Shaun De Waal

Shaun de Waal has worked at the Mail & Guardian since 1989. He was literary editor from 1991 to 2006 and chief film critic for 15 years. He is now editor-at-large. Recent publications include Exposure: Queer Fiction, 25 Years of the Mail & Guardian and Not the Movie of the Week.

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/ 21 September 2001

Sun dances

Costume drama of the week:</b> In <i>The King Is Dancing</i>, Corbiau leaps from one scene to the next, without much bridging or build-up, and keeps the emotional temperature high. He all but dispenses with the recitative; the film is all arias, writes Shaun de Waal.

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/ 29 August 2001

A misty tumulus

The colonial belief that Africa was a continent without a history has given way, in some quarters, to the contention that it once harboured technologically advanced cultures aplenty. While there is still puzzlement about how the pyramids were built there is, in parallel, argument about exactly how African the ancient Egyptians were.