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Extract from ‘The Journey: New Positions in African Photography’ — an introduction

Friday Simon Njami & Sean O Toole - 20 Nov 2020

A new book examines the great flourishing of photography across the African continent

Extract from ‘The Journey’: Responses to the archive

Friday Emmanuel Iduma - 20 Nov 2020

This sequence of texts was written in response to various photographs of Nigeria made between 1920 and 1929 that form part of the Colonial Office photographic collection

‘The Sweetest Ache’ extract: Dark brown and midnight black magic

Friday Mercy Thokozane Minah - 20 Nov 2020

An activist’s encounter with an attractive waitress leads her to take an inventory of her own body in Mercy Thokozane Minah’s ‘The Sweetest Ache’

Review: The eternal splendour of ‘Lovers Rock’

Friday Kwanele Sosibo - 20 Nov 2020

Steve McQueen’s ‘Lovers Rock’, part of the ‘Small Axe’ anthology, is an ethereal interlude that takes us inside the blues party bubble

Khulekani Mayisa: Poetry in the polemic

Friday Kwanele Sosibo - 20 Nov 2020

Khulekani Mayisa’s new film, Power to the Purple, is an intensely personal collaborative project

Don’t Miss: Our weekly round-up of virtual and in-person events

Friday Arts Desk - 20 Nov 2020

From art exhibitions to film festivals, we’ve got your entertainment covered this weekend to the next

The Portfolio: Mário Macilau

Friday Sean O Toole - 20 Nov 2020

Mozambican photographer Mário Macilau uses performance and play to expand the meaning of his work

Sol Plaatje and the antinomies of writing against ‘South Africa’

Friday V Njabulo Zwane - 12 Nov 2020

The renowned author’s foundational anti-colonial work deserves more than a dogmatic reading

Dambudzo Marechera’s literary shock treatment

Friday Tinashe Mushakavanhu - 12 Nov 2020

A new book on Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera draws on both actual and imaginary archives

Tsitsi Dangarembga: Are we mourning ourselves, each other and this state we are in?

Friday Zamansele Nsele - 12 Nov 2020

The author discusses the trilogy of novels that propelled her onto the Booker shortlist, and their relevance to present-day Zimbabwe

Maaza Mengiste: ‘We are now catching up with the past’

Friday Theresa Mallinson - 12 Nov 2020

As war drums beat again in Ethiopia, author Maaza Mengiste finds new language to memorialise the Second Italo-Ethiopian War

The Portfolio: Megan Ross

Friday Kwanele Sosibo - 12 Nov 2020

Author and poet Megan Ross designs books and cover artwork for a living. She speaks to Kwanele Sosibo about her process

Q&A with author Mia Arderne: ‘A prayer for the jol not to end

Friday Kwanele Sosibo - 12 Nov 2020

Mia Arderne’s Mermaid Fillet was a lifetime in the making. The author’s vulnerability gives the book superpowers

A Seat at a Table, Ep 1: The writerly thing to do

Friday Phumlani Pikoli - 8 Nov 2020

Interviews can often demystify the processes behind how people create. It’s always fascinated Phumlani Pikoli to find the tricks to artists’ magic, as explored in his new podcast, ‘A Seat at a Table’

Indigenous food revivalists are cooking up a spiritual connection

Friday Nobhongo Gxolo - 5 Nov 2020

Culinary activists such as Zayaan Khan and Tapiwa Guzha are prompting us to revisit and reclaim familiar, familial and traditional identities

Babylon By Bus: How Bob Marley influenced Dennis Morris’ photographic career

Friday Percy Zvomuya - 5 Nov 2020

The photographer got his first big break touring with The Wailers in the 1970s, after skipping school to meet the band

The Portfolio: Manelis

Friday Manelis - 5 Nov 2020

With a theatre background and a long history as a bandleader, Durban-based emcee Manelis is always thinking about how his messaging can be translated visually

Obituary: Literary allrounder Stephen Gray was a scholar, critic, novelist and poet

Friday Shaun De Waal - 3 Nov 2020

Stephen Gray made an immense, long contribution to the South African literary landscape across many genres, but it was poetry that he described as ‘the main activity of my life’

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