Peter Dickson ‘Pot holes for the next 186km” is the wicked promise of eco-tourism’s new Wild Coast warrior, one that offers an alternative trip to the young European backpackers who are beginning to discover the Transkei in droves. Openly marketed as The Marijuana Trail – the so- called Transkei Gold variety is regarded by imbibers […]

1970: The release of Cotton Comes to Harlem and Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song herald the start of the blaxploitation genre. 1971: Shaft is the first big-budget blaxploitation film. Isaac Hayes wins Oscar for the music. Shaft’s Big Score! and Shaft in Africa follow. 1972: Two of America’s biggest pop stars provide the soundtracks to […]

Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION These last two Tuesdays have seen the broadcast of the awesome BBC production of Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast on M-Net. The detail, the imagination and technical tour de force of this series is hard to praise sufficiently. It was received to rapturous critical acclaim in the United Kingdom and sets its own benchmark […]

James Hall The Kingdom of Swaziland has been wracked by an unprecedented bout of public protest after the eviction of two chiefs that cuts to the heart of a social compact that ties Swazis together. For centuries land has been obtained not by ownership but by use and allegiance to the king through his chiefs. […]

South Africa’s girl next door has swopped her down-to-earth image for something appealing to mortgage-laden post-30s Andrew Kay Sonja Herholdt is back with an exciting new image and album – one, in fact, that contains some of the most stunning new music to be heard on the contemporary pop scene in South Africa. Gone are […]

Michael Berger Crossfire The Mail & Guardian editorial of October 20 to 26 sees the Middle East situation in terms of apartheid, and the Oslo peace accord as an unjust settlement, presumably even as an interim arrangement in an ongoing evolutionary process to finding accommodation for both Jews and Arabs in an inflammable region. This […]

Ebrahim Harvey left field Since taking office President Thabo Mbeki has often spoken about the need to “activate” black intellectuals to participate in national debates on transformation and said that they have an important role to play in this regard. He is right. But the truth is that many of our intellectuals, both black and […]

Nawaal Deane Hendrik Louw was sentenced to three years in prison in December 1998 for pushing his sister-in-law off a balcony. In his judgement, the Booysens magistrate said the fall could have killed her. But he failed to ask one crucial question: how high was the balcony? This week the case found its way to […]

Jaspreet Kindra Thirty-three amakhosi previously aligned to the Inkatha Freedom Party are standing as Democratic Alliance (DA) candidates in December’s local government elections on the South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal. Lack of delivery and development, unemployment and growing disillusionment with the ruling IFP and the African National Congress government have prompted the traditional leaders to seek […]