INDIGENOUS MUSIC DESERVES MORE THAN A HERITAGE MONTH SPOTLIGHT
Every September, South Africa celebrates Heritage Month. It is during this time that indigenous music briefly takes centre stage: the Zulus’ maskandi, Bapedi’s tsa manyalo (Lekompo), Tsonga rhythms, and other traditional genres appear across radio, television, and newspapers. Artists are interviewed, their music played, and their stories showcased. Yet, once the month ends, the spotlight […]
WHY WE MUST FORGET THE PAST
No one really talks about the messy situation following the dawn of freedom and democracy. The conversation is mostly nostalgic and about the renewal of the liberation movement. This is flogging a dead horse. Something happened after the unbanning, the return and release of political prisoners. Over the last 32 years or so, it has […]
AZAPO’S OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT RAMAPHOSA
Greetings Mr President, To act in this uncharacteristic manner is a desperate attempt to grab your highly contested and congested attention and redirect it to the voice of the voiceless. The fact that you cut your political teeth in the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), of which I remain an activist, gives me the assurance that […]
THE COST OF HYPOCRISY: GAYTON MCKENZIE AND THE WEAPONISATION OF THE K-WORD
When I first heard that Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader and Sports, Arts, and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie had repeatedly used the K-word on social media – South Africa’s most vile and violent racial slur – I wasn’t shocked. Instead, I was enraged! Not because I expected any better from him, but because once again, black pain has been put up for public debate, […]
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 […]
MAMA ABIGAIL KUBEKA TO BE HONOURED IN STAR-STUDDED VAN TOEKA AF TRIBUTE CONCERT
The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, under the banner of the Van Toeka Af Living Legends Recognition Series, will host a powerful tribute concert in honour of Mama Abigail Kubeka, celebrating her 68 years of excellence in the South African music, arts, and cultural industry. Taking place on Friday, 5 July 2025 at 18:00 […]
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 […]
FREEDOM PARK TO HOLD A SYMPOSIUM ON YOUTH ACTIVISM TO COMPARE AND REFLECT ON DIFFERENT EPOCHS
Freedom Park, in collaboration with Keeloz Global Entertainment, will on Saturday June 21 hold a symposium to focus on the role of youth activism through different political eras, before and after the advent of democracy in 1994. The main theme of the day for the engaging intergenerational dialogue will be titled: Youth Activism: Then and […]
REFLECTIONS ON YOUTH DAY 2025 – THE POWER OF OUR HISTORY AND IDENTITY
This year’s Youth Day commemorates 49 years since the June 16 Student Uprisings (also known as the Soweto Massacres), a crucial turning point in the liberation struggle of South Africa. In 1976, Soweto, the unbridled bravery of tens-of-thousands of schoolchildren ignited a countrywide rebellion, setting in motion a transformation that would define the future. The merciless killing of […]
THE USNESS OF US: A TRIBUTE TO SOUTH AFRICA’S FOREMOST STRUGGLE POETS
There are verses that do more than speak. They breathe. They march. They bleed. They return across generations like incantations passed from mouth to ear, from prison cell to refugee camp, from jazz club to the guerrilla front. For those of us who came of age in exile, navigating the uncertainties of borders, belonging, and […]
NOSTALGIC REVISIT TO PRESENT-DAY MARABASTAD
It was a chilly morning on 28 May when Dr Mothobi Mutloatse and yours truly went on a whistle-stop walkabout of Marabastad. The mission was to try and retrace the steps of the late academic and author par excellence, Professor Es’kia Mphahlele, the author of the all-time classic, “Down Second Avenue”. Indeed our port of […]
FROM THE EDGES OF EXILE TO THE HEART OF HOME: A COLLECTIVE MEMORY REKINDLED
We didn’t plan it this way. None of us imagined a WhatsApp group could become a movement, but here we are, grown children of exile, of scholarship, of struggle, slowly circling back to one another after decades scattered across time zones, continents, and causes. What began as a gentle check-in from Vuyo Ntshona, “Are you […]