perry, known for his innovations in sound. Known for his eccentricity too.

Atiyyah Khan
10 September 2021

Will nature’s song ring out?

In Text Messages this week, there is a hope that the 26th climate summit in Glasgow will bring about a spring as exalted by the greatest poets to follow the winter of climate catastrophe.

Darryl Accone
9 September 2021

Azuri and the art of creating on the edge

Musicians struggle to make a living, but despite the many problems they routinely face, Joburg band Azuri Street Symphony carry on ‘looking for simple things that make life matter’.

Anna Majavu
8 September 2021

Erlings Shoes is no more as Jozi’s centre changes

The flight of white people – and capital – from what was once Johannesburg’s central business district has changed the face of the city, for better or for worse, depending on whom one asks.

Percy Zvomuya
6 September 2021

Hanna’s talent laid bare on ‘The Girl in the Durag’

The young rapper has released an assured first album and is now trying to balance being a student with making her mark on the music industry.

Lusanda Luthuli
6 September 2021

Anarchic Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry revolutionised reggae

The astonishingly creative and visionary producer and singer shaped the musical landscape well beyond Jamaica.

Tymon Smith
3 September 2021

The power politics of dangerous cults

Showmax’s Devilsdorp, a documentary on the Krugersdorp murders, highlights how charismatic cults exploit people’s vulnerabilities.

Christopher McMichael
3 September 2021

Roti makes the world go round

A staple food in households in India, the flatbread has made its way to regions and cultures across the globe, where it is enjoyed in all its lip-smacking varieties.

Parusha Naidoo
2 September 2021

Sharp Read | Listening to the world

Amit Chaudhuri tells his life through music in Finding the Raga, exploring how North Indian music breathes, listens and sounds in a series of detours and discoveries that reframe his youth.

Gwen Ansell
31 August 2021

New Books | Decolonising feminism

Women’s liberation has been co-opted by the forces it seeks to dismantle, but political theorist Françoise Vergès argues that a pluralist, decolonial version of it is worth salvaging.

Françoise Vergès
30 August 2021

Judith Shakespeare is not dead

In Text Messages this week, Virginia Woolf’s uncomfortable questions about women and their place in the world are as valid today as they were at the time of her 1928 speech.

Darryl Accone
26 August 2021

Karen Jennings’ ship comes home at last

The Booker Prize longlist nominee homes in on the violence of colonialism and its afterlives in An Island, a novel about a lone lighthouse keeper confronted by a refugee who washes ashore.

Bongani Kona
20 August 2021

‘Sons of the Sea’ and the tentacles of colonialism

John Gutierrez has crafted Black characters who understand and think about the world around them in a film rooted in the Cape’s history and its impact on the present.

Mia Arderne
19 August 2021

Stiff Pap stir up youthful defiance on ‘Tuff Time$’

The duo’s latest album reflects the experiences of two young Black men in Johannesburg who’ve come into their own despite the many odds stacked against them.

Atiyyah Khan
18 August 2021

Book Review | The madness that is my mother

Modjaji Books publisher Colleen Higgs details the unpaid labour of caring for her mother that has often been mirrored in her career, in a memoir written in her characteristically pared-down style.

Megan Ross
17 August 2021

Lebo Thoka’s cathedral of Black liberation

The fine art photographer uses Christian iconography to show the glory of Black South African women, while also exploring their often-violent experiences.

Melody Emmett
16 August 2021

‘Flowers’ for founder of the ‘theatre of resistance’

Inspired by a specific play in the 1970s, Maishe Maponya decided to write and stage works of his own. He would later go on to collaborate with, and inspire, many others, even beyond South Africa’s …

Tonderai Chiyindiko
13 August 2021

The football wizard that is Messi

In Text Messages this week, Sid Lowe’s collective writings on Lionel Messi would be the equivalent of Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano’s book: a masterful celebration of mastery.

Darryl Accone
12 August 2021

Long Read | ‘This was our Woodstock’

Concert in the Park in 1985 gave the vast crowd in Joburg a taste of what life could be in South Africa, and performers an idea of the sway they held over politics at the time.

David Durbach
11 August 2021

New Books | Women fighting for their power in SA

The Federation of South African Women was founded at a time when women were not considered important participants in politics – then 20 000 of them marched on the Union Buildings.

Gugulethu Mhlungu
9 August 2021

Book Review | A reckless man for nasty times

In a new series of three so far, the comic book duo of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips explore the pulp fiction detective as a hero who confronts class, power and injustice.

Christopher McMichael
5 August 2021

Jacob Dlamini, ‘relentless detective’ of the academy

The historian speaks about the multiple histories of Black experience under apartheid and the myth of the omnipotence of the authoritarian state.

Dilip M Menon
4 August 2021

Textiles carry a living history in ‘Nanima’s Chest’

On its 40th anniversary, the book serves not only as a record of South Asian garments in South Africa, but also of the people who wear them.

Youlendree Appasamy
3 August 2021

Afghanistan, a highway of history

In Text Messages this week, historian Arnold J Toynbee’s emphasis on the South-West Asian country as ‘a key-point in the structure of empires’ is poignant as the world abandons it.

Darryl Accone
29 July 2021

How Leon Trotsky birthed a bookshop

Borrowing one of the Marxist revolutionary’s books sparked a love of political reading for the owner of Surplus in Cape Town, where a huge collection can be found.

Barry Christianson
29 July 2021