Culture

Text Messages | Spy vs spy

Moments of moral choice define John le Carré’s novels and his latest, which coincides with the death of Soviet agent Goar Vartanian, is no different.

By: Darryl Accone
28 Nov 2019

Culture

18 May 2018: David Koloane at his Bag Factory studio in Fordsburg, Johannesburg. Born in Alexandra in 1938, his drawings, paintings and collages explore political injustice and human rights. (Photograph by Oupa Nkosi)

David Koloane’s art is a love letter to Joburg

Two art exhibitions reveal the intimate relationship between one of South Africa’s great modernists and the city of his life.

By: Niren Tolsi
27 Nov 2019

Culture

Animation artist Oerd van Cuijlenborg’s drawings used in the virtual reality film #Accused 2: Walter Sisulu take the viewer into the Palace of Justice in 1963 and 1964. Here he depicts Walter Sisulu answering questions by defence lawyer Bram Fischer.

Walter Sisulu resurrected

A VR film using Walter Sisulu’s Rivonia Trial testimony is a triumph of technology, creativity and collaboration – and a reminder of the precarious state of SA’s historical records and archives.

By: Ufrieda Ho
26 Nov 2019

Culture

1 November 2019: Joburg-based Afrobeat musician Femi Koya celebrated the music of the genre's godfather, Fela Kuti, at the Felacantation event held at Afro Bru restaurant in downtown Johannesburg. (Photograph by Tseliso Monaheng)

Fela’s beat, continued

Paying tribute to the genius of the late Fela Kuti, Afrobeat musician Femi Koya brings back the spirit of African musicians with his powerful vocals and saxophone.

By: Tseliso Monaheng
25 Nov 2019

Culture

13 November 2019: Umbrellas stuck in the handrails of a footbridge leading to the occupied campus of the Hong Kong Baptist University. (Photograph by Reuters/Thomas Peter)

Text Messages | History and inevitability in Hong Kong

The unequal struggle for continued autonomy in the city of ‘skinny skyscrapers’ has moved from the streets to the campus, where it appears there can be only one outcome.

By: Darryl Accone
21 Nov 2019

Culture

April 1955: King Edward Masinga broadcasts the Durban SABC’s Bantu Programme. He composed songs, wrote radio plays in isiZulu and translated many English plays into isiZulu for broadcasting. (Photograph by Drum photography / BAHA)

How Zulu radio dramas subverted apartheid

Even though they were a product of apartheid’s propaganda broadcasting machine, Zulu language radio dramas proved subversively powerful by reflecting communal black life and creating new stars.

By: Liz Gunner
18 Nov 2019

Culture

Circa 1970: Gilberto Gil was on the frontline of the tropicalismo movement in Brazil. (Photograph by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Political Songs | Aquele Abraço – Gilberto Gil

Gilberto Gil was among the musicians, writers and painters arrested in Brazil for being a ‘threat to good order’. Fifty years on, the Bolsonaro regime is once again censoring the arts.

By: Charles Leonard
15 Nov 2019

Culture

Text Messages | Predictions from Berlin

Granta essays from the time of the fall of the wall and apartheid hail political leaders who aspire to ‘not victory, conquest or triumph, but renunciation, reduction and dismantling’.

By: Darryl Accone
14 Nov 2019

Culture

9 November 2019: Thandiswa Mazwai performing during the Hugh Masekela Heritage Festival at the Soweto Theatre Precinct in Johannesburg. (Photograph by Oupa Bopape/Gallo Images)

Mazwai does it for Masekela

Thandiswa Mazwai channels the process, dynamic and spirit of Hugh Masekela as she and his band effortlessly tie together notes and strands from past and present.

By: Fezokuhle Mthonti
13 Nov 2019

Culture

Text Messages | Crying for Argentina

The neo-Peronists about to take up the presidency in Argentina have their work cut out for them as they face a debt burden in the billions of dollars and an ailing economy.

By: Darryl Accone
7 Nov 2019

Culture

6 October 1991: Billy Bragg on stage, fist raised, at the Het Paard music venue at The Hague, Netherlands. (Photograph by Peter Pakvis/Redferns)

Protest songs and the importance of Billy Bragg

A new bumper release celebrates 36 years of the career of British singer-songwriter Billy Bragg, including previously unreleased material.

By: Lloyd Gedye
6 Nov 2019

Culture

Undated: A reveller at Zone 6 in Soweto, Johannesburg, during a Hood vs Burbs event. (Photographs supplied by Setumo-Thebe Mohlomi)

Anyone can make amapiano. Now to grow it

Amapiano has grown as a music genre, particularly as technology has developed and assisted in creating and spreading the sound. It’s the mainstream monetising of the music that needs work now.

By: Setumo-Thebe Mohlomi
4 Nov 2019

Culture

Political Songs | General Suleiman – Zeid and the Wings

Lebanese musician Zeid Hamdan is pressing pause on his creative work while his country is in a state of revolution, one of many around the world in which citizens are protesting against the political elite.

By: Charles Leonard
1 Nov 2019

Culture

4 August 1990: Zimbabwean musician Thomas Mapfumo (left) at the Africa Festival in Delft, the Netherlands. (Photograph by Frans Schellekens/Redferns) 2001: United States-based jazz composer and trumpeter Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith (right). (Photograph by Jack Mitchell/Getty Images)

Bridging the black Atlantic in jazz

The collaboration of Zimbabwean musician Thomas Mapfumo and African American jazz trumpeter Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, broke new ground and should have grown cult status.

By: Percy Zvomuya
31 Oct 2019

Culture

Text Messages | A mayoral change

History shows that mayors of major cities often go on to become presidents. For Colombia, Bogotá’s newest head administrator could spell a fresh era for the Latin American country.

By: Darryl Accone
31 Oct 2019

Culture

November 2018: The Tumaini Festival is held at Dzaleka, a former political prison turned refugee camp in the Dowa region of central Malawi. (Photographs supplied by Tumaini Festival Media Library)

Welcome to the festival of refugees

Malawi’s Tumaini Festival in the refugee camp of Dzaleka is a platform of hope, promising intercultural harmony and beautiful arts.

By: Kyla Hazell
29 Oct 2019

Culture

How can we look at the art of a murderer?

The curatorial choice to exhibit the work of Zwelethu Mthethwa, convicted of murder in 2017, is a minefield that poses the questions, what do we do with ugly genius and how do we centre harm?

By: Percy Zvomuya
29 Oct 2019

Culture

Jazz dancing and pantsula perfection

An effervescent jazz dancer, Harry Msimango died in his sleep last winter. He didn’t become famous for his dancing, he simply stepped into the hearts of all who’d ever seen him move.

By: Percy Mabandu
28 Oct 2019

Culture

January 1980: Midnight Oil singer Peter Garrett on stage at the Lyceum Theatre in London, England. (Photograph by David Corio/Redferns)

Political Songs | Beds Are Burning – Midnight Oil

The song, which demands that white Australians give back the land appropriated from indigenous people, topped the charts all over the world – changing lives and minds in the process.

By: Charles Leonard
25 Oct 2019

Culture

8 November 2007: South African rap artist Jabulani Tsambo, aka Hip Hop Pantsula (HHP) at Taboo nightclub in Sandton, Johannesburg. (Photograph by Gallo Images/Sunday Times/Kevin Sutherland)

Jabba’s Africa

The late Jabulani Tsambo – aka HHP – was a postapartheid South African icon. In the wake of anti-migrant violence in the country, his continental politics and legacy take on new meaning.

By: Gopolang Botlhokwane
24 Oct 2019

Culture

Text Messages | A continent’s unease

Cartagena, the tourist and heritage jewel where Gabriel Garcia Marquez began writing as a journalist, is far from immune to the turmoil sweeping through South America.

By: Darryl Accone
24 Oct 2019