And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? (Revelation. 6:10) Colours were simpler then. Meant less. At least it seemed that way. Before the burning. Millions of...
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Every Cook can govern
The Greek form of government was the city-state. Every Greek city was an independent state. At its best, in the city state of Athens, the public assembly of all the citizens made all important decisions on such...
AMCU at the Commission: “It was one big crime’ | by Jeanne Hefez
In its first months of hearings, the Farlam Commission has shown us clear evidence of a bungled police cover up of a massacre, the National Union of Mineworkers' (NUM) own attempt to hide its role, and an alarming level of complicity between state and capital. The...
The Spear that divided the nation | by Professor Mbembe
AN OLD west African proverb compares the artist to a dog. Positioned at the interface of the human and the natural worlds, the dog in most ancient African societies enjoyed a slippery and highly ambiguous cultural status. Neither a human being, nor a wild animal, it...
What now, now that the bullies have won? | by Jeremy Gordin
Jeremy Gordin's nine points about the ANC, The Spear and City Press 1. Little Story When I was 14 or 15 and had just discovered thoughtful writers such as, for example, George Orwell, and compassionate ones such as Alan Paton, I mentioned to my father that I was being...
Why I find The Spear unsettling | by Sabelo Ndlangisa
The controversy surrounding Brett Murray’s portrait of President Jacob Zuma has stirred up a hornet’s nest. On the one hand, it has elicited outrage even from people I know to have antipathy towards our head of state. On the other, defenders of The Spear feel that...
Taming transgressions: South African nation building and `body politics’ | by Antje Schuhmann
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...
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...
Interview with Ramy Essam, the revolutionary singer | by Andre Marais
Ramy Essam began the 25 January revolution in Egypt purely as participant, a responsibility he felt happy to undertake. But he was soon called upon by his fellow protestors to provide the soundtrack to their struggles and was quickly labelled ‘the singer of the...


