Stephen Gray recently attended a conference in Botswana in honour of South African writer Bessie Head, who settled there Gaborone, June 17-18 Few remember the first round of this event. In April 1976, when she was still alive and with only half her work done, Bessie Head was invited here to the University of Botswana. […]

Mandy Collins At some stage, hopefully, most of us will progress from owning the most dilapidated car on the block to buying a new or good second-hand car. This usually means trying to understand the world of car finance. The cutting-edge option is time-share. Reportedly, some people have paid R20 000 for a share in […]

Phillip Kakaza Live music Someone has passed a buck to me – it seemed like it when I was assigned to cover the American blues muso, Ronnie Peterson show at the Blues Room. The message came like a razor-sharp command. As if a twentysomething lad knew much about blues music. The little bit of knowledge […]

Andy Duffy The Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), which represents the majority of Muslims in the Western Cape, has called on the People Against Gangterism and Drugs (Pagad) to suspend all activities. The council, previously slated for not taking a firm and public lead against Pagad’s vigilante tactics, says the group’s militant approach has spun out […]

Chris Roper On stage in Cape Town The intersection between art and technology is a fruitful place to observe variance in the way art can be produced and consumed. This intersection normally takes place at the level of art forms such as music, narratives or performances. You certainly wouldn’t expect poetry, the old codger of […]

Stuart Hess Jackson se pad (Jackson’s road) is not known to many South Africans. But for one of the oldest peoples of Southern Africa, the San bushmen, it is the scene of one of the darkest moments in their history. Jackson se pad is the name given to a road in southern Angola on which […]

Andy Capostagno Golf The Scots have a saying: “If there’s nae wind there’s nae golf.” Think about that when the cream of the world’s players are struggling through the links of Royal Birkdale this week. You will hear many seasoned professionals complain that it makes the game a lottery. Nick Price said during practice: “It […]

Beninese diva Angelique Kidjo has taken African pop global. Her new album crosses all boundaries, writes Phillip Kakaza Even under the best circumstances the chances of becoming an international star in the world of entertainment are slim. But for a woman to launch a musical career from the highly religious African country of Benin – […]

cube farms `So the other day this 404 and his lilo walked head on into the new chainsaw consultant right in front of the cube farm on the second floor. You should’ve seen the idea hamsters prairie dog.” Confused? To translate, consult our lingo dictionary below, and keep up to date with office gossip. n […]

Luke Harding Cg’ose Ntcox’o, an illiterate Botswanan artist, was delighted when British Airways (BA)bought one of her works. She promptly splashed out on seven cows, built herself a shack on the edge of the Kalahari desert, and gave the rest of the money to her many nomadic relatives. Last week, however, Ntcox’o was deeply unhappy […]