Abdullah Ibrahim: Music Maestro “In Africa, the music legacy is passed on through families …” “Our traditional music is very, very complex compared, for example, to western music. Many people…
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela: The Fearless Warrioress “In her particular life, we may see more clearly the violence wrought by colonialism and apartheid, the profound consequences of fraternal political movements to whom…
Shaka “Sigidi” “Mlilwana” ka Senzangakhona Emperor Shaka the Great (aka “Sigidi ka Senzangakhona”), who was murdered on this day, 24 September 1828, is often reputed as a warrior to have…
Zenzile Miriam Makeba: Mama Afrika “Honestly, I’m just a little old singer, I am not a politician, I’m not an economist or anything of the sort. I just wish that…
The Power of Telling Our Own Stories We are the stories we are told, and we are the stories we tell ourselves and the world. Your culture is your story.…
“Bra Gib” Gibson Mthuthuzeli Kente: How Long HOW LONG: Written and first performed in 1973, it is a melodramatic musical play with political undertones in the township style, it is…
Papa: The Village Pope You’re waiting for your name, to be calledYour body is shaking with disbeliefCause you never, ever worked for it before Born from the masterA master of…
Johnny Clegg’s Final Journey I think we are moving into a kind of massive, global meltdown of national identities into sub-identities. The fracturing of societies on race, class, gender, and…
Stephen Bantu Biko: Brutally Murdered in Detention On 12 September 1977, Stephen Bantu Biko died alone in a cell after having been driven in the back of a Land Rover,…
ATTACKING THE HEART OF APARTHEID: THE ANC’S MK SPECIAL OPERATIONS UNIT Yunus Carrim For over three decades, the remarkable story of Umkhonto we Sizwe’s Special Operations Unit has remained largely…