The Springbok onslaught has already drawn blood in the UK. Will Wales be able to stop the flood? Andy Colquhoun reports from London New coach Graham Henry has been portrayed as Welsh rugby’s “great redeemer” in a controversial advertising campaign which borrows from the words of a popular hymn. But the bright young things in […]

David Shapshak The first time I heard daiko (Japanese drums) was at a performance by a group of Kobe elementary school children performing their school’s songs. It sounded like a full-blown adult symphony, not a bunch of 12-year-olds taking turns at the drums because there weren’t enough to go around. Such is the power of […]

John Stremlau : A Second Look Democratic gains in this month’s congressional elections should enhance South Africa’s leverage in dealing with the United States on issues of importance to Africa. The unexpected defeat of Republican conservatives has given moderates in both political parties a stronger hand in foreign policy. And this new majority is likely […]

Cameron Duodu : Letter from the North I don’t know whether it’s a blessing or a curse for a journalist to become personally involved in a story. What I do know is that sometimes one has no choice in the matter. Thus it was with me and the Ken Saro-Wiwa story. I first met Saro-Wiwa […]

Alex Brown The 1998/9 Spier Summer Festival opened last week with a bit of a bang, and a bit of whimper. The bang was the sold-out amphitheatre, and the big name Spier scooped: David Helfgott, the Australian pianist on whose tormented life the film Shine was based. The whimper was some patchy play from Helfgott; […]

Howard Barrell : Over a Barrel Nkosazana Zuma, it seems, takes the view that, if you want to bring about far- reaching change, do it early, do it hard and give your opponents no quarter. The way the tobacco companies, health insurers and drug companies are now bleating to the courts for respite suggests the […]

friend Mungo Soggot Hlengiwe Mkhize, the truth commissioner tipped to win a major government diamond contract, this week likened her prospective job of assessing the value of rough diamonds to that of compensating torture victims. Mkhize chairs the local arm of a consortium masterminded by a Belgian diamond broker which is the favourite in the […]

funerals Nomboniso Gasa recalls the days when people turned their rage at apartheid against themselves The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report has captured the worst horrors of the apartheid era. Not all but most. But what we have not really seen are the everyday horrors, the systemic violence of apartheid. In 1985, when I […]

Joan Smith : First Person Why don’t women go cruising? When the media is full of the shortage of single men, why is this method of finding partners, briefly at least, unthinkable for women? The simple answer is danger. It is unthinkable for lesbians and straight women alike because we are so accustomed to recognising […]

David Shapshak All I wanted to do was type up a few stories. With the dauntingly boring prospect of an 11 hour flight – leaving at 2pm, the best time of day to do some work – and not having finished the work before I left, it seemed like the perfect time to complete the […]