From slavery to colonialism and school rules: a history of myths about black hair… “Your hair feels like pubic hair.” That was one of the first insults that someone hurled at my hair. She was a junior at my school. She would touch my hair and repeat this sentence to all present. I had to […]

Flying over the ocean blue to an island called Unguja, I imagined Zanzibar to be a stereotypical island paradise – bleached beaches, coconuts falling from palm trees, sickly sweet pineapple drinks with those unnecessary little umbrellas – but with the influence of Africa, slavery, and the spice route. Water like liquid sapphire Captures fragments of […]

Decades ago and deep in the Namaqualand desert at a point between Springbok, Steinkopf and the sea, a Cape Town housewife with a squeaky voice steals our hearts. This mommy from the suburbs has requested a tune that plays into our early years, way before Disco, Johnny Rotten, Duran Duran and Really Big Hair stole […]

Here’s a heartwarming story from MARIKA VAN HEERDEN who was visiting the Douglas Spar in the Northern Cape, South Africa, when she met a young boy called Denzel (scroll down for the Afrikaans version): DENZEL… By Marika van Heerden We stopped at Spar in Douglas on Sunday. It’s early morning and the town is still […]

South African tourists, Peter and Michelle Roos, captured these poignant photos and the mood of a cemetery in Italy that became the last resting place for so many young South African soldiers… Michelle says that in the “midst of hedonistic pleasures” in Italy, the graves provided “a somber dose of other things that happened in […]

UPDATE 16 March 2017: The City of Cape Town has experienced one of its worst disasters in history with the Hout Bay Fire. It has been beautiful to witness communities come together, but heart wrenching to see some of the negative engagements arise on Social Media… writes photographer JUSTIN SULLIVAN, who has been in the […]

Proving old friendships never die, a South African expat living in Canada has offered her kidney to her former schoolmate in Johannesburg, whom she hasn’t seen for decades. And together they are now on a journey to make sure Di gets the kidney she desperately needs, and that awareness is raised about live kidney donations. […]

Let me start with some context: I am a well-off white male – the international trifecta of privilege – and Afrikaans to boot, just to add some local flavour to my human stew of oppressiveness. Born eight years before the end of apartheid the only thing I really remember about the dark days are oddly vivid […]

It’s Monday 16 February, 2016. Dianne and I have just spent an idyllic 3 weeks in Hermanus in South Africa with our family that gathered from Australia, England, the USA and various parts of South Africa to spend time with 86-year old family matriarch Jennifer Stewart. With our US Dollars, we and the Brits are […]

A couple of years ago I wrote an article on my blog (Rant!) entitled ‘Why I will not go back to South Africa’ (see below). It was largely incited by the Oscar Pistorius trial, which was happening at the time – I’d just had a baby and found myself sitting glued to my cell phone […]

For those who haven’t grown up in South Africa, the closeness that often grows between a domestic worker and her employer’s family can be hard to grasp. But the bonds and emotions run deep for many, with ‘family’ becoming a blend of both the domestic’s and employer’s children. And when there’s a heartbreaking death in the ‘family’, everyone […]

When Luyanda Sikhakhane hired her gardener, Bongani Mtolo, she could never have dreamt that the young man who did all sorts of odd jobs, was in fact a qualified accountant. “I hired Bongani to help me with our garden. I had called him in for lunch and was trying to help my little brother with […]

I am not a farmer. My husband and myself have a small holding just outside Bloemfontein where we farm with a few sheep and lucerne. Today was a heart wrenching day for me. My Damara ram “Oupa” refused to stand up. I tried everything to get him to get back up but alas. He was […]

It’s not just human teenagers who are moody. Wildlife enthusiast Ida de Beer took the following photos during a recent trip to a safari park in South Africa. “The pictures are un-edited,” she says. “This is how the elephant came closer and closer…” Ida estimates the elephant is a teenager of about 15-years-old (and its ivory tusks are covered by […]

South African DIY Goddess Suzelle DIY has some fantastic tips for how to make a loadshedding survival kit. You’ll find the tips both romantic…and ingenious. And of course, many of the products required to make this essential kit can be found at Checkers. (Suzelle recently starred in Checker’s latest TV commercial along with Nataniël.) Watch Video: […]

I haven’t spent time in Cape Town for the past three years. Apart from the quick one or two day visits in December. And those ‘holiday’ visits don’t count because they’re smothered in family and vacation life. But on this latest trip I was extraordinarily blessed to fly down for work…and managed to get a sneaky day off on Monday. My one […]

It was May, 1976…and as a lowly young reporter for the Pretoria News, I discovered that Siberia comes in many forms. Because I had disgraced myself and gotten a TV review horribly wrong, I was assigned a new position in life: Magistrates Court reporter. The position was seen as the grubby, greasy little bottom rung in the […]

Groot Marico, 1979 – It’s a lovely Saturday out here in the Bushveld…I’m sitting under a fever tree on a farm in the Western Transvaal (now Northwest Province) talking to a Marico family and drinking their mampoer very slowly and, if I may say so, quite thoughtfully. It’s all so very Herman Charles. [The late […]

Hillbrow, Jo’burg’s inner city Tenderloin district, was never a nest of angels… In the late 1970s and 80s, it was the most cosmopolitan piece of real estate in South Africa. You had your excellent Hillbrow Records, your Mi-Vami shawarma place, Estoril Books, your globe-trotting tattoo artist down in the basement shopping area on Pretoria Street […]

Here’s a shout out from Carina McAlpine for her neighbour who bravely risked his life to rescue her during an assault…even though at that stage they were just polite neighbours who barely knew each other. Carina posted the following message to Facebook with the photo above: “Ladies and gentlemen…please salute my neighbour, Joseph Hlengane Hlongwane, who […]

It’s International Women’s Day – #IWD2015 – and sadly, it’s as important today as it was when it began over 100 years ago in New York in 1909. Women today are still struggling for true equality, and are still subjected to shocking sexual and physical abuse around the world, including in South Africa. Here, a young […]

Last Sunday night, after yet another weekend of South Africa’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) being called out repeatedly to attend tragic – and avoidable – scenes, one of their paramedics sent us the following heartfelt letter. THEN I CAN CRY…by Alan Rudnicki We choose our career for many reasons. And from Day One we know it’s chosen us. It’s not […]

Karoo towns are never the first choice for those seeking the bright lights. Prince Albert, though, is an exception. It’s worth waiting until dark to drive down the main road and wait until the magic moment just after dusk, when the neon outside the Showroom Theatre flickers to life, highlighting its distinctive Art Deco lines. […]

Today I met a very friendly family in Durban, while I was shopping. My eye got caught by the adorable toddler that was peacefully sleeping in the trolley, his head laying heavy like a stone on his mom’s handbag. I asked his mom and aunt, Patience and Thembe, if I could take a picture of him. […]

Today I’m celebrating my FIRST YEAR in South Africa. I arrived in Durban, from my homeland France, exactly a year ago. Who would have guessed that I would end up in South Africa, in Africa even? I left my friends, family, work, flat, shops, food… everything, and accepted to change my life completely, but I […]