Achebe The Native Intellectual
There Was A Country, Chinua Achebe’s autobiographical account of the Nigerian Civil War, raised a dust storm of reaction in Nigeria. Jeremy Weate suggests the books controversy and power lies outside the simple tectonics of ethnicity. There Was A Country, Chinua Achebe’s autobiographical account of the Nigerian Civil War, has raised a […]
Is Biko’s legacy being besmirched?
In October 2002, 25 years since Stephen Bantu Biko‘s death, poet James Matthews penned a letter questioning the segregation and infighting amongst political parties and “groupings” who professed “to hold true to his commitment.” We reread his missive, more than ten year later, as battles over Biko continue to rage. This letter first appeared in […]
50 Years Ago: Zeke in Nigeria
Es’kia Mphahlele and the Anti-Apartheid Association of Nigeria Moritz Isaac (Manu) Herbstein was born in 1936 in Muizenberg in the Western Cape. He graduated from the University of Cape Town with a B.Sc in Engineering in 1958. From 1959 to 1970 Herbstein lived and travelled extensively in England, Nigeria, Ghana, India, Zambia, and Scotland. He […]
Diary Of A Bad Year
Diary Of A Bad Year: President Mbeki’s Letters to the Nation by Imraan Coovadia Thabo Mbeki’s 2007 letters in ANC Today begin on 26 January with a meditation on “the critical matter of ‘bucket toilets’ and the related restoration of the dignity of the African masses, at home, on the African Continent, and the […]
Walking through walls
Eyal Weizman reports on military tactics known as ‘walking through walls’ where what seems secure can be blown away in a flash. The manoeuvre conducted by Israeli military units in April 2002 during the attack on the West Bank city of Nablus was described by its commander, Brigadier General Aviv Kochavi, as ‘inverse geometry’, which […]