Giles Foden TS ELIOT’S youthful poems collected as Inventions of the March Hare appear at a time when the reputation of this notoriously difficult — and massively influential — modernist poet faces reassessment. Though American-born, Eliot was known to be politically and religiously conservative. Accusations of anti-Semitism have recently been made, sparking debate in literary […]
Andrew Meldrum in Harare A SHOWDOWN is looming for President Robert Mugabe’s government as 60 000 civil servants continue to strike for pay rises of more than 20%. With hospitals overstretched, mortuaries overflowing and airports in chaos, the strike, now in its second week, is the biggest and most disruptive since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. […]
strategy Gaye Davis A SEARING critique of the government’s macro-economic framework has come from the national political education secretariat of the South African Communist Party (SACP). Published this month in the debut edition of the new left-wing journal Debate, the critique, by Langa Zita, Dale McKinley and Vishwas Satgar, amounts to a fundamental rejection of […]
If the revival of Afrikaans culture is to be determined by plays like Donkerland, we’re certainly not moving forward, writes ANDREW WILSON AFTER decades of cultural self- confinement, broken only sporadically, and then only by the minority, Afrikaans theatre, music and cabaret are back with new vigour. The clearest case in point was the untethered […]
This week saw the publication of You Have Been Warned, a book on the first 10 years of the Mail & Guardian.
The truth commission says its first amnesty is imminent, but old-guard perpetrators are still reluctant to bare their souls, reports Marion Edmunds Pressure on Justice Minister Dullah Omar to amend the Truth and Reconciliation bill and change the rules of amnesty is growing, as dissatisfaction with the process increases among those who served the apartheid […]
Mungo Soggot A string of sexy films heading for South Africa is set to test the mettle of the censorship board and its successor under the new Publications Bill. Leading the charge will be Crash which, according to one local reviewer, involves ”as much high-velocity sex as [there are] high-velocity car crashes”. Nu-Metro, the film’s […]
Thomas Sotinel in Monrovia FOR the first time since the beginning of the civil war in 1989, the news from Liberia is good rather than bad. At the close of a summit meeting in Abuja, the Nigerian capital — which last week brought together the heads of state of the Economic Community of West African […]
Nana Rosine Ngangoue in Brazzaville Private newspapers and magazines have disappeared from newsstands and bookstores in Congo following a decree banning their publication. The decree also ordered the seizure of all copies of the prohibited papers. It was issued last week by the government, which accused media houses of violating a new press law passed […]
Angella Johnson Interpol has joined in the hunt for a British man who drove off with two customised Land-Rovers stored at a BMW showroom in Johannesburg. South African police would like to interview 23- year-old Danny Lydon, who was captured on video stealing the Camel Adventure vehicles a day before skipping the country. Lydon, who […]