Siki. Dutch director Niek Koppen, who will be a guest of the festival presents his hour-long work of 1992 about Louis M’Barick Fall, who in 1922 became the first African to win a world boxing title. The documentary recounts the life of Battling Siki, the intelligent “savage”, activist, dandy, husband and womeniser. Using unique film […]

David Beresford ANOTHER COUNTRY Many years ago I interviewed the former British prime minister, James Callaghan. He was foreign secretary at the time. The event was unremarkable, except that it was conducted in a nursery school classroom. We could not find anywhere to sit and he ended up wedging his considerable frame into one of […]

Fuel shortages, roadblocks, hijackings and intimidation are all part of daily life in Harare. Mercedes Sayagues reports I returned to Harare after two weeks in Latin America and found a city that lives in fear. Many – I am one – fear when the needle on the fuel indicator drops below half a tank. Grief, […]

There is a significant yet unexplored link between the abuse of alcohol and drugs and the spread of HIV/Aids Khadija Magardie All indicators point to the fact that the young and economically productive are the most likely to be felled by the HIV/Aids pandemic. According to a recently released report by Love-Life, an advocacy body […]

Johnny Masilela Eight short films by emergent and not-so- emergent black film-makers will be showcased next month at an all-powerful film festival in Italy. The Emergent Black Film-makers of South Africa is a three-hour package to be presented at the 51st International Short Film Festival of Montecatini in Italy from July 1 to 8. The […]

Michelle Matthews ‘Fabulous, fabrics, frisson … futile” – the cover of the Fashion TV press kit makes a PR boo-boo with its overly exuberant alliteration. What f-word is more fitting for a channel that shows skinny chicks and muscled hunks in outrageously expensive, yet barely wearable clothes 24 hours a day? Perhaps the key is […]

itself As South Africans prepared for the success story of Africa, the country’s first democratic election in April 1994, the Rwandan president’s plane was shot down. It was the signal for an orgy of bloodletting that saw nearly a million people hacked to death in 100 days, a killing rate three times as high as […]

Valentine Cascarino Iboh ART Painting in watercolour is frowned upon – the victim of a disturbing myth, mostly harboured by critical modernists who believed watercolour is Victorian and amateurish. Those critics don’t even consider the fact that painting in watercolour presents a direct link to the development of romantic painting in the 19th century. Neither […]