Itineraries
These maps by Philippe Rekacewicz show how the phenomenon of migration relates to the issue of political borders. They are not ‘finalised’ maps, but rather rough preparatory drafts, the provisional character of which attests to the nature of the border itself: ambivalent and paradoxical (it divides as much as it unites). Borders are difficult to map […]
The Road To Wellville
The Institute of Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences occupies some seventy acres of farmland on the outskirts of Bangalore. Innocent eyes might see the luxuriant foliage, the palm-fringed lake, and the swimming pool and conclude that the institute is a resort. As it happens, it’s a hospital, albeit a curious one, where the rooms range from […]
Body Paths
The city, for many African immigrants, offers a horizon of hope, but also the fear of a death ‘out of place’. To die away from ‘home’, ungrieved and without proper burial, is for many to risk metaphysical itinerancy. But the return home for burial is uncertain and often impossible. In Johannesburg this gives rise to […]
The way back home
There are many ways back home. In South African novelist Niq Mhlongo‘s recently published book, Way Back Home, it’s a journey through public and private space, mourning and memory, tradition and modernity, set in a post Apartheid world haunted by the ghosts of liberation, exile and freedom. In his article by the same name, published […]
The Way Back Home Article
The Way Back Home On the death of a close relative, Niq Mhlongo discovers that regardless of where life, love or circumstance takes you, at the heart of the matter of where you will return is the place from which you came. Where there’s no will, there’s no way to reconcile the dead and the […]