Abstract This text questions the support that Caster Semenya received in the name of patriotism, arguing that the heteronormative and patriarchal home base of nationalism, its gendered matrix so to say, reflects a dilemma: the popular support for Semenya reinforced...
black
Beyond Marriage: Democracy, Equality, and Kinship for a New Century | by Lisa Duggan
A few weeks after September 11, 2001, I went with my ex-lover to register as domestic partners with the city of New York. We had never registered our relationship with any state agency during the 17 years that we had actually been partners. But we changed our minds...
Libya’s Restive Revolutionaries | by Nicolas Pelham
Beneath a golden canopy lined with frilly red tassels and vaulted with chandeliers, hundreds of militiamen from across Libya gathered at a security base in Benghazi, the launch pad of their anti-Qaddafi revolution, at the end of April and called for another uprising....
Cuba’s future: an assessment | by Sam Farber
Samuel Farber is the author of many articles and several books on Cuba. His most recent is Cuba Since the Revolution of 1959: A Critical Assessment, published by Haymarket Books in 2011. This article is based on a talk delivered at the Bildner Center of the CUNY...
Africa’s Biggest Landfill Site: The Case Of Bisasar Road | by Patrick Bond and Khadija Sharife
Bisasar Road is Africa’s largest landfill site, and one of only three landfill sites in Durban with a full permit. It was opened for business in 1980 under South Africa’s apartheid regime. The Group Areas Act, a crucial pillar of the segregation agenda, meant that...
Crony Capitalism 2.0 and the Wretched of South Africa by | Patrick Bond
Do Pretoria and Johannesburg deserve the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, cities along the ancient Jordan River which were, according to The Book of Genesis, consumed by fire and brimstone as punishment for sinful hedonism? Etymologically, Sodom – today just a salt pan at...
The naked truth about our culture | by Simphiwe Sesanti
This week the world witnessed a heated debate around Brett Murray’s painting exposing SA president Jacob Zuma’s genitals. Those in defense of Murray argued that this was purely an artistic act, while those in favour of Zuma argued that it was merely the work of a...
Brett Murray painting an insult to black South Africans – (SACP) | by Malesela Maleka
Party says it didn't fight for freedom so it could be abused by closet racists Attacks and Insults on President Zuma The SACP is outraged at the insulting, disrespectful, and frankly, disgusting, and sadistic so-called portrait of President Zuma by Brett Murray. This...
The ANC was right not to let sleeping dogs lie | by Pearl Mathibela
Pearl Mathibela says Brett Murray's painting was disrespectful both to Zuma and the nation Nation building is being undermined, not the Constitution As the furore over the much-publicised (and now defaced) "painting" of one Brett Murray erupted, my initial reaction...

