New Frame archive | by the workers, for the workers

Features

When you kiss nyaope, you marry it

The low-grade form of heroin continues to strip the youth of their future and the young women living in a drug house in Ekurhuleni say the police do not take them seriously.

Nation Nyoka
1 July 2022

Prisons are for profit, not our safety

In Abolition Geography, contemporary thinker Ruth Wilson Gilmore looks at crime, incarceration and alternatives that focus on social upliftment rather than the prison-industrial complex.

Christopher McMichael
Photographer:
Illustrator: Anastasya Eliseeva
1 July 2022

Beyond a biography: seeing CLR James afresh

John L Williams’ new book on the pan-African thinker is a marvel that offers a close, meticulous description of his life and thinking, untangling his transformations and inviting reacquaintance.

Paul Buhle
30 June 2022

Frantz Fanon’s revolutionary spirit lives on

A new collection of essays uses the works of the psychiatrist and radical political philosopher to explore how a community’s language and capacity for thought and wit threaten the state.

Raj Patel
29 June 2022

Cartoon | Paper pogrom

In this week’s cartoon, Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi torches the rights of thousands of Zimbabweans who have held South African residence permits for more than a decade.

Carlos Amato
28 June 2022

Sharp Read | Reflections on death

As a society, we are uncomfortable with death. But hidden in grief and tragedy is potential transcendence, if we allow ourselves to contemplate our own inevitable demise.

David Gorin
28 June 2022

The guilty parties of the Covid pandemic

In Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers, John Nichols explores the corruption at an elite level that has ended up characterising the global pandemic.

Christopher McMichael
21 June 2022

Sharp Read | Women in music give voice to history

A few books have fought the erasure of women in music. This Woman’s Work: Essays on Music tries to be one of these, but its inconsistent discourse fails to find a new way to think.

Gwen Ansell
14 June 2022

Cartoon | Unholy alliance

The rationale for the United Kingdom’s deal to send ‘undocumented migrants’ to Rwanda is that it will thwart human trafficking. But the deal itself amounts to precisely that.

Carlos Amato
14 June 2022

In Pictures | Saving the springs of Panzath

Plants and algae threaten to choke the 500 natural springs in this remote village in Kashmir each year, so the residents make an annual festival out of clearing them.

Adil Amin Akhoon
9 June 2022

Cartoon | The Buffalo’s bills

Former spy boss Arthur Fraser might have cynical political motives for revealing the theft of cash from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s game farm, but the country is owed an explanation.

Carlos Amato
7 June 2022

Cartoon | The Bufallo’s bills

Former spy boss Arthur Fraser might have cynical political motives for revealing the theft of cash from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s game farm, but the country is owed an explanation.

Carlos Amato
7 June 2022

Locusts in Cameroon: from pest to seasonal asset

People fleeing the wartorn north-west region are catching grasshoppers, plucking, spicing, cooking and selling them. The profit helps keep children in school and households fed.

Amindeh Blaise Atabong
6 June 2022

Pay attention: Our food system is broken

Hunger and obesity are symptoms of the same problem. Activist Raj Patel’s latest film follows a Malawian farmer as she cares for the Earth while growing crops.

Magnificent Mndebele
1 June 2022

Photo Essay | Fire in Joe Slovo

Many of the Cape Town shack settlement’s residents lost their homes in the most recent fire, an ongoing risk in an area blighted by poverty and a lack of infrastructure.

ANDYMKOSI
1 June 2022

Cartoon | Hungry for profit

As inflation soars, food retailers are passing on the pain to consumers instead of keeping basic foodstuffs affordable by subsidising them through the fat margins on luxury items.

Carlos Amato
31 May 2022

New Books | Now You Know How Mapetla Died

Mapetla Mohapi, a member of the Black Consciousness movement, died in detention in 1976. Historian Zikhona Valela teases out the threads that led to his death.

Zikhona Valela
30 May 2022

From the Archive | The Mandé Charter of 1222

The charter, derived from the oral traditions of the Mandinka hunters from the bulge of Africa, affirms the universal value of human life.

Wâ Kamissoko
26 May 2022

Cartoon | Hot air

While droughts and floods scar the planet, the rulers with the power to change our climate future do nothing useful at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Carlos Amato
24 May 2022

New Books | Can Themba: An intellectual tsotsi

Siphiwo Mahala gives fresh insight into the life of the Drum journalist, writer and teacher who opened his home to anyone who wanted to have an honest, engaging conversation.

Siphiwo Mahala
23 May 2022

Sharp Read | Prehistoric psycho for the win

An eSwatini chemist’s short story about early humans and murder has made it to this year’s Commonwealth prize shortlist. Yet, its author is disinclined to accept the title ‘writer’.

Cebelihle Mbuyisa
19 May 2022

New Books | Selected Hồ Chí Minh

In this excerpt from a collection of the revolutionary’s writing, the man who fought for Vietnamese independence advises cadres to stay the distance in land reform programmes.

Hồ Chí Minh
19 May 2022

Francis Wilson, consummate researcher with a cause

Facts mattered to the late economist, who died just weeks before his 83rd birthday on 17 May. But so did history and morality, and all three were a hallmark of his work.

Pippa Green
19 May 2022

Long Read | Beyond Eurocentrism

If you really want decolonisation, go beyond cultural criticism to the deep structural insights of economist Samir Amin.

Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven
18 May 2022

Cartoon | Notes on a cowardly murder

In this week’s cartoon, while Israeli security forces can kill a journalist who reported truthfully on their occupation of Palestine, they cannot eliminate the truth.

Carlos Amato
17 May 2022

Cape Town train improvements a slow chug

Commuters like the two new ‘people’s trains’ but still have to deal with delays and no-shows, safety issues and their employers’ ire when they’re held up getting to work.

Matthew Hirsch
16 May 2022

Ukucotha kokuphuculwa kwehambo ngoololiwe eKapa

Abakhweli bayabathanda aba ‘loliwe babantu’ batsha kodwa kusafuneka bejamelene nengxaki yokucotha nokungafiki kwabo, imiba yokhuseleko nomsindo wabaqeshi bakufika emva kwexesha emisebenzini.

Matthew Hirsch
16 May 2022

Cartoon | Supersub

In this week’s cartoon, Workers’ Party leader and former Brazilian president Lula da Silva is back in action, having officially announced his bid to evict Jair Bolsonaro from power.

Carlos Amato
10 May 2022

Cedar adds a shot of espresso to SA’s roasteries

Leigh Wentzel and Winston Thomas are stirring up the coffee scene in Cape Town with specialty blends to give communities a taste of quality java.

Barry Christianson
4 May 2022

Sharp Read | A ‘light’ caper with profound purpose

While it has the tense excitement of a crime novel, the considerable class, political and social undercurrents in Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Shuffle make it so much more.

Gwen Ansell
3 May 2022

Cartoon | Mine the gap

Gold mining company Sibanye-Stillwater has reaped fat profits in recent quarters but refuses to share the windfall with striking workers. Instead, it lavishes obscene rewards on its chief executive…

Carlos Amato
3 May 2022

New Books | The world’s deadliest migration route

If they don’t drown, migrants sent back from their attempts to cross the Mediterranean Sea are often left to languish in detention centres, sometimes for years at a time.

Sally Hayden
2 May 2022

Libya is a ‘market of human beings’

Many African migrants and refugees see crossing the Mediterranean Sea as the only chance for a better life. Sally Hayden tells their harrowing stories in My Fourth Time, We Drowned.

Jan Bornman
29 April 2022

Libya is a ‘market of human beings’

Many African migrants and refugees see crossing the Mediterranean Sea as the only chance for a better life. Sally Hayden tells their harrowing stories in My Fourth Time, We Drowned.

Jan Bornman
29 April 2022

Cartoon | One-track mind

South Africa’s notoriously corrupt passenger rail service, Prasa, has been robbing citizens of their right to public transport for years and now has the gall to vastly inflate its flood-damag…

Carlos Amato
26 April 2022

New Books | Archives of Times Past

History professor Sekiba Lekgoathi reflects on his boyhood in this chapter of a book about historians who research precolonial history using a range of archival materials.

Sekiba Lekgoathi, Cynthia Kros and John Wright
25 April 2022

From the Archive | Albert Luthuli’s note to voters

In a message before the 1958 elections, the future Nobel Peace Prize winner appealed to those allowed to vote to consider, when making their mark, disenfranchised South Africans.

Albert Luthuli
21 April 2022

Bereft mother pays it forward to honour slain son

After gangsters killed her son in Hanover Park, Avril Andrews started a foundation that feeds the hungry and supports mothers in finding justice for their murdered children.

Adrian Ephraim
20 April 2022

Cartoon | Back in the game

As Durban reels from a catastrophic flood, newly elected ANC regional chairperson Zandile Gumede and her resurgent predatory faction are excited about the reconstruction budget.

Carlos Amato
19 April 2022

WATCH | eNkanini’s got talent!

Residents of a land occupation in Durban held a pageant to showcase their young people and bring some much-needed sparkle and hope amid the state’s brutal evictions and arrests.

Nomfundo Xolo
18 April 2022

Cartoon | Accessories to murder

In this week’s cartoon, the killing of Zimbabwean Elvis Nyathi was enabled by the xenophobic rhetoric deployed by various politicians to demonise migrants as criminals.

Carlos Amato
12 April 2022

New Books | Radio in the fight for freedom

Radio broadcasting was a powerful technology for disseminating the messages of the liberation movements and for mobilising people against white minority rule in the region.

Sekibakiba Peter Lekgoathi, Tshepo Moloi and Alda Romão Saúte Saíde
11 April 2022

From the Archive | Methods of mass organising

The leader of the 1919 steel industry strike in the United States guides unions on how to carry out successful worker campaigns.

William Z Foster
7 April 2022

Organise or starve: Uniting jobless workers

In a book about the Unemployed Workers’ Movement, Shaheed Mahomed recounts witdoeke attacks and how a mass movement of shack dwellers came together to resist forced removals.

Anna Majavu
6 April 2022

Light on the horizon for Soweto’s hostels

Built during apartheid, hostels in the township have become dilapidated and dangerous. But a dynamic young member of Joburg’s mayoral committee is on a mission to change this.

Oupa Nkosi
5 April 2022

Cartoon | One giant leap

In this week’s cartoon, Chris Smalls makes a breakthrough for the resurgent US labour movement by unionising an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island – despite the online retailer’s dirty-t…

Carlos Amato
5 April 2022

New Books | The Walter Rodney Story

The Guyanese historian and activist sought revolutionary change through an informed and grounded practice, offering education and focusing on the total ecology of society.

Leo Zeilig
4 April 2022

From the Archive | This concerns everyone

In hiring migrants instead of workers from the French countryside, industrialists calculated that existing racism, police pressure and anti-migrant sentiment would contain labour unrest.

Robert Linhart
1 April 2022

Confronting India’s high rate of ‘missing’ births

Having girl foetuses aborted because families prefer boys is a practice that remains worryingly common. It takes years of patience and work to persuade communities otherwise.

Sanket Jain
31 March 2022

The win-at-all-costs culture of steroid abuse

A new book on drug use in South African sport depicts institutions that will stop at nothing to make money – even encouraging athletes to take banned substances.

Christopher McMichael
31 March 2022

Palestinian children in detention without trial

Arrested in terrifying dawn raids in the Occupied Territories, teens as young as 13 are taken by Israeli authorities and held sometimes for months. Many are tortured.

Anna Majavu
31 March 2022

India’s ‘barefoot counsellors’ make life bearable

For impoverished women who are abused and depressed, the care of untrained mental health workers presents the only possibility of getting some relief from their despair.

Sanket Jain
30 March 2022

The downfall of Albert Luthuli’s party in Groutville

The lauded ANC leader would be disheartened by what is happening in his home town, says one resident. Many no longer vote, disillusioned with false promises and only scraping by.

Chris Makhaye
29 March 2022

Cartoon | Gravely mistaken

In this week’s cartoon, xenophobic vigilante leader Nhlanhla “Lux” Dlamini tries to enlist the spirit of Steve Biko to his cause, but the feeling is not mutual.

Carlos Amato
29 March 2022

Saving mothers and babies is a thankless task

In rural India, maternal healthcare falls to women workers who have the barest minimum of resources. And while the families of those they save are thankful, the government barely acknowledges them.

Sanket Jain
29 March 2022

Part five | How Koeberg’s history impacts today

It would be remiss of South Africa to ignore the parallels between Koeberg’s conception and the extension to the nuclear power station’s operating life being planned today.

Neil Overy
28 March 2022

New Books | Washington Bullets

The so-called peace-loving nations that signed the 1919 League of Nations Covenant were the same ones that oppressed the colonised world and eventually dropped an atomic bomb on Japan.

Vijay Prashad
28 March 2022

Part four | How Koeberg’s history impacts today

The build cost overran radically and Trevor Manuel said in 1994 that South Africa could ‘never justify’ the billions wasted on nuclear, but the government seems to have forgotten this.

Neil Overy
25 March 2022

Part three | How Koeberg’s history impacts today

Archives show that then, as today, a small group of people are willing to risk a major nuclear accident at the power station despite the fallout we now know would be devastating.

Neil Overy
24 March 2022

Long Read | Gabriel García Márquez and magical internationalism

While the Colombian writer is recognised for his literary work, little attention is paid to his lifelong dedication to revolution in his career as a militant journalist.

Laura Capote
24 March 2022

Part two | How Koeberg’s history impacts today

Apartheid ideology determined who could live and work around the nuclear power station. It’s something to think about as the government moves to extend the life of the plant.

Neil Overy
23 March 2022

Part one | How Koeberg’s history impacts today

The Koeberg site was selected for economic rather than safety reasons. But the population has grown and the government would do well to consider this before extending the life of the plant.

Neil Overy
22 March 2022

Athambile Masola’s debut is a poetic tour de force

Titled Ilifa, her poetry collection breaks new ground in South African literary and feminist writing and shows a deft hand that impresses on many levels.

Pumla Dineo Gqola
17 March 2022

Cartoon | Sportwash and dry

In this week’s cartoon, the British government sanctions Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich for his role in the Putin kleptocracy, setting an interesting precedent for other Premier League prince…

Carlos Amato
15 March 2022

The life of a great Marxist: Aijaz Ahmad

The eminent activist, philosopher and writer died at home on 9 March surrounded by his books and papers, and by the warmth of his children and his friends.

Vijay Prashad
14 March 2022

Caregivers advocate for migrant mothers

Home-based caregivers help women navigate Gauteng state hospitals that force pregnant migrants, refugees and asylum seekers to pay for services that should be free.

Jan Bornman
9 March 2022

Long Read | A means to render our lives believable

How do we think and practice a genuinely universal solidarity when some wars and conflicts are met with a searing silence?

Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung
8 March 2022

Migrant mothers vs the state

Migrants, refugees and asylum seekers are charged for pregnancy services at state hospitals in Gauteng, despite the Constitution ensuring access. If they cannot pay, birth documentation is withheld…

Jan Bornman
8 March 2022

Cartoon | Bad medicine

In this week’s cartoon, the Operation Dudula campaign misdirects the anger of South Africans about the economy towards migrants – and obscures the real causes of mass joblessness.

Carlos Amato
8 March 2022

Covid-19 in SA: One virus, two countries

Mainstream media compared South Africa’s pandemic response to European and North American countries, claiming we had done well, but African countries in fact did much better than us.

Steven Friedman
7 March 2022

When the city of gold bled red

In 1922, Johannesburg’s white workers united on a scale not seen before or since, unleashing violence against Black miners and destroying their potential to become an organised force.

Dennis Webster
4 March 2022

From the Archive | The Regeneration of Africa

In this famous speech given on 5 April 1906, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, later to become a founder of the ANC, spoke of a soaring vision of the African future.

Pixley ka Isaka Seme
3 March 2022

Poet Primrose Mrwebi’s humanism remembered

South Africa’s creative and activist communities are mourning the death of the poet and gender rights activist by highlighting the lessons she imparted when she was still alive.

Carl Collison
3 March 2022

Prasa is ‘taking food from our mouths’

After reopening certain stations, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa has prohibited trading on trains, leaving the sellers who rely on commuters out of pocket.

Percy Mabandu
2 March 2022

India’s farmers in a vicious cycle of devastation

Floods have wiped out some small farmers’ crops more than once, forcing them to use fertiliser to boost growth and recoup costs. But the long-term effects are even more costly.

Sanket Jain
2 March 2022

Residents, not occupiers, live at Cissie Gool House

A zine that depicts those living in what used to be an abandoned hospital in Woodstock reframes and humanises the same people the government has labelled criminals.

Mia Arderne
2 March 2022

Cartoon | Nobody move!

In this week’s cartoon, having attacked Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens Western powers by ordering that his country’s nuclear arsenal be moved to a ‘special mode of combat…

Carlos Amato
1 March 2022

The horror, the horror of the corrupted heart

This Sharp Read examines two novels that demand reflection on the nature of oppression and imperialism in southern Africa and how – or whether – meaningful reconciliation can occur.

David Gorin
1 March 2022

Violence against women and the future of the past

Jacqueline Rose’s new book shows how insecure, fraudulent and counterfeit masculinity is and, along with work by other scholars, contemplates futures free of male violence.

Srila Roy
28 February 2022

Stories of sexuality, faith and migration

Learning how homophobia and transphobia operates in Africa – often through the rhetoric of a return to traditional values – reveals why many LGBTQIA+ Africans choose to leave.

John Marnell
28 February 2022

Long Read | Picking sides where there are none

In Cape Town Islam is often racially fraught. On occasion it has even been misused as an alibi for racism.

Sean Jacobs
23 February 2022

Brixton lights up the right to the city

The Johannesburg suburb’s Light Festival realised – over the course of a day – the magical, equalising and humanising moments that culture can create.

Marie Huchzermeyer
23 February 2022

Cartoon | Revaulting

In this week’s cartoon, the Swiss Leaks reveal that Credit Suisse has been secretly sheltering the ill-gotten billions of corrupt politicians and criminal tycoons from across the developing w…

Carlos Amato
22 February 2022

Commodifying and selling nature to save it

In this excerpt from The Great Takeover, a study of stakeholders in global governance, Mary Ann Manahan outlines how capitalism invades and quantifies ecosystems in economic terms.

Mary Ann Manahan
21 February 2022

From the Archive | The necessity of revolution in the 21st century

In 2012, as the illusion of stability crumbled in wake of the Arab Spring, the global financial meltdown and the Occupy movements, the question arose: what does revolution look like now?

Jerome Roos
17 February 2022

Cartoon | Reshuffling the deck

In this week’s cartoon, President Cyril Ramaphosa confronts an epochal unemployment crisis by fiddling with cabinet organograms.

Carlos Amato
15 February 2022

What has happened to our dreams of freedom?

David Johnson’s book looks to the literature of our past, when writers’ imaginations were rich with hope, to help us envisage a more just and equal future.

David Johnson
14 February 2022

Indian government unravels Kashmiri crafts

For ages, the region’s people have turned wool into highly sought-after shawls. It’s a craft that has sustained generations of artisans and traders alike but now it is threatened.

Peerzada Muzamil
11 February 2022

Solidarity is the road to liberation

At an International Workers Action meeting, the Numsa general secretary emphasised the importance of unity in fighting against capital’s oppressive systems.

Irvin Jim
10 February 2022

Missing migrants project helps families find peace

A Red Cross programme locates Zimbabweans who have gone to South Africa and lost contact with home, offering anxious loved ones either relief or closure.

Kudzanai Musengi
9 February 2022

Cartoon | Don’t call me Cupcake

In this week’s cartoon, President Cyril Ramaphosa – inspired by South Africa’s no-nonsense Africa Cup of Nations referee Victor Gomes – looks for a bossy edge to his State of the Nation addre…

Carlos Amato
8 February 2022

India’s village fair sellers are struggling

Those who travel the country selling their wares have been unable to earn during Covid lockdowns. Stuck at home, they’ve become mired in debt and their children have suffered a further disadvantage…

Sanket Jain
8 February 2022

Dodgy definitions endanger India’s forests

A report warns of the perils of climate change for the country’s delicate tree systems, but also suggests green cover is increasing – which depends on what is meant by ‘forest’.

Haris Zargar
7 February 2022

Few secrets, much intrigue in insights from exile

This Sharp Read takes a look at International Brigade Against Apartheid, a collection of personal tales about the struggle for freedom with the emphasis on those who operated outside SA’s borders.…

Drew Forrest
3 February 2022

Cartoon | Boulder measures

In this week’s cartoon, an urgent campaign for a permanent basic income grant in South Africa is greeted with blinkered austerity logic.

Carlos Amato
1 February 2022

Abolish the police for peace

Derecka Purnell’s book Becoming Abolitionists, which looks at how cops bolster mechanisms of repressive state power, argues that a truly free society is rooted in consent and cooperation.

Christopher McMichael
1 February 2022

Frank Dutton: an investigator dedicated to truth

The devoted detective worked tirelessly to uphold the rule of law, tackling crucial cases before and after democracy in South Africa and bringing criminals to book all over the world.

Tymon Smith
31 January 2022

Waltzing into a new era

At a premature party, days before the official vote count made Nelson Mandela president in 1994, two women shared their joy in the early hours of the morning.

John Hogg
28 January 2022

Vital to change ‘misconceptions’ about the homeless

Hearings will soon be held to get first-hand accounts of what it’s like living rough in Cape Town, where law enforcement officers are accused of brutality.

Matthew Hirsch
27 January 2022

Finding belonging at SA’s new queer shelter

The mother and daughter behind the newly opened haven for LGBTQIA+ people in Ekurhuleni have created a sanctuary for those seeking a sense of home.

Carl Collison
26 January 2022

A life’s work to heal centuries of grave injustice

In the final article in a four-part series on gender-based violence and grassroots activism, Lucelle Campbell discusses addressing the intergenerational trauma that persists in her community.

Anna Majavu
18 January 2022

Cartoon | Glass struggle

In this week’s cartoon, veteran ANC minister Lindiwe Sisulu blames South Africa’s highest court for her own party’s naked failure to liberate Black citizens from poverty.

Carlos Amato
18 January 2022

Online gambling is terrible news for SA’s youth

With unemployment rampant, many young people are turning to online betting platforms. Failing to win, many continue betting and losing money and themselves in the process. Something must be done.

Rufaro Samanga
13 January 2022

Rich historical resource on the SACP’s trajectory

From a non-Marxist perspective, Tom Lodge recognises the South African Communist Party’s often-underplayed contribution to the ANC becoming a victorious, mass-based organisation.

Jeremy Cronin
13 January 2022

Modern-day tools for click languages

This last in a three-part series takes a look at efforts to produce more dictionaries and other materials in Khoisan languages and provides a glimpse of San life in a small village.

Kevin Davie
13 January 2022

Phelisa Nkomo stakes a claim for rural women

In the third of a four-part series on grassroots activism against gender-based violence we meet an economist with a firm focus on developing opportunities for those the government ignores.

Anna Majavu
12 January 2022

Cartoon | Over his head

In this week’s cartoon, anti-vaxxer tennis star Novak Djokovic misses his two most important shots – and the point.

Carlos Amato
11 January 2022

The sound of music quietens the sound of guns

Join Bands, Not Gangs offers music lessons to vulnerable teens in dangerous Western Cape neighbourhoods, encouraging those at risk to choose an instrument rather than a gun.

Jan Bornman
11 January 2022

Lessons from the oldest stories ever told

In this second of a three-part series, a visit to a !Xoon settlement deep in Botswana sheds more light on the world’s most complex language and its speakers’ tales of ancient wisdom.

Kevin Davie
6 January 2022

Finding the speakers of ancient tongues

This first of a three-part series is a discovery of small communities in Botswana who still use a diverse range of click languages that have survived across vast time – and landscapes.

Kevin Davie
6 January 2022

From the Archive | Fanon and the Caribbean

Trinidadian Marxist CLR James speaks of Frantz Fanon’s commitment to freedom and his philosophical perspectives on the use of violence in the struggle against Western imperialism.

CLR James
6 January 2022

Long Read | Home and exile, freedom and loss

Mandla Langa and Mphuthumi Ntabeni’s new novels, The Lost Language of the Soul and The Wanderers, intersect in their reflections on the lives of Umkhonto weSizwe freedom fighters.

Bongani Kona
5 January 2022

Cartoon | Blazed and confused

In this week’s cartoon, an inferno in Parliament exposes the South African government’s inability to look after its valuables, let alone the people it is sworn to serve.

Carlos Amato
4 January 2022

Kholiswa Tyiki, a godsend to Mdantsane’s women

In part two of a four-part series on grassroots activism against gender-based violence, we look at an East London woman’s involvement in her hometown, where she organises against the violence…

Anna Majavu
4 January 2022

Tech-boosted English classes reach more migrants

Covid-19 lockdowns forced a Cape Town organisation to adapt its teaching methods. Now its language instruction helps those living in other parts of Africa and even beyond.

Jan Bornman
4 January 2022

Book Review | The illusion of freedom

Grégoire Chamayou and Stuart Jeffries explore authoritarian capitalism and the postmodern malaise, showing how neoliberalism is an ideological construction that can be rejected.

Christopher McMichael
4 January 2022

Fighting abuse of women in Western Cape farmlands

In part one of a four-part series on gender-based violence and grassroots activism, we look at an anti-GBV community-response team in the small Western Cape town of Klapmuts.

Anna Majavu
3 January 2022

New Books | Dread: Facing Futureless Futures

Facing a pandemic and the climate emergency, all while big data tracks us, we are beset by a ‘fog of unease’, especially about work, which robots both threaten and redefine.

David Theo Goldberg
3 January 2022

From the Archive | Why the Earth Summit failed

Sustainable development goals were mooted at the 1992 climate conference in Rio de Janeiro, but cynical Western leaders ignored the urgency of the crisis, with consequences unfolding today.

David Treece
30 December 2021

New Books | Fanon Today

Many struggles today find resonance with the words of Frantz Fanon because he wrote so searchingly and presciently about the wounds of the colonised, and the road to freedom.

Nigel C Gibson
27 December 2021

Tseko Monyamane turns his art into a business

The artist’s unique creations made from wool and discarded glass bottles gained a following this year. Now he has his sights set on filling homes with his eco-friendly decor.

Zandile Bangani
23 December 2021

Archie and I: A Third World Story

Vijay Prashad recalls his early encounters with the struggle for national liberation, and the work of Archie Singham, an important intellectual in the latter part of that sequence of struggle.

Vijay Prashad
21 December 2021

New Books | Memoir of a South African film producer

Anant Singh has produced more than 100 films over four decades, including the Oscar-nominated Yesterday. He tells the story of his childhood and journey into filmmaking.

Anant Singh
20 December 2021

Mining in Richards Bay remains a double-edged sword

Sociopolitical conflict persists in the area because mining operations go hand in hand with filthy lucre that divides communities while devastating their natural environment.

Chris Makhaye
17 December 2021

The tide turns to mining on the Olifants River

The government granting prospecting rights around the river mouth, which is being declared a community-based marine protected area, threatens food security and livelihoods.

Barry Christianson
15 December 2021

Prejudice robs disabled women of work in Cameroon

Laws to protect disabled people are not enforced in the central African nation, leaving many without jobs. But a local organisation is helping equip disabled women for work.

Amindeh Blaise Atabong
15 December 2021

Cartoon | Unfair shares

In this week’s cartoon, tax-phobic tycoon Elon Musk is recognised for his efforts to weaken social contracts everywhere.

Carlos Amato
14 December 2021

Climate change is thwarting education in India

More and more young people are being forced into manual labour to help their families survive the financial impacts of floods and other natural disasters.

Sanket Jain
13 December 2021

Photo Essay | The dying embers of Kashmiri firepots

Creating the traditional clay and woven wicker heaters used by generations of people in the Himalayas has become associated with poverty, driving artisans from the craft.

Adil Amin Akhoon
10 December 2021

Frantz Fanon quotes that resonate 60 years later

The Wretched of the Earth was the pan-African thinker’s last book, published in 1961. A collection of quotes from the book marks the anniversary.

Nigel C Gibson
9 December 2021

Frantz Fanon quotes that resonate 60 years later

The Wretched of the Earth was the pan-African thinker’s last book, published in 1961. A collection of quotes from the book marks the anniversary.

Nigel C Gibson
9 December 2021

Long Read | Law and power: A long road for gay men

What became known as The Sodomy Case in South Africa in 1998 has at last aided LGBTQIA+ rights in another African country, with Botswana upholding a judgment that decriminalises sex between men.

Zackie Achmat
8 December 2021

Cartoon | Wrong Turn

In this week’s cartoon, far-right French presidential candidate Éric Zemmour’s xenophobic extremism leads the rhetoric of the country’s right wing in a frightening direction.

Carlos Amato
7 December 2021

Toxic air forces a ‘pollution lockdown’ in Delhi

In India’s capital city power plants and schools were closed, transport limited and a work-from-home mandate issued as air quality reached levels deemed hazardous.

Haris Zargar
7 December 2021

Book Review | Peter Thiel, tech and power

Max Chafkin’s biography, The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power, looks at the disturbing links between major technology companies and the right wing.

Christopher McMichael
7 December 2021

New Books | The Aids Coalition To Unleash Power

Activists took on the Aids crisis by standing up to corporations and governments that stood in the way of treatment for all – including women, who were at first banned from trials.

Sarah Schulman
6 December 2021

From the Archive | The forgotten occupation

The extended United Nations presence in Haiti after the United States-backed coup in 2004 compounded the suffering of impoverished people in the Caribbean nation.

Emmanuel Santos
2 December 2021

Narendra Modi’s ‘false’ farm promises

India’s prime minister made big assurances to farmers five years ago, but his government has not delivered and has now been forced to backtrack on its contentious farm laws.

Sanket Jain
30 November 2021

Cartoon | Knee-jerk syndrome

In this week’s cartoon, the discovery of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, the threat of which remains unclear, triggers a pandemic of punitive panic.

Carlos Amato
30 November 2021

Zimbabwean farmers step into the future of farming

Climate-smart technology has helped the members of an irrigation scheme to improve their yields, lessen their water usage and make informed decisions about which crops to plant.

Kudzanai Musengi
29 November 2021

Farm workers remain landless and marginalised

The postapartheid government has betrayed both the Freedom Charter and the Constitution with its failure to get land into the hands of those who actually work it.

Musawenkosi Cabe
26 November 2021

The dangers of the disappearing glaciers

Low snowfall and rising temperatures brought on by climate change threaten the lives, agriculture and infrastructure of South Asians who rely on water sources in the Himalayas.

Haris Zargar
25 November 2021

Cartoon | Cool reception

In this week’s cartoon, oil giant Shell launches a seismic survey of gas deposits off the South African coast – disturbing sea life right now, and the climate in due course.

Carlos Amato
23 November 2021

‘Strongman’ Modi humbled by Indian farmers

Afraid of losing public support, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repealed controversial agricultural laws in a major triumph for Indian farmers.

Haris Zargar
23 November 2021

From the Archive | Angela Davis at Occupy Philly

After a famed political activist gave a rousing speech calling for a march from a conference to a nearby Philadelphia occupation, people were fired up. But academic protocol dampened the mood.

Salar Mohandesi
18 November 2021

Why our climate isn’t jumping for joy after COP26

The climate conference ended with a watered down promise to phase down rather than phase out coal-powered energy generation and only the most powerful countries got to finalise the pact.

Vijay Prashad
18 November 2021

Cartoon | Unhappy hour

In this week’s cartoon, as local government coalitions start to congeal, two toxic recipes loom for South Africa’s city dwellers.

Carlos Amato
16 November 2021

Confessions of a dirty tricks apartheid policeman

A memoir by a former member of the Strategic Communications unit details how the regime used deception, sabotage and harassment campaigns to undermine and destroy activists.

Tymon Smith
16 November 2021

No graves for the dead in eThekwini

A shortage of burial plots and viable land for new cemeteries has been worsened by the pandemic’s death toll, forcing people to buy rural land on which to bury their loved ones.

Chris Makhaye
15 November 2021

Light Reading | Caught in the act

FW de Klerk was a smoker for most of his life, only giving up in his late 60s. Photographer John Hogg caught him sneaking a cigarette on stage.

John Hogg
12 November 2021

Alzina Zondi’s fight for freedom

The anti-apartheid activist who died this year dedicated her life to the struggle by working in the ANC’s underground networks and organising women’s protest against the pass system.

Jill E Kelly
11 November 2021

Where kings swim

Kingfish have been swimming up the Mtentu River every year for aeons, but some residents fear their migration may be under threat from the N2 Wild Coast Road Project, along with livelihoods.

Dennis Webster
11 November 2021

Learning to live with nature is a balancing act

This second of a two-part series on conservation in India takes a look at the ordinary people who work tirelessly to reduce conflict between humans and a wide variety of animals.

Sanket Jain
11 November 2021

Volunteers save thousands of human and animal lives

In the first of a two-part series on conservation in India, the spotlight falls on snake rescuers who teach communities to live and let live as far as these reptiles are concerned.

Sanket Jain
10 November 2021

Haunted by Cyclone Idai’s trail of destruction

Climate change leaves people vulnerable to flooding and landslides – like it did in March 2019, when a storm blowing through Zimbabwe killed hundreds and displaced thousands.

Farai Shawn Matiashe
10 November 2021

Cartoon | Negative energy

In this week’s cartoon, power utility Eskom gets its wires crossed yet again, causing more misery for ordinary South Africans as well as the economy.

Carlos Amato
9 November 2021

New Books | South Africa’s legacy of minority rule

Steven Friedman addresses the roots of state capture in colonialism and apartheid, showing how these same webs of corruption are active in postapartheid South Africa.

Steven Friedman
8 November 2021

Abu Baker Asvat: a forgotten revolutionary

He was a doctor to everyone, the impoverished and the comfortable. And as apartheid’s forces inflicted injury on protesters, he treated their wounds. He should be better known.

Imraan Buccus
8 November 2021

From the Archive | Austerity protests rock Sudan

Many Sudanese oppose the currently unfolding coup. This article from the time of the mass protests in 2013 shows what drove the people of Sudan on to the streets then.

Joris Leverink
5 November 2021

Long Read | The fire this time

Shack fires are a near daily reality for those living in many of South Africa’s most impoverished areas. They are a terrifying – and deadly – expression of the scale of the country’s escalating soc…

Jan Bornman
3 November 2021

Cartoon | Burn notice

In this week’s cartoon, the delegates at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland, confront a frightening but inescapable reality: stick to coal and our future goes up in smoke.

Carlos Amato
2 November 2021

Sharp Read | Reflecting on apartheid’s hard knocks

The stories of two South African men with widely differing backgrounds and life trajectories have points of convergence that are perhaps not surprising, given the times in which they have lived.

David Gorin
2 November 2021

Cop-out not an option for young climate activists

A disappointing conference in Italy where the youth was supposed to give input on proposals for COP26 has not dampened the fighting spirit of these campaigners for change.

Alex Čizmić
29 October 2021

Long Read | Climate resilience in the Caribbean

The climate crisis is posing an existential threat to the Caribbean and labour unions have a crucial role to play in preventing and preparing for impending disasters.

Johannah-Rae Reyes
28 October 2021

Cartoon | Alt-fright

In this week’s cartoon, Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen seems amused by the idea that racism is central to South African politics.

Carlos Amato
26 October 2021

Rachel Thoka, mystery slave and forgotten heroine

She was brought to the Cape in chains, then became a Boer hero before turning into an activist for the early ANC. But where did she come from? Her grandson spent a lifetime trying to find out.

Shaun Smillie
25 October 2021

New Books | ‘A Black Gaze’

Tina M Campt shows that Black contemporary art pushes viewers out of passivity and into a visceral, responsive interaction with the suffering and joy of Black life.

Tina M Campt
25 October 2021

The sustainable ‘superfly’ spreads its wings

A farmer of black soldier flies who produces high-quality feed for livestock and pets plans several more breeding and processing facilities in the Eastern Cape and beyond.

John Hogg
25 October 2021

The women eking out a living in Durban’s shadows

For years, they sought decent employment and failed. They are in the streets now selling wares and, in dingy corners and hidden building floors, plaiting hair to make ends meet.

Naledi Sikhakhane
22 October 2021

India’s hunger problem is getting worse

Cast out and impoverished groups continue to experience chronic poverty and hunger. As the problem gets worse, the government points to inaccurate statistics instead of providing solutions.

Haris Zargar
21 October 2021

Book Review | Why the police are not indispensable

Two new books explore police violence and its roots in slavery and the colonies, contending that the police serve power, not the people. Both argue for community-led alternatives to public safety.

Christopher McMichael
21 October 2021

How Facebook puts profits before users’ wellbeing

Whistle-blower Frances Haugen’s evidence shows that the platform knew its algorithms promote dangerous content, but the company chose to do nothing in favour of maximising revenue.

Globetrotter
20 October 2021

Cartoon | Muted response

In this week’s cartoon, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa evades South Africa’s obligation to defend lives and human rights in neighbouring eSwatini.

Carlos Amato
19 October 2021

New Books | Flow

For menstruators without adequate sanitation, a normal bodily function jeopardises their access to work and school. The authors of Flow advocate for menstrual activism to change attitudes.

Candice Chirwa
18 October 2021

From the Archive | Ending anti-Black state violence

The co-founder of Black Lives Matter argues that what we need is not just reform, but a transformation of culture, policy and institutions to address the root causes of structural racism.

Opal Tometi
14 October 2021

Bread and skills to better impoverished lives

Many people in SA’s townships and rural areas struggle to make a living. Since 2008, one organisation has been doing its bit to help change this pattern.

Naledi Sikhakhane
14 October 2021

Two decades on and still no joy for land claimant

In the first of a two-part series on land restitution and reform in Stutterheim in the Eastern Cape, an elderly woman tells of her battle against the government to get her land back.

Anna Majavu
13 October 2021

Ageing nurses – a crisis looming on the horizon

Historical and systemic failures have led South Africa to a situation where, in only a few years’ time, there will be a dire shortage of healthcare workers to care for a growing population.

Elna Schütz
13 October 2021

The remarkable makeover of Shauwn Mkhize

Safely ensconced in a palatial home in Durban, MaMkhize sells herself as a successful construction magnate. But others say she sold out impoverished people to get there.

Greg Ardé
12 October 2021

Evictions in India an ominous message to Muslims

A violent eviction drive in Assam state highlights the ruling BJP’s explosive community politics, which attempt to disenfranchise and uproot the country’s Muslim minority.

Haris Zargar
12 October 2021

The inventor changing the lives of Indian farmers

A young Indian’s innovative tools, ingeniously made from recycled and scrap materials, ease workers’ tasks, saving them time, money and energy.

Sanket Jain
11 October 2021

The slow squeeze on Port Nolloth’s fishers

The Aukatowa cooperative is struggling to thrive amid the diamond fields of the Northern Cape, as the state-owned mining company Alexkor limits its access to the sea and degrades fishing grounds.

Barry Christianson
11 October 2021

New Books | The Violence of Empire

The French colony’s Congo-Océan railroad, spanning just over 500km, was one of the deadliest construction projects in history, killing tens of thousands of men, women and children.

JP Daughton
11 October 2021

Behind the cataract surgery backlog in Gauteng

Thousands of cataract patients in the province are waiting up to two years to receive the simple but life-changing surgery.

Ufrieda Ho
8 October 2021

Part two | Haggling hinders conservation of Manguo

There’s plenty of finger pointing as a Kenyan wetland withers. In this, the second of a two-part series, the focus is on land owners, polluters and those working to save it.

Steve Mokaya
7 October 2021

Book Review | Poisonous plots

In ‘The Poisoners: On South Africa’s Toxic Past’, Imraan Coovadia shows how politicians use toxins, or the threat of them, to maintain power over activists, whistle-blowers and even pre…

Christopher McMichael
7 October 2021

South Asian feminists mourn death of Kamla Bhasin

An outspoken campaigner for women’s rights in a profoundly conservative Indian society, she fought patriarchy and gender inequality in a direct and hands-on manner.

Haris Zargar
7 October 2021

Union tackles homophobia

Institutions of learning should act decisively against those in their midst who act in a homophobic manner. A teachers’ union has taken up the cause on behalf of a bi-gender educator.

Chris Makhaye
6 October 2021

Part one | Haggling hinders conservation of Manguo

A sizeable wetland in the Kenyan highlands has been dying slowly for years because of the actions of residents and inaction of authorities. Can renewed efforts save the swamp and its wildlife?

Steve Mokaya
6 October 2021

Cartoon | Treasure Islands

In this week’s cartoon, corporations and individuals across the globe are pillaging public wealth by funnelling money offshore, as shown yet again in the Pandora Papers leak.

Carlos Amato
5 October 2021

Book review | The tragedy of the worker

A radical collective committed to change in the face of climate collapse calls for global solidarity and a turn to the worker to revolutionise how we relate to the world.

Aragorn Eloff
5 October 2021

New Books | Black Spartacus

In this award-winning biography, Sudhir Hazareesingh recounts the experiences and principles that shaped the life of Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture.

Sudhir Hazareesingh
4 October 2021

‘Voetsek, ANC. We don’t want you here’

The ruling party has ignored protests and court orders, leaving the Eastern Cape municipality of Makana in a state of collapse. Now, residents’ only hope is to vote them out.

Anna Majavu
4 October 2021

The hidden hunger in Morocco

While official statistics suggest it’s not a major issue in the North African country, hunger is real on the ground and concealed by a lack of reliable data and social stigma.

Madaar
30 September 2021

From the Archive | From Egypt to Wall Street

The Occupy Wall Street movement took its cue from Egypt’s Arab Spring, which, along with toppling a dictator, was about radically shifting the capitalist economic landscape.

Wendell Hassan Marsh
30 September 2021

The urban impoverished demand food sovereignty

S’bu Zikode recently spoke at the Critical Dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, an event held in opposition to the UN Food Systems Summit

S’bu Zikode
30 September 2021

Sex worker turned congresswoman opens new horizons

Jacqueline Montero became the first sex worker in the Dominican Republic to earn a seat in Congress in 2016. She reflects on facing discrimination and campaigning for women’s rights.

Jaclynn Ashly
30 September 2021

How Covid activism can persuade vaccine sceptics

Cape Flats activist Joanie Fredericks has made significant contributions to Tafelsig in her 21 years there, including setting up a Covid information drive and a vaccination pop-up site.

Matthew Hirsch
29 September 2021

Christine Olivier heads to Geneva to lead union federation

The former Atlantis factory worker intends to focus on women and worker-controlled unions in the Global South as a new assistant general secretary at international union federation IndustriALL.

Anna Majavu
29 September 2021

At last, light on what happened to Hoosen Haffejee

The reopened inquest into the apartheid activist’s death in 1977 suggests Security Branch officers tortured him, with a then junior officer giving the clearest picture yet of what happened.

Tymon Smith
28 September 2021