THE DEGENERATION OF THE EPISTEMOLOGIES OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT: DECODING THE BUDGET SPEECH
Let me begin by disarming the title. Degeneration of the epistemologies of economic thought sounds like something you would only whisper in a doctoral seminar room. It sounds intimidating. Dense. Perhaps even deliberately obscure. But it is actually very simple. It asks one question: How did we forget how to think about the economy properly? […]
IN THE HOUSE OF JESSE JACKSON: HOW A CIVIL RIGHTS GIANT RE-ANCHORED A YOUNG SOUTH AFRICAN IN EXILE
The news of the passing of Reverend Jesse Jackson arrives with a weight that is both public and profoundly personal. To the world, he will be remembered as a towering figure of the global freedom struggle, a relentless advocate for civil rights and a moral voice that refused to be silenced. To South Africa, he […]
MAXIMUM DISCLOSURE. MINIMUM CONSEQUENCE. WELCOME TO MZANSI.
From boardroom liberation to procedural democracy: the quiet making of a government fluent in process and allergic to consequence. There was a moment, not announced and not televised, when South Africa quietly changed posture. Not the moment of liberation. Not the first election. Not the swearing-in ceremonies or victory speeches. A quieter moment. A moment […]
ANDY KAWA STORY: RECOGNITION, RESURRECTION AND RESTITUTION
There are wounds that never fully close. They remain tender beneath the scar, reminders of violence that was not only physical but existential. On a December evening in 2010, on the shores of King’s Beach in Port Elizabeth, Andy Kawa was cast into such a wound. What unfolded was more than an assault on her […]
BLACK TIE, BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS
There’s a certain magic that occurs when a room full of Black people gathers in grace, power, and purpose. Cloaked in tuxedos, evening gowns, pride, and legacy. It’s not simply a soirée. It’s not just another awards dinner. It’s a reclamation. A declaration. A spiritual conversation carried out in silk and basslines, laughter and remembered […]
THE VISIBLE COUNCIL, GUIDED BY THE INVISIBLE
For three days and two nights, tucked away in the quiet embrace of a farm, I sat with men who have lived more than half a century of South Africa’s unspoken histories. It was less a gathering than a council. Visible in our laughter, debate, and storytelling, yet guided always by an invisible hand of […]
KIPPIE MOEKETSI AT 100: THE SPIRIT OF SOUTH AFRICAN JAZZ LIVES ON
On the 27th of July 2025, South Africa commemorates the centenary of one of its most compelling cultural figures. Kippie Moeketsi. Affectionately known as “South Africa’s Charlie Parker.” Yet Kippie was far more than a local imitation of an American great. He was a revolution in tone, mood, and being. He was the soul of […]
OPEN MIC, OPEN MIND: A MASTERCLASS WITH LEFIFI TLADI
There are evenings that unfold as planned. Carefully curated events with clear start times, smooth transitions, and a sense of control that leaves everyone reassured. And then there are evenings that refuse containment. Where the very act of gathering becomes part ritual, part rebellion, and part revelation. The recent evening at MOMO Gallery, in honour […]
“A DANCE FOR FEYA” – AN EVENING WITH KHAYA MAHLANGU AT SEVENTY PLUS ONE
The music began even before a note was played. It was in the room. In the air. In the walls of the Library Café, a place that knows stories and knows the weight of returning to a sacred place for a second act. It was from this very café, a few months ago, that I […]
THE WORLD IS A LIBRARY: LEARNING TO READ LIFE’S PAGES
She said it lightly, as though commenting on the weather. We were standing in the doorway, hugging and kissing goodbyes and time pressing forward, when her eyes lit with that old fire that comes from a life fully lived. Her words slipped between the goodbyes like a bookmark placed at just the right place in […]
THE STRUGGLE AND THE SPIRIT WORLD: ANCESTORS APPARITIONS, AND THE AFTERLIFE OF RESISTANCE
Beyond the Physical Battle While the liberation struggle in South Africa is often narrated through guns, chants, marches, and negotiations, another dimension operated in tandem, one largely unspoken, sometimes mocked, and yet profoundly real to many who participated. The spiritual dimension. The realm of ancestors. The invisible world of rituals, dreams, and prophecies. For many, […]
SPIRITUAL MATHEMATICS: THE UNSPOKEN LOGIC OF AFRICA’S SACRED SCIENCE
There is a mathematics that cannot be taught in any classroom. A precise arithmetic of the soul, the body, the past, and the future. One I have witnessed unfold countless times in the fireside shadows of our homesteads, in the subtle gestures of old women in rural villages, and in the haunting, rhythmic chants of […]