The Hyphenated African
Teju Cole takes a break from Twitter to speak to Sean O’Toole at the Open Book Festival in Cape Town, who struggles to find a compact with an author of “complicated attitudes and responses”. “Eight press interviews in Cape Town so far,” tweeted author Teju Cole on 10 September 2013, a day after […]
Fuzzy Goo’s Guide (to the Earth)
Playing with words, the original Black Heretic Insider Dambudzo Marechera writes his own rulebook then spits it in your face. More than mere blah blah… I. Blah The rain was smiling through bright blue lips. Fuzzy Goo, at the window, thought of his dog. He loved his dog. The sad rain made him love his dog even more. Rain is […]
Even the Dead
Jeremy Cronin reports of corrupt apartheid-era games; questioning our (in)ability to remember the politricks of the past that shape South Africa’s present. Walter Benjamin: ‘There is a secret agreement between past generations and the present one. Our coming was expected on earth. Like every generation that preceded us, we have been endowed with a form […]
Shoes
Shoeless and bible blacked, Sandile Dikeni recounts childhood kickabouts on uneven playing fields in the Karoo. When we formed Shoes Span, nobody had shoes. The reason for our shoelessness was not a secret, it was simply varied. Out of the team of eleven, nine thought that shoes were made for white boys. And the nine […]
A Three Point Shot from Andromeda
When not teaching white boy’s how to shuffle, acting Tuff, or fixing the jukebox at Slumberland, Paul Beatty shoots a mean jump shot. Quick, quick, the clock’s ticking. rain rusted orange ring of saturn in urban orbit over an outdoor gym nighttime jumpers pull up to the hoop dance on the rim bolted against […]