Word from Azania
Writer: Xolani Tembu Photograph: Musa N Nxumalo Listening to Sabelo Soko’s second offering, Umkhondo, one can almost hear echoes of Sipho Mabuse’s Thaba Bosiu, those of the iconic Madala Kunene’s Ubombo and even Hugh Masekela’s Stimela. Needless… More
Writer: Kholeka Shange Sketch: KPN In an African context, ukudlala (i.e. play) has always been an integral part of human social interaction. The IsiZulu aphorism Qhude manikiniki. Mnike isongo lakhe has been popularly used in… More
Writer: Xola Skosana Photograph: Supplied We should stop fooling ourselves, bending over backwards trying to explain ourselves to white people. We have done enough talking in this country, we have four Nobel Peace Laureates to… More
Text: Kholeka Shange
Photograph: Supplied
Hotep. A Black man that advocates for social justice concerning Black men and children. Bhut’Hotep is typified as ‘woke’ because he is a loud (on social media) proponent of Black Lives Matter, Fallism and Black Consciousness while he has no interest in dismantling hetero-patriarchy. His ‘wokeness’ is not an emergent state of being that leaves considerable room for learning from Blackwomen about systems of oppression and how to subvert them; rather his ‘wokeness’ is inextricably linked to exhibitionism wherein his didactic politics are on display for Blackwomen to ‘consume’ and be ‘enlightened’ by. In his mind, he is the carrier of divine knowledge that Black women should labour to excavate. In this case, labour is the equivalent of Blackwomen’s assimilation to a hetero-patriarchal order where respectability is a currency. In his world of dominion, bhut’ Hotep practices sovereignty as ‘King’ while those he deems as deviant or aberrant (i.e. Black women that do not adhere to his respectability politics) Continue reading “Hotepism, Violence and Incense”
Writer: Sibusiso Mkwanazi
Photographs: Supplied
“Umtsetse”. That is one of those words that seems not to exist in the English language. It is the “fold” that is ironed into a pair of pants. This line separates the men from the boys and the girls from the ladies. Can Themba’s The Suit does this with surgical precision as it clearly differentiates right from wrong, no matter the justification. Continue reading “Review – The Suit”
Text: The Black Power Front Statement
Photograph: The Black Power Front
Reacting to the murder of the 18-year-old Black boy, Michael Brown Jr, by a white police officer, Darren Dean Wilson in August 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri, Michael Jeffries wrote:
“…anti-blackness more accurately captures the dehumanization and constant physical danger that black people face. The “anti” in “anti-blackness” is denial of black people’s right to life.’ Continue reading “The Brutal Murder Of Matlhomola Jonas Mosweu”
Photography: Ayabonga Cawe
Text: Ciko Story Concepts
We live in compelling times. South Africa’s trajectory is shifting and its custodians are growing in consciousness – and in action. The times call for deep, meaningful and honest reflection and conversation. This is needed in order for us to enjoy a fruitful translation of those convictions in the immediate spaces we occupy. ‘UmziWatsha- The politics of (im) patience’ puts this under the spotlight. Continue reading “Umzi Watsha – The Politics of (im)patience”
Photography: Musa N. Nxumalo
Writer: Percy Mabandu
SMAC Gallery is proud to present 16 Shots, Musa N. Nxumalo’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. This new body of work comprises sixteen photographic prints that continue the themes and focus of Nxumalo’s ongoing project, The Anthology of Youth.
Writer: Kholeka Shange
Artwork: Ayanda Mabulu
“Akadeleli uqhuba intwala ngewisa” is an adage used by IsiZulu speakers to describe a person’s unrelenting insolence towards another. In the context of Ayanda Mabulu’s numerous visual depictions of President Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma’s phallus, a number of conservative (IsiZulu speaking) traditionalists, ANC loyalists and some sectors of the South African public have utilized respectability as a tool to question Mabulu’s “Africanness” for “failing” to honour the elder-child dynamic wherein the child is expected to show respect for his or her elders at all times. The elder in this case is the head of state while Mabulu is expected to occupy the position of the infantilised,aberrant Black artist who is out of touch with “African” customs. Continue reading “Economy of Rape”
Writer: Veli Mbele
Photograph: Supplied
The state ceremony that took place at uMgcina’s grave (Bantu Biko) recently, predictably ignited endless and emotionally-charged conversations, particularly within the Black Consciousness and Pan Afrikanist circles, with some going as far as describing what happened at Biko’s grave as a “disgrace” and “insult”, to both Biko and Mangaliso Sobukwe. For those who don’t know, there is a deeper and more painful context to these emotionally-charged and legitimate reactions. Continue reading “The Contested Legacies And Continued Erasure of Bantu Biko and Mangaliso Sobukwe After 94”
Writer: Ziyana Lategan
Photographs: Oscar O’ryan
The Baxter Theatre’s 2017 staging of Peter Weiss’ The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of Marquis de Sade or Marat/Sade is without doubt, superbly performed. The stage, made to look like the inside of an asylum, made to look like a stage, was perfectly Brechtian in its effect. The audience, functioning as the actual audience in the asylum, was constantly made complicit in the spectacle of the performance Continue reading “Marat/Sade: A View From The Colony”
Writer: Ms Doo-Wop
Photograph: Musa N. Nxumalo
I had a conversation with a friend of mine the other night. Both of us are new in America, five months into our ‘international degrees’ and already feeling the emptiness of the promise of awayness.
We have both left lovers back home.
It is not that he does not have the opportunity to cheat or that he doesn’t want to. What he is afraid of is the freedom that comes with being anonymous. Continue reading “Celibacy Blues”
Text: Veli Mbele
Photograph: Supplied
Nothing best expresses the totalising-all-consuming-debilitating power of whiteness than the psychosis wherein statements by Blacks such as “we want our land back or “we must build Black power”- makes some Black people so nervous that they sometimes slide into self-induced depression (on behalf of the whites they know or love).
Continue reading “Blackness As A Permanent State of Nervousness”
Writer: Blackhouse Kollective
Photography: Blackhouse Kollective
the blackhouse kollective educational exhibition at bree taxi-rank,during december 2016, publicly defied the rainbow reconciliation farce. displaying work titled sankofa – lest we forget, our exposition was greeted by police bullying. shabbily donned street-vendors poised helplessly at the receiving end of that police violence.
Writer: Mogobe Ramose
Photograph: Makgotso Nkosi
In his De Legibus, book III, part III, sub. VIII Cicero wrote that “saluspopulisupremalexesto”. The various translations of this maxim do not deviate from the basic insight that the health of the people shall be the supreme law. It is significant that Cicero makes this jussive declaration under the important title, “On laws”. Whatever laws there may be in a given human community, they ought to recognise, respect, protect and promote the foundation upon which they are built, namely, the health or well-being of all the individuals constituting the community. Continue reading “Feta Kgomo O Tshware Motho”
Writer: Yannisha Yalla
Photograph: Fizz Designs (Twitter)
So many questions need to be asked about identities and cultures in post-colonial countries. Post-colonial countries are flooded with people who have been uprooted and then forced to adapt to a mainstream culture. This mainstream culture is usually white. The dispossessed are then taught to be grateful that their minds have been colonized.
Continue reading “Cultural Confusion in Post-Colonial Countries”
Writer: Wanelisa Xaba
Photograph: Supplied
One of the consequences of challenging hegemonic Euro-Western white supremacist patriarchal canons in a colonial society are paternalistic views depicting one as a rogue or an empty vessel unable to engage ideologically. Living in occupied Azania where knowledge is centred on Euro-imperialist colonial hetero cisnormative ideals as the standard, renders white-supremacist defenders like Amanda/Gwen Ngwenya unable to engage with the content of decolonisation. Continue reading “Gwen Ngwenya & The Limitations of Neo-Liberal Selective Constitutionalism”
Writer: Kholeka Shange
Photographer: Suzy Bernstein
Within an African context, inkonjane (i.e. swallow) has always represented movement across space and time. According to Credo Mutwa, “Migratory birds are the souls of humans who have reached a high state of perfection”. Mutwa’s reference to birds as carriers of humanness is epitomised through Mike van Graan’s new play titled When Swallows Cry. In this play, the swallow is used as a symbol through which questions of migration and the othering of African migrants in the context of current global migration discourses are explored. This multi-layered narrative which is directed by first-time Director Lesedi Job captures the lived experiences of African migrants through the poignant and yet jocular performances of its cast Warren Masemola, Mpho Osei-Tutu and Christiaan Schoombie.
