Friday News brought to you by South Africa's best read!

The monstrous mental asylum: Lewis Nkosi writing home

Friday Sandile Ngidi -

Apartheid SA’s madness, as diagnosed in the exiled author’s subversive texts, was the result of colonialism’s psychological violence

The many meanings of water: The elements in Thobani K’s photography

Friday Niamh Walsh-Vorster -

Influenced by family history and the legacy of apartheid spatial zoning, Thobani K’s photographs are sociopolitically engaged

The Portfolio: Wezile Mgibe

Friday Wezile Mgibe -

Drawn to collaboration, Wezile Mgibe seeks new ways of performing and presenting his work

Racism has a physical impact on the black body

Friday Nina G. Jablonski -

While the effects of racism on the body are still coming into fuller view, the information is enough to eclipse outdated nature vs nurture debates

American Skin and the allure of redemption narratives

Friday Kwanele Sosibo -

American Skin is drowned by its own ambitions, which are at odds with the moment it seeks to reckon with

Tonight we are not going to sleep: Extracts from ‘a naked bone’ by Mangaliso Buzani

Friday Mangaliso Buzani -

These extracts from poet Mangaliso Buzani’s book of poetry, ‘a naked bone’, traverse the boundaries between life and death

Book extract: ‘Rattling the Cage: Reflections on Democratic South Africa’

Friday Brent Meersman -

A lack of solidarity with gay people in the townships echoes the indifference of liberals during apartheid

Keeping Mauritius the paradise it is meant to be

Friday Mehryne Annooar -

Meet the designers working to create a circular future for the island

The Portfolio: Geoff Dyer

Friday Geoff Dyer -

In this extract from But Beautiful, the writer Geoff Dyer reflects on how photographs ‘work on you’

How Babette’s Feast illuminates migrants’ stories

Friday Darryl Accone -

‘Babette’s Feast’ by Isak Dinesen delves into the minutiae of 1870s migration through a Frenchwoman who finds herself living in Norway, where she is denied her artistic passion

The state of the (performing) arts: Theatres try to find their groove

Friday Atiyyah Khan -

Theatres are opening (and closing) again in fits and starts, driven by a fierce determination to bounce back

The Insider’s guide to travelling without moving: Power, empathy and threads that connect at the Göteborg Film Festival

Friday Niren Tolsi -

Niren Tolsi returns to a time before the pandemic brought on travel restrictions to ponder what is being lost in a world that is confined to itself

Who is this man? DOOM collaborator John Robinson on the Villain’s approach to life and art, part one

Friday Kwanele Sosibo -

Living in Georgia in the US for a few years, John Robinson, aka Sci, built a close bond with DOOM. In this two-part interview, he reminisces on the moments they shared

Who is this man? DOOM collaborator John Robinson on the Villain’s approach to life and art, part two

Friday Kwanele Sosibo -

Living in Georgia in the US for a few years, John Robinson, aka Sci, built a close bond with DOOM. In this two-part interview, he reminisces on the moments they shared

Brass, class, steel and sorrow: Jonas Gwangwa cut close to the bone

Friday Gwen Ansell -

The trombonist’s music-making was inextricably tied up with South Africa’s struggle for freedom

‘Amandla’ review: Blood, tears and music of the struggle

Friday Jack Barow -

‘Amandla’s’ status as a cultural rallying point during apartheid is captured in this Sounds review, republished in Chimurenga’s book ‘Festac 77’

How Jonas Gwangwa used his music to preserve his mother tongue

Friday Lucas Ledwaba -

Music giant Dr Jonas Gwangwa, who passed away on 23 January, used his influence to promote the language of his people MaNdebele ase Nyakatho, writes Lucas Ledwaba

Exile, exhilaration and Jonas Gwangwa’s case of the ‘South African Blues’

Friday Kwanele Sosibo -

The 1990 documentary ‘South African Blues’ offers insight into the effects of exile on Jonas Gwangwa’s psyche

MAIL & GUARDIAN: Friday

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