Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was…
I’m in the bathroom of an art space located on the busy island area of Obalende, Lagos, Nigeria. There’s a closing exhibition called CONFECTUS by artist in residence, Kris Russo, at hFACTOR, an eclectic art space smack in the middle of the chaos that is the island. This is the only place quiet and private…
As I write this, huge tracts of the Amazon are on fire, blanketing surrounding cities in a sickly, nuclear winter- like pall of smoke. Meanwhile, ice is melting and fires are breaking out across the Arctic. And this last July was the hottest month ever in recorded human history. All these extreme weather events are…
Black South African womxn are desperate for legislation to be part of their lived experience. Black South African womxn are desperate for legislation. Black South African womxn are desperate. The forerunner this year has to be Gugu Ncube. Wearing only a black panty and placing another panty over her breasts at the Union Buildings, she…
Just four days before South Africans celebrated Women’s Day, we were met with the painful news of Toni Morrison’s passing. The world had lost a one of a kind playwright, teacher, poet and author who had always remained intentional in making readers aware of the black experience in the United States and equally intentional in…
Queer bodies dancing all over oppressive regimes of heteronormativity. A community created to subvert. A utopia that is free from the constructs of society. A safe space for kinfolk, but not that kind of safe space where you feel censored and sheltered — one that functions in a way that allows you to confront things….
Johannesburg has always been a city obsessed with money and power. In 1886 when hundreds of men (and their families) flocked to the Witwatersrand in search of gold, they were also searching for the power and status that the mineral would provide. The discovery of mineral wealth in the Witwatersrand lit the match for the…
To be committed to a feminist life means we cannot not do this work; we cannot not fight for this cause, whatever it causes, so we have to find a way of sharing the costs of that work. Survival thus becomes a shared feminist project. So this tool kit contains my personal stuff, what I…
The Mafia is not an outsider in this world; it is perfectly at home. Indeed, in the integrated spectacle it stands as the model of all advanced commercial enterprises- Guy Debord The recent death of former football player Marc Batchelor, shot by two motorbike gunmen in an apparent contract killing, put the media spotlight on…
In 1945, the Apartheid government commissioned a study on coloured men in the Western Cape. After a survey of the community, the commission concluded that coloured men had a natural potential to turn criminal. The report stated of the coloured man that “…he may remain lazy, harmless, good-for-nothing but it is also possible that his…
“I don’t get involved in politics” is a feathery statement and an illusion —the very act of breathing is political; the politics of being, as expressed through money politics, identity politics, work politics and food politics. Food activist and seed librarian Zayaan Khan is engaging these politics. Her spear is two pronged; challenging repressive food…
George Foreman came to Africa with a German Shepard. In 1974, Foreman had been promised a record sum of 5 million USD to fight veteran boxer Muhammed Ali. The fight was being called ‘The Rumble in the Jungle’ and the venue chosen was the grand Stade du 20 in what is now the Democratic Republic…
