Cheryl Carolus looked set for a high post in the ANC government; instead she opted to be South Africa’s first female high commissioner in London, writes Liz McGregor Cheryl Carolus is not your average diplomat. She travels by tube, wears mini-skirts and parties into the small hours. She has strong opinions about her host country […]
Robert McCrum talks to his long-time friend Salman Rushdie as he emerges from the shadow of the fatwa `I didn’t expect to survive,” says Salman Rushdie. “I didn’t expect to live.” We are sitting alone in the office of anti-censorship group Article 19’s director, Frances D’Souza, in the aftermath of a sweaty press conference at […]
So how was it for you? Did the earth move? These are, traditionally, the questions couples ask each other in the languid aftermath of sex. Now, thanks to recent events in Washington, another and more urgent query needs to be added to the lovers’ lexicon. Have we just had sex according to commonly understood and […]
English is globally dominant. But it is not always the Queen’s English, reports Anthea Garman A German businessman visits the Middle East and meets an Arab woman. He speaks no Arabic, she speaks no German, so they conduct their relationship in English. Eventually they have a child. This child is raised speaking second language English […]
Angella Johnson: VIEW FROM A BROAD I had always considered exercise to be way overrated. Not for me the panting ache of pushing my body to the maximum, or the orgasmic high of an endorphin rush. At least that was before I bought into South Africans’ fitness obsession and started working out like a lunatic. […]
Phillip Kakaza Diva shouts, harmonic sounds and thunderous rhythms swept through the remote village of Taung during the North West Cultural Calabash Festival last week. The high-pitched voices of the undisputed queen of gospel Rebecca Malope and her backing group Pure Magic resonated from the Mmabana (mother of the children ) Cultural Centre where the […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni and Swapna Prabhakaran The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) this week faced the difficult task of finding the families of nine South African soldiers killed in action in Lesotho. The SANDF statement on the deaths listed the names, ages and home towns of the soldiers and included a brief message […]
Peter Makurube There is no better way to suss out where a country is at than through its music. There has never been any doubt about the quality of music this country can produce, the problem has been a chronic case of arrested development. Now that the old is out and the new is in […]
#Ferial Haffajee `I’ve got an aunty like that!” hooted a member of the audience at a recent Johannesburg performance of A Coloured Place, the side-splitting play that has brought its twentysomething writer/director Lueen Conning into the cultural limelight. Side-splitting, that is, until you think a little and then the reflection sets in. “It’s too close […]
Remember Pop Shop: “Put your feet on the ground and reach for the stars”? What some poor monkeys like myself didn’t realise while flailing our arms at the heavens was that the Pop Shop galaxy was a ridiculously limited one. Beyond stars like Duran Duran and the Pet Shop Boys was a multitude of other […]