Undeniable: Memoir of a Covert War
Philippa Garson, Undeniable: Memoir of a Covert War (Jacana, 2020) A CONSTANT presence in this book is the question of the third force. Was it, in the period leading up to South Africa’s first democratic […]
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Advantage Play: Technologies that Changed Sporting History
Steve Haake, Advantage Play: Technologies that Changed Sporting History (Arena Sport, 2018) PHYSICS and materials science meet sport in a book written with a strong dose of personal experience, a great deal of enthusiasm and […]
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Views on the world as lockdown lifts: part one, race and racism
I UNDERSTAND that I don’t understand, but I stand (Black Lives Matter demo banner) On Saturday 13 June, early afternoon, I turned idly to Twitter to see what was going on ‘out there’ and began […]
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The empire strikes back
‘HISTORICAL figures like Rhodes do not really matter much any more’. `Monuments [are] rather meaningless’.[1] Ten years after these words of Paul Maylam’s were published, high-profile protest at the University of Cape Town led to […]
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Academic freedom on the edge in South Africa
EXACTLY how far is the University of Cape Town (UCT) prepared to go in genuflecting to populist thugs in the name of racial nationalism? Further and further, it seems, from the latest assault on academic […]
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Tales from four countries in a time of lockdown: part ten
Sheffield AS lockdown got underway, with an understandable focus on physical wellbeing, attention also turned to emotional and psychological impact. Quite suddenly, routines were forced to change, ‘real’ social contact was only with those in […]
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Maverick Africans: The Shaping of the Afrikaners
Hermann Giliomee, Maverick Africans: The Shaping of the Afrikaners (Tafelberg, 2020) HERMANN Giliomee deploys the acute observation that nations are created not just from their own dynamics, but also by their enemies. He raises the […]
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A tale of four countries in a time of lockdown: part nine
Sheffield The thing about Johnson is that he desperately wanted to become prime minister, and he desperately wanted to have been prime minister. It’s just the bit in between he struggles with (Marina Hyde). BORIS […]
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A tale of four countries in a time of lockdown: part eight
Sheffield IN 1908, just short of 15, my maternal grandmother Elizabeth Smith began her apprenticeship to become a dressmaker. In due course she passed her skills to her daughters (once by throwing a half-made dress […]
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A tale of four countries in a time of lockdown: part seven
Sheffield THE silence, solitude and slower pace of life that accompany some people’s lockdowns are potentially nurturing. Those of us who choose to live alone anyway do it because it suits us. Also, according to […]