Keith Gottschalk, University of the Western Cape Writings on South African liberation struggle icon Winnie Mandela almost all fall into one of two categories – either hagiography or demonology. These two books – Truth, Lies and Alibis. A Winnie Mandela Story, by Fred Bridgland and Sisonke Msimang’s The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela. A Biography of Survival, try to be more nuanced. Bridgland was a correspondent for Britain’s leading right-wing newspaper, the Daily Telegraph. For years, he dispatched empathetic reports on an anti-communist hero of the cold war, Jonas Savimbi and his UNITA movement, which were at war with Angola’s ruling…
Author: Pride Team
Stuart Richards, University of South Australia Every year it is the same story: the Academy comes so close to catching up with the rest of the film world, only to award the Oscar for Best Picture to the most middling of the bunch. Many cinephiles the world over were likely scratching their heads, or rolling their eyes, or perhaps throwing something at the television, when Julia Roberts called out Green Book’s name, a film the LA Times later dubbed “the worst Best Picture winner since ‘Crash’”. The film is the story of an unlikely friendship between musician Don Shirley (Mahershala…
Dear Dorothy, I have been married, with kids, for eight years to a man whom I know loves and cares for me. Some time ago, I attended the wedding of a relation of mine while my husband was away on business and bumped into an old flame at the wedding reception. One thing led to another and I ended up spending the evening in a hotel room with him. Dorothy, I have been full of regrets at what happened and wish I could turn back the clock. I don’t know what possessed me to do what I did because my…
Martin Plaut, School of Advanced Study The unveiling of a statue to the Emperor Haile Selassie outside the African Union has stirred up a storm among Ethiopians and Eritreans. Some, including the Rastafarian community who still worship the Emperor as a god, were delighted. Others were furious, recalling his role in the 1973-74 famine or his suppression of Eritrean freedom. Haile Selassie ruled Ethiopia for more than four decades, between 1930 and 1974. In 1935 his country was invaded by Italy and he sought refuge in Britain. He became a symbol of resistance to fascism in Africa, returning to the…
Nancy Kang, University of Manitoba In Mules and Men (1935), anthropologist, creative writer and Harlem Renaissance upstart Zora Neale Hurston relays the evocative folktale “Why the Sister in Black Works Hardest.” Fatigued after the work of Creation, God casts a massive bundle onto the earth. Intrigued by the mysterious object, a white Southern woman during the antebellum era asks her husband to retrieve it. Reluctant to tote the load himself, the master instructs a slave to fetch it. Soon wearied of the task, the slave then commands his wife to shoulder the burden. She does so, excited at the prospect…
Oluwaseun Tella, University of Johannesburg The increasing use of soft power in foreign policy by great powers such as the US (prior to Donald Trump’s administration) and China has sparked interest among African policymakers and academics. Soft power is the opposite of coercive capability or hard power, such as the use of economic and military might. Soft power involves trying to influence other countries using culture, values and policies. South Africa is one of the African countries that has taken advantage of the opportunity that the use of soft power presents. It’s successfully hosted international summits and sporting events such…
Riaan de Jongh, North-West University The world is inundated with data. There’s a virtual tsunami of data moving around the globe, renewing itself daily. Take just the global financial markets. They generate vast amounts of data – share prices, commodity prices, indices, option and futures prices, to name just a few. But data is of no use if there aren’t people able to collect, collate, analyse and apply it to the benefit of society. All that data generated by global financial markets gets used for asset and wealth management – and it must be properly analysed and understood to inform…
Ari Mattes, University of Notre Dame Australia 2018 was a good year for cinema but this is not reflected in the Oscar nominations for Best Picture. This year’s nominees are notable mainly for their mediocrity. There are, of course, a couple of exceptions. The best: The Favourite Yorgos Lanthimos’ most recent film, The Favourite, is an outlandish black comedy following the machinations of two ladies in Queen Anne’s court as they try to win and maintain Anne’s affection at each other’s expense. Rachel Weisz, as Lady Sarah, and Emma Stone, as Abigail, the ingenue attempting to replace Sarah at Anne’s…
Reading 1 Jer 17:5-8 Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, but stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth. Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: it fears not the heat when it comes; its leaves stay green; in the…
May my road be rough, Be tough, be luff, be slippery; For me to sleep not, May my road be full of heaps; For me to reap much. May my road be rough, May I sometimes be sick; To all alone usually, seek my God, May I sometimes fall; To fall forward, to fall for God. May my road be rough, With confusing confusions; For me to create my creativity, May I be won of emotional wounds; For me to be proud of my scars. May my road be rough, With unhappiness happiness; For me to be…