You are here: Homepage Tag Southern Africa Articles The South African human rights lawyer Navi Pillay was, among other things, High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations. Photo: Wikus de Wet / Getty Images Personal history | South Africa Law as a tool for freedom From the South African slum to the top of the United Nations: Judge Navi Pillay reflects on an eventful life By Navi Pillay 06/01/2023 NoViolet Bulawayo is a writer who has been awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing Portrait: Nye’ Lyn Tho Fiction | Zimbabwe “English is still not a language of intimacy” Author NoViolet Bulawayo writes about Zimbabwe using the rhythms of her mother tongue Ndebele – even though she has long lived in the USA. A conversation about modern African storytelling and living between languages Interview with NoViolet Bulawayo 05/14/2023 Damon Galgut is a playwright and author who received the 2021 Booker Prize Photo: David Levenson / Getty Images Talking point | South Africa Roast meat and rugby South Africa's passion for barbecuing unites all social classes. The award-winning writer Dalmon Galgut talks us through the social gathering which has deep cultural roots By Damon Galgut 01/09/2023 South-African author and Booker Prize winner Damon Galgut Photo: David Levenson / Getty Images Literature | South Africa “Books are very expensive in South Africa” The long shadows of apartheid: Damon Galgut, Booker Prize winner for “The Promise”, on the psychological effects of apartheid and South Africa’s enduring inequality Interview with Damon Galgut 11/30/2022 Illustration © Musonda Kabwe, Johannesburg Fiction | South Africa A novel from South Africa South African literature slipped from the international gaze after the end of apartheid. Books by black authors in particular rarely reached foreign readers. Now festivals, small publishers and the film industry are finally changing the picture By Niq Mhlongo 08/14/2022 Illustration © Musonda Kabwe, Johannesburg Travel writing | South Africa On the road Is there something to be learned from traveling? South African writer Lerato Mogoatlhe has traveled to thirty African countries – and learned a lot about herself in the process By Lerato Mogoatlhe 08/14/2022 Illustration: Musonda Kabwe, Johannesburg Fiction | South Africa Book clubs and the new Black literary scene Publishers in South Africa have long thought that Black communities do not read all that much. New book clubs are finally changing this picture By Outlwile Tsipane 08/14/2022 Illustration: Musonda Kabwe Historical literature | Namibia White lies and the voids of history Both the genocide of the Herero in Namibia and the Boer War in South Africa were brutal events, but the history books only tell of “heroes”. Can historical fiction give the victims a voice? By Lauri Kubuitsile 08/14/2022 Photo: Chicks on Board / Dörthe Eickelberg Surfing | South Africa The wave The ocean doesn’t care about skin colour or origin: A surfer’s life in South Africa By Suthu Magiwane 07/01/2022 Workers drilling in search of gold Photo: Graeme Williams / South Photos / Africa Media Online / laif Life underground | South Africa Digging for gold: “The anxiety is always there” Four kilometres below the earth’s surface lies the deepest mine in the world. A worker tells of his day-to-day life in South Africa’s Mponeng gold mine By Luthando Mampintsha 01/07/2022 Author Kayo Mpoyi spent her early childhood in Tanzania Photo: Kajsa Göransson Fiction | Democratic Republic of Congo In the floodwaters In her debut novel, author Kayo Mpoyi digs deep into her own family history By Thomas Hummitzsch 01/07/2022 “I expect citizens in Europe and the US to hold their governments to account over vaccine nationalism” Illustration: Timo Lenzen Pandemic | South Africa An overdose of egoism While politicians in the USA and Europe discuss herd immunity and booster shots, many African countries are still lacking vital vaccines. Once again, the West looks the other way By Malaika Mahlatsi 10/01/2021
The South African human rights lawyer Navi Pillay was, among other things, High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations. Photo: Wikus de Wet / Getty Images Personal history | South Africa Law as a tool for freedom From the South African slum to the top of the United Nations: Judge Navi Pillay reflects on an eventful life By Navi Pillay 06/01/2023
NoViolet Bulawayo is a writer who has been awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing Portrait: Nye’ Lyn Tho Fiction | Zimbabwe “English is still not a language of intimacy” Author NoViolet Bulawayo writes about Zimbabwe using the rhythms of her mother tongue Ndebele – even though she has long lived in the USA. A conversation about modern African storytelling and living between languages Interview with NoViolet Bulawayo 05/14/2023
Damon Galgut is a playwright and author who received the 2021 Booker Prize Photo: David Levenson / Getty Images Talking point | South Africa Roast meat and rugby South Africa's passion for barbecuing unites all social classes. The award-winning writer Dalmon Galgut talks us through the social gathering which has deep cultural roots By Damon Galgut 01/09/2023
South-African author and Booker Prize winner Damon Galgut Photo: David Levenson / Getty Images Literature | South Africa “Books are very expensive in South Africa” The long shadows of apartheid: Damon Galgut, Booker Prize winner for “The Promise”, on the psychological effects of apartheid and South Africa’s enduring inequality Interview with Damon Galgut 11/30/2022
Illustration © Musonda Kabwe, Johannesburg Fiction | South Africa A novel from South Africa South African literature slipped from the international gaze after the end of apartheid. Books by black authors in particular rarely reached foreign readers. Now festivals, small publishers and the film industry are finally changing the picture By Niq Mhlongo 08/14/2022
Illustration © Musonda Kabwe, Johannesburg Travel writing | South Africa On the road Is there something to be learned from traveling? South African writer Lerato Mogoatlhe has traveled to thirty African countries – and learned a lot about herself in the process By Lerato Mogoatlhe 08/14/2022
Illustration: Musonda Kabwe, Johannesburg Fiction | South Africa Book clubs and the new Black literary scene Publishers in South Africa have long thought that Black communities do not read all that much. New book clubs are finally changing this picture By Outlwile Tsipane 08/14/2022
Illustration: Musonda Kabwe Historical literature | Namibia White lies and the voids of history Both the genocide of the Herero in Namibia and the Boer War in South Africa were brutal events, but the history books only tell of “heroes”. Can historical fiction give the victims a voice? By Lauri Kubuitsile 08/14/2022
Photo: Chicks on Board / Dörthe Eickelberg Surfing | South Africa The wave The ocean doesn’t care about skin colour or origin: A surfer’s life in South Africa By Suthu Magiwane 07/01/2022
Workers drilling in search of gold Photo: Graeme Williams / South Photos / Africa Media Online / laif Life underground | South Africa Digging for gold: “The anxiety is always there” Four kilometres below the earth’s surface lies the deepest mine in the world. A worker tells of his day-to-day life in South Africa’s Mponeng gold mine By Luthando Mampintsha 01/07/2022
Author Kayo Mpoyi spent her early childhood in Tanzania Photo: Kajsa Göransson Fiction | Democratic Republic of Congo In the floodwaters In her debut novel, author Kayo Mpoyi digs deep into her own family history By Thomas Hummitzsch 01/07/2022
“I expect citizens in Europe and the US to hold their governments to account over vaccine nationalism” Illustration: Timo Lenzen Pandemic | South Africa An overdose of egoism While politicians in the USA and Europe discuss herd immunity and booster shots, many African countries are still lacking vital vaccines. Once again, the West looks the other way By Malaika Mahlatsi 10/01/2021
