Pan African Activism Meets Mamdanisation
[hr] Theory and practice have been butting heads at Makerere University’s Institute of Social Research, resulting in graduate students decrying the “authoritarian” leadership style of its director, public intellectual and crusader for the decolonisation of higher education, Mahmood Mamdani. Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire chronicles the machinations of a protracted struggle against perceived creeping neoliberalism. [hr] On […]
ALL I CAN SAY FOR NOW
[hr] By Jean-Christophe Lanquetin* [hr] During the last five years of Unathi Sigenu’s life, I was a fellow traveller. Following his participation in Urban Scénos/Johannesburg, an artists’ residency run by two artists’ collectives – my own ScU2 (based in Paris) and the Joubert Park Project – we developed an ongoing working fellowship. Linking Cape Town and […]
The Agronomist
[hr] Stacy Hardy follows the path of JJ Machobane, the social visionary, writer and agronomist from Lesotho, who challenged orthodox colonial thinking about land and land use. [hr] “An employed man is like a well-fed and chained up dog.” This brief sentence, emblazoned on the back cover of Drive out Hunger, a slim monograph on […]
Who Will Save The Saviours?
[hr] A close gaze at the collective apathy that killed Dr. Sebi: In the annals of challenges to orthodox medical consumerism belongs the science and practice of one Alfredo Bowman – aka Dr Sebi – a Honduran of humble origins, scant formal education and voracious curiosity. A sailor by trade, Bowman learned the functioning of […]
Survivor’s Guide to Smelling Naais
[hr] In the pre-Apocalypse, Zayaan Khan nurses the Apartheid hangover that carved up sensibilities, lives deep in the crevice of being and after more than 20 years still sticks to the roof of the mouth. To empty out the bitter taste, she sucks on fennel flowers and takes her sweetness where she can get it […]