Yambo Ouloguem: Postcolonial Writer, Anti-Wahhabist Militant
Christopher Wise recalls conversations and texts of the Malian author, whose deep Sahelian articulations of Islam have earned him the ire of Wahhabi Muslims and the respect of many who reject the Western imperialist militarisation and reactionary Arabist tendencies that ignore pre-Islamic Africa’s history. Nearly two decades have passed since I interviewed Yambo Ouologuem at […]
In Suburbia
Suburban South Africa is glowing. The sun is up, the trees are in bloom, the lawns are magnificent, and if you ask nicely, you might even get a windowless room. Tanya Pamplone writes about the blessed and the damned, a home she likes and would also like to leave, and painfully assesses the situation of […]
Preliminary Notes for a Mediterranean Manifesto
Connecting ancience and modern roots/routes Rasheed Araeen redraws the boundaries and limits of identity. Mediterranean Manifesto: The Future of Civilisation The Mediterranean as a great means of communication, Interaction and exchange of ideas between three continents [Asia, Africa and Europe]. Once the Mediterranean becomes a great centre of communication, of exchange of ideas, between the West and the East, between the North […]
Gateway
A video-work from Berni Searle‘s “Black smoke rising” trilogy; the title alluding to the controversial N2 Gateway Housing Project in Cape Town. Entering the premises, the Chronic asks: whose house is this? Berni Searle’s video features on the cover of the Burnin’ and A-Lootin’ section of Chimurenga Vol. 16: The Chimurenga Chronic (available here). Set in the week 18-24 May 2008, the Chronic, imagines […]
Alex killers are ‘proud’ of attacks on foreigners
Gcina Ntsaluba reports from where Wally Serote wrote: “When I lie on your breast to rest, something tells me/You are bloody cruel./Alexandra, hell/What have you done to me?” Mphakamiseni Ndlovu said he was proud of being part of an armed mob that terrorised, beat and killed dozens of foreign nationals in Alexandra township in Johannesburg, where since 11 May xenophobic attacks […]