Jonathan Jansen is Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State and President of the South African Institute of Race Relations. Amandla!: How did you become involved in education? Jansen: First of all, I wasn't very good at education. I had most of my schooling...
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South Africa’s New Apartheid | by Sabine Cessou
A group of building workers relaxed on the pavement in central Cape Town, enjoying their lunch break. Every minute was precious; nobody was in a hurry to get back to work. "They pay us peanuts," said a bricklayer with a gold tooth. On the equivalent of $1,470 a month,...
The Warning: South Africa Is An Angry And Frustrated Nation And On The Brink | by Danny Schechter
Durban, South Africa: These are not the best of times in South Africa. It seems clear that there is fear and loathing everywhere as the press is packed with fresh allegations of corruption, and a restive mood spreads even as the country prepares to host the economic...
The Weirdness Closes In
On the face of it, Mamphela Ramphele's long political Calvary has not seemed so strange. It has been clear ever since she returned to South Africa, flushed with neoliberal propaganda and plugging effortlessly into the right-wing smear campaign against President Mbeki,...
Marikana mine massacre: why British lawyer has joined fight for justice
James Nichol explains his decision to volunteer to represent forgotten families of dead strikers When South Africa's apartheid police massacred 69 people in Sharpeville in 1960, the revulsion spread as far as northern England. James Nichol, then 15, took part in his...
Sounds of the South: the Hip Hop Caravan
Sounds of the South (SOS) is a cultural movement based in Cape Town's Khayelitsha township that uses hip hop to fight against oppression They talked to Amandla! about their new project, the Afrikan Hip Hop Caravan, an educational and musical exploration that will take...
Listening to Miles in New Brighton | by Nkosinathi Jikeka
Growing up in New Brighton meant becoming passionate about music regardless of style, whether it be jazz, soul, dance or whatever. We in the Eastern Cape have a proud history in music, politics, arts, culture, and sports. Add fashion, good times and just plain old...
Discussion with Charles Abrahams: Class action suit on 100 years of mineworker neglect
Silicosis lawsuit filed against South Africa's gold miners. After decades of chronic and systematic neglect of mine-related diseases, a bold class action suit was filed in August on behalf of up to half a million black mineworkers, who had been worked to death or sent...
Reconstituting emancipatory activism
Debates about the meaning(s) of activism have been perennial pre-occupations in postcolonial societies. In South Africa, the contours of this debate have been shaped, on one hand, by those who argue that attaining formal democracy renders struggle and activism...






