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 […]
REMEMBERING BIKO: RECLAIMING ONTOLOGICAL BLACKNESS AND THE POLITICS OF THE BLACK BODY
The commemoration of Steve Biko demands more than a mere historicist recount; it necessitates an epistemic and ontological excavation into the very foundation of Black subjectivity under Colonialism and Apartheid. Biko’s praxis and philosophy must be apprehended as a radical ontopolitical intervention aimed at reclaiming Black bodies and articulating an ontological Blackness that resists coloniality, […]
STEVE BIKO REMEMBERED BY HIS FOLLOWERS IN SONG, DANCE AND REVOLUTIONARY SPEECHES IN A CEREMONY AT HIS PRISON CELL
Throngs of Black Consciousness adherents – young and old – some carrying babies, gathered at the historic prison cell where Steve Bantu Biko was mercilessly murdered by the apartheid regime 48 years ago. Kgoshi Mampuru II Correctional Facility, formerly the notorious Pretoria Central Prison where anti-apartheid leaders were hanged at the gallows inside the premises, […]
BC PARTIES BURY THE HATCHET IN HONOUR OF STEVE BIKO
The leadership of the Black Consciousness Movement used the 48th anniversary of the death of its founder, Steve Biko in Pretoria on Friday to call for the unity of the organizations. The call was made by AZAPO’s chairman, Mr Amukelani Ngobeni and Black Consciousness Movement United (BCMU) president, Dr Hlulani Mabasa. They were speaking at […]
BIKO: A LIGHT IN A TIME OF DARKNESS
Nothing describes and summarises Steve Biko’s brief but sufficient life on earth as does the title of the legendary Alice Walker’s 2007 book, We are the Ones We have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness. While he died at the tender age of 30, he would have turned 79 this coming December. […]
SA CONDEMNS THE ILLEGAL AND UNPROVOKED ATTACKE BY ISRAELI DEFENCE FORCE IN QATAR
The South African Government unequivocally condemns the illegal and unprovoked attack carried out by the Israeli Defence Force in Doha, Qatar, which targeted a civilian building in a residential area, which purportedly housed members of the Political Bureau of Hamas. This attack on Qatari territory constitutes a blatant violation of international law, breaching the principles […]
RECONFIGURING SA’S FOREIGN POLICY: A NEGRITUDE ANALYSIS FROM NON-ALIGNMENT TO BRICS
South Africa’s foreign policy configuration since the twilight of apartheid has been characterised by an evolving commitment to “active non-alignment” and an increasingly strategic engagement within the BRICS coalition. Popular analytical frameworks predominantly interpret such shifts in terms of geopolitical pragmatism or economic strategyaimed at positioning South Africa favourably within the global order. However, to […]
BC ADHERENTS TO HOLD A SERVICE INSIDE PRISON CELL WHERE STEVE BIKO DIED
The Black Consciousness Movement-United (BCM-U) and the Azanian Peoples’ Organization (AZAPO) have announced a joint program to commemorate the 48th anniversary of Steve Biko‘s death in detention in Pretoria on September 12. The announcement was made on the eve of the National Black Consciousness week marking the last painful but defiant days of Biko’s torture […]
IN THE ONCE FEARED RIGHTWING TOWN OF EUGENE TERRE’BLANCHE, BLACK RESIDENTS LIVE FREELY IN A DEMOCRACY
Throngs of community members in the JB Marks Local Municipality converged on the local hall to engage face-to-face with the North West government officials led by stand-in Premier Madoda Sambatha. The setting was Ventersdorp, a dorpie along the N14 motorway that was once synonymous with the rightwing Afrikaner politician Eugene Terre’Blanche, he of the infamous […]
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 […]
THE OLIPHANT IN THE ROOM
I think she was fully aware that she had an array of options. And she chose to be bold and daring … taking power head on. Nay, she dragged it by the scruff of its neck into a public spectacle. Worse, they had suspended her with immediate effect. They did not follow process. Sit her […]