The rise of the political right-wing: Part 1, The appropriation of history
PROBABLY the greatest error of judgement I have ever made was based on an assumption that public bodies, given reasonable [ ]
From The Thornveld
There is the high veld, the middle veld, the low veld, the bush veld, and now thoughts from the thorn veld,
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The Road to Unity: The Lutheran Churches of Southern Africa Confronting a Divided Past
Philippe Denis, The Road to Unity: The Lutheran Churches of Southern Africa Confronting a Divided Past (Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2026) [ ]
Three Wise Monkeys
Charles van Onselen, Three Wise Monkeys: Volume I The Making of an African Economic Tragedy: Mozambique, circa 1500‒1960; Volume II [ ]
State of emergency or emergency of the state? June forty years ago
A DOMINANT memory of that June of 1986 in Pietermaritzburg: grey, chilly days and dark, menacing evenings. Presumably it was [ ]
A Roving Eye: Selected Essays
R.W. Johnson, A Roving Eye: Selected Essays (Johannesburg: Tracey McDonald, 2026) THE FORTY topics covered in this book have been [ ]
Soweto … fifty years on
THERE was no social media, nor cell phones, and where landlines were available they were too dangerous to use. Yet [ ]
The House at 6001: A Memoir of Uprising and Exile
Lebo Diseko, The House at 6001: A Memoir of Uprising and Exile (Johannesburg: Pan Macmillan, 2026) ‘WHAT was it all [ ]
Murder, suicide or insanity?: driving in South Africa
IN several of his recent, daily ‘After the bell’ columns, Stephen Grootes has reflected on the hazards of South African [ ]
The future of history in the age of AI
I’VE always admired those writers so committed to a particular topic that they are prepared to devote part of a [ ]
The Power and the Glory: A New History of the World Cup
Jonathan Wilson, The Power and the Glory: A New History of the World Cup (London: Abacus Books, 2025) SPORT brings [ ]