Not much to be said about Zapiro’s latest - it speaks volumes (and the volume is on HIGH):
Book details
- Don’t Mess with the President’s Head: Zapiro Annual 2009 by Zapiro
EAN: 9781770097575
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
Not much to be said about Zapiro’s latest - it speaks volumes (and the volume is on HIGH):
Book details
Raymond Suttner, an activist and author (most recently of The ANC Underground in South Africa) - and a person familiar with Jon Qwelane’s controversial career as a journalist - takes a closer look at what the rumoured appointment of Qwelane as South Africa’s ambassador to Uganda means for our democracy:
AT THE moment columnist Jon Qwelane is in the middle of controversy about possibly being appointed ambassador to Uganda. Before focusing on the present, let us rewind to the 1980s when Qwelane was a reporter for The Star. At that time a fake priest in Port Elizabeth, Ebenezer Maqina, purporting to represent the Azanian People’s Organisation (who later disowned him), repeatedly claimed attacks by United Democratic Front supporters. He was awarded honours by cities and given similar recognition. He was exposed in the late 1980s and it was found by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that Maqina had been a SADF agent and had incited the abduction of then-trade unionist, Dennis Neer and journalist Mona Badela. Among other matters he was implicated in killings.
In the meantime, Maqina’s false claims had been popularised and never scrutinised by Qwelane. He has never returned to the subject, where he misled the public and helped spread lies on the word of Maqina. I do not thereby claim that there were no misdeeds by the UDF. I merely point to an element of Qwelane’s past that has receded into the memory of a few people who were politically active then.
The response of ANC spokesperson, Jackson Mthembu, to objections to a self-confessed homophobe being sent to a country which has strong backing for legislation to hang gays/lesbians, is “bring the proof”. Now Mthembu seems to confuse his role. He forgets that he is not a government spokesperson and it is Foreign Affairs or the Presidency which ought to answer.
Book details
It’s an invasion of the showerheads!
Book details
Author of Native NostalgiaJacob Dlamini names no names in this article about South Africa’s latest high-profile and controversial appointment to its diplomatic corps (our guess: he’s writing about a certain homophobe due for a sojourn in Uganda), but he does question what exactly the prerequisites are for representing South Africa abroad. Racism and bigotry, he muses, don’t seem to be considered to be reasons for disqualification. But what about insanity?
A COLLEAGUE once showed me a string of text messages he had received from a man who is now being considered for a job as SA’s high commissioner in central Africa somewhere. The texts were manic, crude and downright offensive. They reflected poorly on the writer and suggested a mind that was both troubled and unhinged.
Written in a mixture of English and Sesotho, the texts were nothing but a string of insults. Creative insults too. The author seemed determined to drown his target in a cesspit of vulgarity. Fortunately, the intended victim had a formidable sense of humour and was able to laugh off the insults. In fact, the recipient of the texts felt pity for the sender, who was a good writer and maybe, at one time, a good man.
I do not recall if the intended victim responded to the texts but I do remember that we both concluded that the man who had written and sent the texts was certifiably mad. He had to be. We decided that no self- respecting and sane person would have written and sent out such nasty messages.
Book details
We all know how difficult it is for poets to get published… This is your opportunity. The deadline for submissions for the Sol Plaatje Poetry Award has been extended to 1 March 2010. The inaugural Sol Plaatje Poetry Award for poetry in ALL 11 South African languages will be awarded later this year. The jury will be convened by South African Poet Laureate, Keorapetse (Willie) Kgositsile.
Prize:
Rules:
Submissions:
or deliver by hand to:
Jacana Media
10 Orange St
Sunnyside, Auckland Park
Johannesburg
Good luck to all the entrants!
From a public culture perspective, South Africa remains mute on the issue of transgender people. TRANS: Transgender Life Stories from South Africa breaks the seal of silence. Contributor Timonty Trengrove-Jones sheds more light on the subject in the Sunday Times:
From apartheid to the over-used reference to “the new South Africa” and on to former President Thabo Mbeki’s proud assertion of “I am an African”, issues of identity have been crucial in our national self-assessments.
South Africa’s transition has itself largely focused on redefining questions of individual and group identities. In the afterlife of apartheid, sexual identities and preferences have become touchstones for measuring the quality of our national transition. Partly, this is because the 1996 Constitution enshrines protection against unfair discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. A raft of jurisprudence relating to gay and lesbian citizens has allowed gays and lesbians to enter what recently-retired Constitutional Court Judge Albie Sachs has called “full moral citizenship”.
Book details
To accompany Justin Fox’s stunning Drakensberg photoblog, here is a piece of writing on a visit to “South Africa’s greatest cathedral”:
The mountain gods were angry. I stood in the mouth of a cave, watching the storm approach. The aquamarine afternoon light turned an eerie purple. The sun disappeared and soon the basalt spires were shrouded in grey. An air of menace filled the valley. Suddenly lightning split the gloom and thunderclaps echoed between sandstone ramparts, building to an almost continuous roar. The very earth seemed to quake. Then came the rain in solid walls of water.
It felt like a religious experience: the gods hurling their thunderbolts to test the disciple’s mettle. Indeed, these mountains have always been a holy place. All those who’ve come this way have worshipped them. Bushman shamans painted the rock with images of the spirit world, while the amaZizi (the local Bantu clan) sought spiritual sustenance in the mountains.
Book details
Getaway magazine has published some of the best travel- and photojournalism in the country. And now readers can get so much with the revamped Getaway website. The site is no longer just a magazine archive but offers advice on tours, places to stay, blogs and maps.
Justin Fox, the magazine’s deputy editor, recently compiled a selection of Getaway’s best photos, spanning over two decades, in the companion book: Africa Lens: 20 Years of Getaway Photography.
Local and overseas travellers now have an authoritative; new; wide-ranging; internet resource of places to stay and things to do in southern Africa at their fingertips. The Getaway website, www.getaway.co.za, has undergone a complete revamp to become a comprehensive destination and travel information finder rather than a library of travel features.
“Our goal was to move away from being a magazine archive and to build a photography-rich destination finder using Getaway’s expertise and quality content. What we have developed is a solid platform that will allow us to build upwards exponentially,” explained web Editor, Leigh Stefanski.
Book details
Jacana and Fanele:Necessary are thrilled to bring you the news that Nkunzi Zandile Nkabinde’s autobiography has received an honour at the Stonewall Book Awards!
Formerly called the GLBTRT Book Award, the Stonewall Book Award is the oldest book award given for outstanding achievement in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Literature in the United States. It is an official award of the American Library Association and is given each year at the Association’s annual conference.
Each year two awards are given in literature and non-fiction for outstanding works dealing with GLBT issues. Black Bull, Ancestors and Me: My Life as a Lesbian Sangoma is one of four books granted “Honor Status” for the Stonewall Book Award-Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award 2010.
Congratulations to Nkabinde!
Book details
The Daily Distpatch has been running excerpts from Xolela Mangcu’s The Democratic Moment to promote his appearance at the Dispatch Dialogues. Here are excerpts two and three; click here for number one. We lead with an excerpt entitled Why Zuma Is No Lone Warrior, which deals with Zuma’s decisions since his election as president, as well as with his background:
In 1994 the ANC-led government announced the Reconstruction and Development Programme as its blueprint for remaking South African society.
The RDP had laudable goals, such as the provision of housing and social services on a mass scale for the historically disadvantaged black population. I was out of the country at the time studying at Cornell University.
My good friend, the author of Black Athena, Martin Bernal, once shared with me his interpretation of goings-on back home. Not only did he have a knowledge of history but a deep sense of it, as well. Still ringing in my mind is a comment he made about our new beginnings: “It’s as if the ANC has gone back to the 1950s without making a stop in the 1970s.”
The third extract, titled Building Freedom Bridges, looks at the bridges South Africa needs to build on its past relationships:
In the third extract from his new book The Democratic Moment – South Africa’s Prospects under Jacob Zuma, Xolela Mangcu looks at similarities in the fight for freedom on both sides of the Atlantic and how South Africa needs to build on its past relationships.
I AM always struck by the political similarities and cultural affinities between black South Africans and African Americans. From slavery to the civil rights era, African Americans lived as second- class citizens in the country of their birth.
Book details
*
