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.
Features
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Kasi life through a new lens
Kombonation disrupts perceptions of the township by exploring its seldom celebrated beauty and rich culture. The founders’ new Kaofela Kaofela residency conjures the spirit of togetherness.
Paediatric surgeons take care to a new holistic high
Confidence in the public healthcare system is at an all-time low – often for good reason. Surgeons for Little Lives shows us how simple interventions lead to dramatic improvements.
Cartoon | A bit more red
In this week’s cartoon, Latin American socialism continues its resurgence with Gustavo Petro’s victory in the Colombian presidential elections, giving the country its first left-wing government.
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.
Photo Essay | Forging the spirit of Dak’Art 2022
The biennale in the capital of Senegal holds magic for both the artists who have regrouped after the pandemic and the visitors who have come to be awed by their work.
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.
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.
Congolese refugee shows dreams can and do come true
After a journey of struggle and hardship, an asylum seeker whose first job in South Africa was being a car guard is now pursuing his PhD at the University of Pretoria.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.