The Congolese war is rehabilitating previously unpopular heads of state, while muddying the reputations of the popular and virtuous, writes Gregory Mthembu-Salter War in the Democratic Republic of Congo is having curious consequences. There are the unholy alliances, like Congolese President Laurent-Desir Kabila’s courting of the same Rwandan Hutu interahamwe militia that his troops helped […]
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 […]
Michael Metelits Despite the market’s negative reaction to Customs & Excise’s monthly trade figures released on Tuesday, South Africa’s outlook may not be as gloomy as indicated by the August statistics. The figures showed a deficit of nearly R3-billion, a surprise to most analysts. They had expected a slight trade surplus. Exports dropped massively in […]
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 […]
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 […]
West Coast Ann Eveleth looks at plans to make economic well-being more than a brief tourist boom Most Septembers a sea of wild flowers drowns the rugged protrusions of the Cedarberg mountains that separate the quaint mission villages of Wupperthal from the Atlantic seaboard. In that lucky month, the narrow roads lead bands of tourists […]
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 […]
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 […]
Mungo Soggot The United States evacuated Liberia’s leading opposition politician from its embassy in Monrovia last week, ending a confrontation with President Charles Taylor, who had demanded the US hand over his rival to his troops. The rival politician, Roosevelt Johnson, sought refuge in the embassy two weeks ago after a shoot-out on the pavement […]