On a cold and wet morning, a large group of protesters – many of them bare- breasted – gathered to protest on the Rhodes university campus in Grahamstown, South Africa. Clad in jeans and head-wraps, some had written “Enough!” across their chests. They marched defiantly, having just published a controversial list naming alleged campus rapists in order to …
"Ya amar, ya amar." When I was a teenager, I used to love hearing those words — which mean something like "hey, gorgeous" in Arabic — hissed and whispered at me by men on the street in Cairo, where I spent my summers. I never got that kind of attention in suburban Southern California, where …
At the University of Cape Town (UCT) this week, a group of students protested the housing crisis that has affected the university for as long as black people have been present as students on the campus. Every year black students students starve and drop out because they cannot afford campus accommodation. The #RhodesMustFall (RMF) movement, …
This week, South Africans watched the beginning of the end of the long, sordid Nkandla saga which has dogged President Jacob Zuma for over six years. The case was brought to the court by South Africa’s political opposition, including the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), who were thrown out of the opening session of parliament on …
Apparently to “raise awareness” of African women and their “secluded cultures”, a Hungarian journalist photoshopped her own face onto portraits of black women. But her project, posted online in early December, sparked widespread criticism. In the face of mounting outrage, Boglarka Balogh took the images down yesterday, apologising but saying her “intention was 100% pure with this tribal …