Alexander Chancellor REMIND ME WHO I AM, AGAIN by Linda Grant (Granta) It is told in this book how Frankie Vaughan, the handsome crooner once thought to be England’s answer to Frank Sinatra, came to acquire his surname. His real name was Francis Abelson, and he lived as a child with his sister, his mother […]
Andrew Muchineripi Soccer It is exactly 100 days since Shaun Bartlett converted a late penalty kick to earn Bafana Bafana a 2-2 draw with Saudi Arabia before departing the World Cup stage. The wind of Marseille, the heat of Toulouse and the tranquillity of Bordeaux are rapidly fading memories along with controversial French coach Philippe […]
The `African renaissance’ will be a central pillar of Thabo Mbeki’s presidency, writes Ferial Haffajee `The rich king of Timbuktu … keeps a magnificent and well-furnished court … Here are great store of doctors, judges, priests and other learned men …” This was Moorish writer Leo Africanus writing in the 16th century and quoted by […]
Robert Kirby: Loose cannon Like many of my fellow citizens, I am now sleeping much more comfortably at night. After South Africa’s much maligned defence force so commendably and so swiftly trounced one of the poorest, most fragile countries on the African continent, I find instilled in me a feeling of enraptured patriotic self-esteem. Not […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni Black students at Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) in Johannesburg are being subjected to vicious assaults and humiliating harassment by white students. Black students also say some “no go” areas for them at the university include white residences at the university. A document handed to black students early this year by university […]
Dan Jellinek Have you ever stayed up all night on the Internet? Do you live to go online? Is your partner threatening divorce? Internet addiction affects around one in 10 regular Internet users, reports what is claimed to be one of the most extensive reviews of the field. The paper, by Janet Morahan-Martin, psychology professor […]
Shaun de Waal THE NOVEL: LANGUAGE AND NARRATIVE FROM CERVANTES TO CALVINO by Andre Brink (UCT Press) Anthony Burgess warns us against anyone who inserts an apostrophe into the title of Finnegans Wake, so it is a bit worrying that this apparent lacuna gets filled no fewer than three times on a single page of […]
Lauren Shantall Movie of the week In an apathy-addled, dislocated age, Michael di Jiacomo’s latest offering, Animals – screened together with his short film The Tollkeeper – measures out an imaginatively potent dose of heartfelt living. Screened first, the highly visual The Tollkeeper is an unexpected cinematic treat. It opens, in the grainy black and […]
In Andr Brink, Africa meets Europe. He talks about his latest novel to John Higgins `There he stopped, and turned his back to the precipice, and …” The audience gasped in horror as Andr Brink completed the sentence from his new novel, Devil’s Valley (Secker &Warburg). Genuine horror: Brink’s narrative had captivated everyone, no mean […]
cricket season Andy Capostagno Cricket It may have escaped your attention, given the number of series and tournaments going on around the world, but the cricket season begins this week. The national side have just returned from a gold medal performance at the Commonwealth Games, of course, and not long before that they were ending […]