For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
I have lived all of my life – nearly half a century – in South Africa. And I cannot think of a time when the land I love has not been deeply divided and plagued by violence. My daily reality is – has always been – a confrontation with oppression. The colonial plunder of my... Continue Reading →
It was bound to happen, I suppose. You have heard of Murphy’s Law, right? If anything can go wrong it will? Well, when it comes to me, another Law holds true: namely, that Murphy was an optimist. It was a twelve hour flight and I got stuck next to a “talker”. Now I am a... Continue Reading →
Every year from 25 November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) until 10th December (International Human Rights Day), we are encouraged to support the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign. I am an activist by nature, and these are issues particularly close to my heart. In... Continue Reading →
It is easy to feel despondent these days when one sees what is happening in world politics. It seems that the Western world is becoming progressively more right wing. With populism on the rise, and extremism dominating our discourse, reconciliation and peaceful multiculturalism seem like a pipe dream. That saddens me deeply. I have laboured... Continue Reading →
One of the big questions in South African education at the moment is how to “decolonise” the curriculum. It is a question that has been around for decades, but has been gaining traction lately, thanks to the recent student protests. It is, I believe, absolutely essential to address this issue if any meaningful form of... Continue Reading →
In his Phenomenology of Spirit, Georg Hegel suggests that we only come to know ourselves through the way that we believe others perceive us, and that the motivation behind many of our actions is the attempt to assert an individuality that frees us from the objectifying views others hold of us. In other words, our... Continue Reading →
“The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed. We have not taken the final step of our journey, but the first step on a longer and even more difficult road. For to be free is not merely to cast... Continue Reading →
I hear it often. Whenever conversation turns to religion, as it occasionally does, somebody invariably makes the following statement: “After all, all religions basically teach the same thing.” It is normally stated in such a way that this should be completely self-evident. Except it isn’t. Entirely by the way, isn’t it bizarre that social... Continue Reading →
Just so that nobody misunderstands me, I am going to preface these thoughts by stating that I am nobody’s settler. I regard myself as 100% authentically African. I was born here, my parents were born here; I have known no other home. Nor am I ashamed of my whiteness. Nobody should be ashamed of the... Continue Reading →
This week our president made a jaw-dropping claim: loyalty to the ANC (the ruling party), he glibly remarked, is more important than loyalty to the country. My initial response, after the shock and anger wore off, was a pragmatic one: in the interests of ANC public (local and international) relations somebody should probably tell our... Continue Reading →
Vapors In The Wind 