Tengo Jabavu: A Life Interrupted
Tengo Max Jabavu belonged to a generation born at the narrowing edge of South African possibility. He came of age at a moment when African intellectual life was still animated by faith in
Mphuthumi Ntabeni
Mphuthumi Ntabeni is trained in built environment, reads literature, history and philosophy. He lives in Cape Town. He has written two historical novels, The Broken River Tent & The Wanderers.
Settler Paranoia Then and Now: From Frontier Wars to “White Farmer Genocide” Myths
Across history, settler societies facing indigenous resistance or deep social change have often projected their deepest fears onto the people whose land and freedom they have seized. In southern Africa, this dynamic emerged
The New Right Did Not Arrive by Accident
The resurgence of right-wing politics across Latin America and Europe is often described as a sudden swing of the pendulum—a spasm of voter anger, a culture-war contagion imported from the internet. None
Cape Town’s Real Opposition Crisis Is Not in Council — It Is in the Voter Roll
Cape Town’s Real Opposition Crisis Is Not in Council — It Is in the Voter Roll As Cape Town moves toward the 2026 Local Government Elections, the city faces a paradox: a council
South Africa’s Impossible Farewell
By Mphuthumi Ntabeni It has become, for me, an unexpectedly painful thing to watch the African National Congress hold its political events. Once, these gatherings crackled with a kind of historic electricity — the
A Billboard Blitz of Bad Faith
OP-ED| Politics What has just happened on the public roads of Johannesburg, the sudden appearance of 83 massive billboards proclaiming “Welcome to the most race-regulated country in the world” just days before the