Kenya Bob Woolmer >From the pavilion The first mini-World Cup Knockout was attempted in Bangladesh in 1998 to raise funds for the development of cricket throughout the world, and it proved to be a tremendous success. Capacity crowds watched some very exciting cricket. There is no doubt this latest competition, in Kenya, will be as […]

Emma Brockes Body Language It is difficult to approach the subject of tantric sex with a straight face and an open mind when you have browsed the reading list of the SkyDancing Institute. SkyDancing, “an ancient metaphor for the ability to achieve ecstatic states”, is an organisation founded by Margot Anand, teacher of tantra and […]

The artist commissioned to create a sculpture of Gandhi hopes her statue will inspire all South Africans Anthea Garman Maria Smith Williams, the African-American sculptor who is to do a life-size bronze of Gandhi for the Durban parks department, was attracted to the project because the sculpture had to be of Mohandas Gandhi in his […]

African Frontiers is a new Mail & Guardian series highlighting science and technology in Africa. We’ll celebrate the talents of African pioneers across a multitude of disciplines, and attempt to capture the joy of discovery as much as the challenge of resolving practical problems on our continent Belinda Beresford african frontiers When all around them […]

Andy Colquhoun rugby Underdogs in sport have always clung to truisms. They have sworn that it is only “11 against 11”. They have dismissed precedent by pointing out “sport is played on the field not on team-sheets”. And (my favourite) they have talked down the opposition by pointing out “they only have two arms and […]

Douglas Adams’s first novel was was an instant bestseller. Now dogged by writer’s block, he has turned to new projects Nicholas Wroe Soon after The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was published in 1979, Douglas Adams was invited to sign copies at a small science fiction bookshop in London’s Soho. As he drove there, some […]

Merle Colborne Little evening bags and small binoculars. Tickly throats and Black Magic. And then the final fling, piping “Encore! Encore!” and pounding one’s feet on the floor and even perhaps doing a spot of standing up. Natal was awfully English going to the opera. Now opera audiences in KwaZulu-Natal rise from their seats whenever […]

Shirley Kossick The judges in Exclusive Books’s promotional “Boeke Prize” which highlights six novels, have come up with a really strong shortlist this year. It includes Wally Lamb’s I Know This Much Is True (Phoenix), which topped the American bestseller lists in 1998. This gripping story of identical twins is told by Dominick, whose whole […]

Kenya is in the grip of a drought, but there are runs aplenty at the Nairobi Gymkhana Club Peter Robinson in Nairobi Kenya’s minister for the environment let his view on law and order be known this week. He reckons criminals, even those merely under suspicion, should be taken out and lynched publicly. Put that […]

Andy Capostagno rugby If there’s one thing that sportspeople hate it’s the playing of pointless matches. Which should help to explain the simmering discontent about the “new” Currie Cup system. Last week the Lions, the defending champions, put 96 points on the Northern Free State Griffons, a performance that earned them precisely nothing. The Griffons […]