She’s the queen of country music, a Dollywood legend, America’s Princess Di. People warm to her sentimental ballads and silicon looks, but something is missing … William Leith reports To me, an Englishman, Dolly Parton was always a small, mysterious figure on the edge of my consciousness. She was a wig, a quavering voice with […]

Ferial Haffajee speaks to visiting Asian-American author Ruth Ozeki Ruth Ozeki is so like her lead character, Jane Takagi-Little, that I call her “Jane” several times in the course of our interview. She doesn’t mind the gaffe, adding that her best friend refers to the character as “Ruth”. Takagi-Little, the narrator of the novel My […]

Andrew Muchineripi Soccer First-round action in the multimillion-rand Rothmans Cup continues this weekend with many of the eight second-leg matches delicately poised. While realising that there is no such thing as a certainty in cup football, the Muchineripi clan will publicly eat this page of your favourite newspaper should Kaizer Chiefs, Manning Rangers and Orlando […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 11.00pm. DELEGATES from the six countries discussing a ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of Congo have adjourned their meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, saying they are expecting “other parties” to join the talks on Friday. Sources at the conference would not say who the “other parties” might be. The meeting […]

Nineties? Douglas Rushkoff Online Maybe the news that the Internet makes people depressed shouldn’t have taken us by surprise. It’s what concerned cyber- reactionaries have been telling us since the beginning: the Internet renders us incapable of forming real relationships, isolates us in an empty electronic simulation and destroys family bonds. Now, the well-meaning killjoys […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Addis Ababa | Friday 6.30pm. A RIFT has developed in the Addis Ababa talks aimed at brokering a ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Both Uganda and Rwanda, accused by DRC President Laurent Kabila of invading the DRC, have demanded that the rebel leaders be invited to the talks. The DRC delegation […]

Ivor Powell predicts that sparks will fly at the SADC summit when member states discuss the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security All has not been well for some time now in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). But things could get a lot worse at the regional conference’s annual summit in Mauritius this weekend. […]

Dan Jellinek People living in some of the world’s most oppressive regimes are using the Internet to engage in civic and political activity, according to a leading international human rights activist. Jean-Paul Marthoz, of the Brussels- based group Human Rights Watch, last month told an Outlook for Freedom conference in Budapest that the Web is […]

Brenda Atkinson On show in Johannesburg The opening of the Wits group exhibition Histories of the Present was a beautiful moment in contemporary art history. As freakish French multimedia artist Orlan looked on in horror, Steven Cohen douched fake blood onto a cheesy thrift-shop painting of a serenely bare-breasted young girl. Later, Orlan – the […]

Emma Durden Dance in Durban The Kwa-Suka Theatre, usually home to Durban’s experimental drama offerings, is currently awash with rich swirls of tangerine, pimento olive and deep wine. Camino Flamenco is an exuberant hour and a half of traditional Spanish dance put together by Linda Vargas of the Spanish Dance Company and her husband, the […]