“Three generations of white South African men were bound together at that table. Vermuelen was the first generation. He defined Africa, made it safe for Basson to defile. I was the last generation, the last to grow up in segregated neighborhoods. Between us was the silent photograph of Wouter Basson. Like a distant father, Basson was absent at the dining table.” – Henk Rossouw (Hole in the White ‘Hood). Also Mahmood Mamdani on Bantu Education at UCT, Gael Reagon on sisterhood, Binyavanga Wainaina on dis-covering Kenya, Gaston Zossou on African intellectuals and more…
Cover:
Strange Fruit by Lewis Allen
Botsotso Publishing
Botsotso was launched in October 1994 by the Botsotso Jesters, a poetry performance group, as an insert in New Nation (one of several weekly newspapers established in the 1980’s to reflect debate and report on the struggles for a free South Africa).
Artists were invited to contribute work that challenged accepted and perceived wisdoms – in all areas, of all classes and cultures; Art that would explore our identities and traditions and do so without inhibition – except with regard to crassness or the giving of gratuitous offence! It was also Art that was encouraged to experiment and perfect itself technically.
Botsotso is a coming together of poets, writers and artists who wish to both create Art as well as generate the means for its public communication and appreciation. The publishing house works with inter-action: the different elements of the South African and broader African mosaic colliding and synthesizing – affected both by social forces and each individual’s uniqueness.
