Anew generation of young black writers has failed to emerge in the post-apartheid era, writes Shaun de Waal As literary editor of this paper, I have grown very tired of hearing the question inevitably posed by visiting foreign journalists trawling for information about South African literature: Where are the new young black writers? There seemed […]

Evidence wa ka Ngobeni It is difficult to believe that the relaxed man stirring his steaming pot at the plush Pretoria lodge is the leader of the largest and most violent vigilante group in the country. Sipping his favourite Amstel lager, Monhle Magolego, the controversial president of Mapogo a Matamaga, is contemplating his organisation’s achievements […]

How does Father Christmas get everywhere in one night? Henry Gee explains In his book, Unweaving the Rainbow, Richard Dawkins boasts that he tried to tell a six-year-old child that Father Christmas didn’t exist. His argument was that Father Christmas would not be able to climb down all those chimneys and tiptoe noiselessly to the […]

102 Dalmations. She’s back. Cruella de Vil (Glenn Close) re-emerges with a social conscience that lasts a full 10 minutes. Representing us dull, ordinary good folk is the pretty probation officer who will keep an eye on Cruella but keeps Dalmations. Her boyfriend looks like a male version of her and keeps dogs, too, but […]

The best 1 Boys Don’t Cry. Hilary Swank got an Oscar for her role as a girl going as a boy; shocking, moving, unsentimental and rapturous. 2 American Beauty. Oscar-winning black comedy about the suburban nightmare, with superb central performance from Kevin Spacey. 3 The Limey. Steven Soderbergh’s off-beat modern-day film noir with a wonderfully […]

People have been staring into crystal balls for hundreds of years, sometimes with alarming accuracy. But usually they have been hugely, and entertainingly, wrong. Jonathan Margolis looks back at the history of futurology and risks a few predictions of his own Buried deep in the stack at the Bodleian library in Oxford, from which it […]

Signs are not good for future Western participation in peacekeeping missions Chris McGreal There are two views of what the British are up to in Sierra Leone. The critics contend that the dispatch of hundreds of Royal Marines and paratroopers to occupy Freetown, the quiet takeover of many functions of the Sierra Leonean government by […]

!Xu-Kwe Radio is a first in Southern Africa a station that caters exclusively for two San communities, in their own languages Jubie Matlou Nine-year-old Willem Kovia narrated the origins of a fall-out between a bear and wolf on the one hand, and a rabbit on the other, that resulted in the latter becoming a target […]

It has been recognised that there are inherent problems in a system like globalisation, where capital calls the shots, while labour is voiceless Larry Elliott A subtle shift has occurred in the lexicon of globalisation over the past 12 months. Prior to Seattle, it was assumed that there was an inexorable logic to the process […]

In the quest for fast food and efficiency people have forgotten how to taste. A lobby group aims to reawaken the senses Barry Streek Mercifully, a new international movement has been launched, first in Italy and now sweeping the United States, to promote the enjoyment of food and the long lunch or dinner. Slow Food, […]