Alex Dodd : CD of the week If, like me, you’re the kind of person who likes drifting into the realm of nod to strains of sweet music conjuring images of women in fuschia muslin and marble palaces on Indian lakes, Deepak Ram is the maestro you’ve been looking for. A pupil of the great […]

It is as much of a pleasure to talk to Julian Joseph as it is to listen to his music, writes Charles Leonard There must be a factory where they make guys like young British jazz pianist, Julian Joseph. He is the third bright young(ish) thing I’ve interviewed on visits to South Africa facilitated by […]

ballet It will soon be Brazil’s second most popular sport … and it’s not entirely dissimilar to the first. Alex Bellos heads for Rio’s beaches to uncover the burgeoning cult of futevolei One of the most romantic myths about Rio de Janeiro is that its famous beaches are full of barefoot urchins dazzling passers-by with […]

David Hirst in Beirut President Liamine Zeroual’s decision to step down before the end of his five-year term looks likely to weaken Algeria’s military-based regime and further erode domestic and international confidence in its ability to end the gruesome civil war. The shock decision, announced last weekend, has plunged the country into new confusion and […]

SDIs are aimed specifically at boosting employment and black empowerment, but, asks Hein Marais, will they have the necessary finances? Right now the multi-billion rand Mozal smelter is just two holes in the ground – 3m deep, a kilometre apart, several football pitches wide – gouged out of a patch of pasture in Matola, outside […]

A lot more goes on after bedtime than we know about, writes Gill Moodie The next time you are tossing and turning in bed, it might ease the night to think of scientists at the University of the Witwatersrand who are holding vigil over electro-encephalogram (EEG) machines to try to understand that mysterious activity that […]

David Shapshak Kabuki theatre, one of Japan’s most ancient and revered art forms, comes to South Africa for the first time this weekend. Renowned Kabuki actor Satojiro Wakayagi will perform the famed kagamijishi dance (the lion of new year’s banquet) at Sandton’s Theatre on the Square on Sunday night. Kabuki is quintessentially Japanese. A highly-stylised […]

In New York you get whipped, in Thailand it’s real sex, but in Zimbabwe you just stock up on fantasies. Mercedes Sayagues meets the Warriors I don’t know what turns you on. But I know what turned on 500 Zimbabwean women last week: the muscular, sculpted bodies of six young South African hunks as they […]

A small church is reuniting the uprooted residents of Kofifi, writes Peter Makurube When former residents of Sophiatown talk about their beloved Kofifi, they overdose on nostalgia. They’ve forgotten nothing – the music, the gangsters and the community spirit. However, the story of Sophiatown would not be complete without mentioning the tiny church on Ray […]

Andrew Muchineripi : Soccer For sheer suspense, the ongoing saga over who will succeed Monsieur Philippe Troussier as coach of the national team is beginning to rival an Agatha Christie thriller. Dutchman Ruud Gullit was coming to Africa to transform Bafana Bafana into giants, only to be permanently distracted by the small matter of a […]