insert_link South Africa How the Mandela myth helped win the battle for democracy in South Africa By Jonny Steinberg, Yale University Political history scholar Jonny Steinberg’s 2023 book Winnie & Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage is a double biography of South Africa’s most famous political figures – Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela Mandela – and their role in the country’s struggle for democracy. It’s also a book that shatters countless myths about the couple and the liberation struggle that have been formed in popular […] todayApril 29, 2024 13
insert_link Opinion Pieces What happened to Nelson Mandela’s South Africa? A new podcast series marks 30 years of post-apartheid democracy By Thabo Leshilo, The Conversation When Nelson Mandela stood in front of the Union Buildings in Pretoria in May 1994 as South Africa’s first democratically elected president, my country was brimming with optimism for its post-apartheid future. I was there and relieved at the prospect of an end to bloodshed. I had seen far too much violence and death in my five-year career as a journalist, covering the […] todayApril 11, 2024 11
insert_link South Africa Women in South Africa’s armed struggle: new book records history at first hand By Thoko Sipungu, Rhodes University South Africa’s young democracy was a culmination of years of sweat, blood and revolution against the apartheid regime. In the early 1960s, after decades of “non-violence” as a policy of resistance, the African National Congress (ANC) and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) formed military wings to take the fight to the apartheid regime. Based on the living record and popular discourse, it would […] todayFebruary 20, 2024 10
insert_link Opinion Pieces South Africa’s genocide case against Israel is the country’s proudest foreign policy moment in three decades By Peter Vale, University of Pretoria and Vineet Thakur On 11 January 2024, South Africa hauled Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the charge of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention. This was for Israel’s indiscriminate bombing and siege of Gaza following the deadly 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas which claimed 1,200 Israeli lives. More than 25,000 Palestinians, at least half of them children, have […] todayJanuary 24, 2024 7
Paying it forward: Kenyan coastal doctor Bashrahil Mohammed Mafudh has made it his life’s work to care for the most vulnerable in his community, at no cost.
