“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
The Text: Osiris Rising, Armah's sixth novel, is structured after Africa's oldest narrative, the Isis-Osiris myth cycle. Traveling to Africa on a search for life work and love, Ast, an African American scholar, gets immersed in history as living continuity. In a pillaged society where slaveraiders' heirs masquerade as aid donors, and colonies are disguised as nations, Ast still finds her home in a quiet community working to bring the continent's people together. The love of friends focused on the making of an African future absorbs her pained consciousness of a world destroyed.