Reports that Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), called Minister of Small Business Development, Lindiwe Zulu, “a straatmeid” following a verbal exchange that came close to a physical altercation between Zulu and EFF Member of Parliament, Godrich Gardee, is a crude reminder of the sexist double-standards faced by female guerillas in the aftermath of war where they are expected to conform to dominant ideas of feminine respectability.

Alexandra Sutherland’s interest in community engagement began around the same time she started studying drama. In fact, it was sparked when people started killing each other just minutes away from the first year classes she sat in.

Henry Louis Gates Jr's admission reflects a fundamental problem with affirmative action.

Below the surface of the Nkandla scandal currently paralysing parliament is the fact that the monies misused were intended to meet basic needs of impoverished citizens.

here is nothing obvious about the fracas that members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) are causing in Parliament. Anybody who argues the contrary is lying — regardless of whether they agree with the EFF that it is about freedom of speech and dress, or with the ANC, which maintains it is about basic parliamentary civility, or with the Democratic Alliance, that always manages to take that crucial political selfie with the most visible underdog at the right time.

Danielle Bowler says comparing Saartjie Baartman with Kim K and Nicki Minaj is historically reckless.

A TALENTED university graduate who was wasting away in a dead-end job when he nearly died in a life-changing shack fire

DOES the African National Congress (ANC) now feel more comfortable with chiefs and princes than with the people?

Ubuntu is a central idea in post-apartheid South Africa, but scholars disagree on whether it informs the Constitution or undermines it.

When the ANC raised Jacob Zuma above the rule of law and the scrutiny of parliament they repeated, on live television, an aspect of the logic with which the subaltern classes are routinely governed.

THERE’s an African idiom that warns that if you let your child be a menace to the community, one day that same child will chase you around the house with your own sjambok.

ISRAEL, at the best of times, is a scary place.

Emily Corke asks what the chaos in Parliament says about democracy in South Africa.

TWENTY years after the first democratic elections in South Africa, it is a most apposite time to reflect on the processes and actions of specific individuals who fought for democracy and equal rights for all.

THERE was a time when the South African Communist Party (SACP) terrified supporters of a market economy. Today, it is more likely to frighten the left.

Come and join our postgrad programme in Linguistics at Rhodes!

It has been reported in a media release from various feminist organisations that the ministry of women in the presidency invited organisations to a meeting about plans for 16 days of activism for no violence against women and children.

Recently we observed the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists. But without personal stories the occasion becomes abstract and runs the risk of speaking only to the converted.

The recent decision by the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) to place a pig’s head in what was assumed to be the kosher section of Woolworths, and then, in fact, turned out to be the halal section, could be written off as a mere “fail of the week.”

“What a stupid idea to announce a ceasefire with Boko Haram, who came up with that? Is it that these people don’t think? ...They are eager to announce good news. Elections are coming fast. Announce good news and then make a fool of yourself. Haba. The most stupid part was suggesting a day for the release of the girls.”

Season two of Aaron Sorkin’s series The Newsroom tracks journalists in an American television news show agonising over a ground-breaking story.

IF THE Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) splits, labour relations may become more difficult in the short term.

I want to love my brother as one should love a brother.

Pretoria – The Presidency has announced the appointment of Lakela Kaunda as the Chief Operations Officer (COO) with effect from 1 November.

Danielle Bowler says that our experiences of the world are acutely linked to the colour of our skin.

For leadership to be respected there must be trust. Quite clearly across a wide spectrum of government, that trust has disappeared.

Jenna Lowe is one of 4,300 South Africans awaiting an organ transplant (excluding those who are unaware that they are experiencing end stage organ failure, or realise too late).

IN LITERACY development circles, I once heard a story about two preschoolers who were asked, in English, what language they spoke at home.

MY SAY When the new editor of the Business Day visited the Rhodes School of Journalism and Media Studies in September, he surprisingly talked less about doing business journalism and quite a lot about the precarious state of the freedom to know and use information in South Africa.

The Rhodes University Fine Art Department held a symposium last week (16-17 October 2014) titled Blind Spots and ways of not seeing.

Signatory to the UN refugee convention, and boasting arguably the most progressive Constitution in the world, South Africa is often perceived to be a safe-haven for refugees fleeing conflict and persecution in their own countries.

Siyanda Centwa and Pedro Tabensky explore the implications of Ukwaluka (initiation).

FOUNTAIN Vineyard Christian Fellowship pastoral team members Natalia and her husband Ricky Venter celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary last month.

To treat all judges, members of parliament or other individuals in the public or private sector as if they are the same is not in fact equal treatment.

Joanne Hichens – editor of the Adults Only, the second annual Short.Sharp.Stories Awards anthology – interviews Gillian Rennie.

Many arguments have arisen out of the article by Gillian Schutte titled "Dear white people" (M&G Thought Leader, January 2) .

Saxophonist Paul Richard performed a contemporary classical programme for his Masters Recital on Tuesday 30 September.

At a seminar on black thought held at Wits last week, Afro-Jewish philosopher and political thinker Lewis Gordon gave an illuminating talk on “black thought”.

On Thursday evening, South African professor Fred Hendricks — a former anti-apartheid activist — gave a talk entitled “Israel, an Apartheid State?”

We show you a special report from Rhodes university’s18th annual Highway Africa conference.

On Monday evening, not long after the sun went down, a man with a gun stepped out of the dark and into the everyday domestic routine in Thuli Ndlovu’s home in KwaNdengezi, Durban.

It has become commonplace for analysts to speculate on President Jacob Zuma's future.

THE constitution and the law are there to ensure that democratic politics happens within agreed rules — not to make politics go away.

When we engage patriarchy as heritage we need to engage with resistance to oppression of women as well.

Tomorrow is International Translation Day, and so it is an appropriate day on which to ask: Why is literacy important?

Innovation on continent moves from the margins into the mainstream, writes Xolile Mtshazo.

The Conspiracy of Clowns is back, united once again in Cape Town, and boy, are they announcing their Mother City entrance with a bang. By CARLA LEVER.

From our increasingly riotous streets to our ever more fractious parliament, it is undeniably clear that South Africa is not a country at ease with itself.

WHILE many eyes have been glued to the drama that played out in parliament during the debate of no confidence in the speaker, it is possible to miss the structural implications, the erosion of the standing of parliament and other public institutions, potentially crippling democratic rule.

LIEZL DE KOCK is on a surreal high at the moment, having just returned from Amsterdam where she performed in the award-winning Crazy in Love.

Marc Davies interviews Malaika Wa Azania, author of ‘Memoirs of a Born Free’. 10 August 2014.

ORANGE GROVE - An Orange Grove author Marilyn Cohen de Villiers launched her novel entitled Beautiful Family which has similar scenarios as the Pistorius case.

I am afraid I have succumbed to the lure of "oscar" commentary and wish to offer a somewhat different view from Jonny Steinberg's "racial shame" explanation, on this page last week, of many white South Africans' antagonistic responses to the athlete's murder acquittal.

AMSTERDAM FRINGE ACCOLADE CRAZY IN LOVE. Written and devised by Andrew Buckland and Liezl de Kock, with Andrew Buckland and Liezl de Kock. Directed by Rob Murray. Design Jayne Batzofin. PIET SE OPTELGOED.

Associate Professor Andrew Buckland, PhD Candidate Rob Murray, and final year MA student Liezl de Kock

While many eyes have been glued to the drama played out in Parliament during the debate of no confidence in the Speaker, it is possible to miss the structural implications, the erosion of the standing of Parliament and other public institutions, potentially crippling democratic rule. By RAYMOND SUTTNER.

WHY do many of our politicians believe that an old idea becomes new if you add an insult to it — and that you win an argument when you call your opponent names? Because they know that this is what the national debate expects from them.

THERE is much speculation over the future of President Jacob Zuma as a number of critical issues come simultaneously to a head.

Danielle Bowler says that multiple identities have multiple, concomitant sites of oppression.

This article was originally published in Grocott's Mail and has been republished with the permission of its author.

My mother was raped by a church elder, something that would affect the rest of her life. This made what happened after, something even worse.

Beneath the headline-grabbing clamour about Nkandla, "spy tapes", the role of the Public Protector and many other issues that jostle for our attention, there is a deeper malaise - the threat to constitutional democracy and the nation-building process.

His ideas touched the elements of identity and pride WE HAVE never fully recovered from the loss and emptiness that the death of Steve Biko caused us. We have buried many of our loved ones after Biko.

IN THE wake of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, a small contingent of health workers and scientists has been on the front lines of fighting the disease in laboratories, hospitals and makeshift World Health Organisation care centres in under-resourced villages and towns.

SOUTH Africa's poor school pass rates could be improved if indigenous knowledge was worked into the education system.

THE Eastern Cape government has called on the international community to take action against brutality on journalists.

Kwela-Ride Dompas! I looked back Dompas! I went through my pockets Not there.

THE more the courts do to fix poverty and inequality directly, the more likely is it that people will remain poor and unequal.

Much argument over South African democracy revolves around the electoral dominance of the ANC, its repeated re-election as ruling party.

My Brilliant Career Vuyo Sokupa, head of programming at Mzansi Magic Channels, tells Margaret Harris that once the TV bug bit she could not resist it What do you do at work each day?

There is much speculation over the future of President Jacob Zuma as a number of critical issues come simultaneously to a head.

Wider concerns with racial representation in academia conceal a significant gender imbalance

Grahamstown is a city known for its churches, its arts festival, its student life, and even its donkeys, but what about its own people?

Describing the intractable conflict between Israel and Palestine as comprising the best illustration of the greatest gap between reality

DAISY Spencer is an actress, singer, choreographer and director, who has been working professionally in theatre for the past 11 years.

Emily Corke looks at Julius Malema’s political game playing.

The more the courts do to fix poverty and inequality directly, the more likely is it that people will remain poor and unequal.

Much argument over South African democracy revolves around the electoral dominance of the ANC and its repeated re-election as ruling party.

MARTIN Koboekae, producer of SABC2's comedy Ga Re Dumele, has launched his second novel, The Cleanser.

JANICE Warman, a journalist who has worked on numerous publications including the Spectator and the Guardian, writes beautifully.

IN MODERN democracies most people accept that there must be leadership.

One of the most notable aspects of the work of Gerald Machona, a Zimbabwe-born multidisciplinary artist, is his innovative use of foreign currency (particularly decommissioned Zimbabwean dollars) as an aesthetic material.

As the son of a Holocaust survivor and a refugee of mid-20th century turmoil, knowledge of the precariousness of existence has always been part of the fabric of my life, and has motivated me permanently to ask: How should I be in a way that pays respect to the suffering of my forbearers? Or, to put the point more generally, how should my people be?

In colonial wars the occupying power invariably reaches a point where it has to acknowledge that its true enemy is not a minority - devil worshipers, communists, fanatics or terrorists - subject to external and evil manipulation, but the people as a whole.

Rhodes University Emeritus Professor Paul Maylam delivered a keynote address focused on Rhodes University’s history

What dire household financial situation drove rock drillers to wage low-intensity war on their employers in Marikana in 2012?

Of the 4?000 professors in SA, only 34 are women. The cards are stacked in men’s favour, says Professor Esther Ramani, and that has to change.

Digging up the historic role of women at Rhodes University could lead to a transformation in how gender issues are handled

In modern democracies most people accept that there must be leadership. However, in this era, meanings of leadership and the quality of leaders is an issue with which most societies grapple. For many people there remains a desire for leadership to be more driven by its people.

Rhodes graduate sails from Australia to Mauritius AFTER almost two months paddling a rowing boat from Australia to Mauritius, the biggest disappointment for South African extreme athlete Cameron Bellamy was not making it home instead.

'Knock & lock-down phoney miracle politic-crony-oracles/ *most beloved for ‘suicide on the rail tracks’/ trains run through the flesh here/ travel not far for head-slices and skin-pieces,” writes Lesego Rampolokeng

The arena of “love” among the rich black kids of northern Joburg is thrilling and tumultuous, pompous and poetic.

AS THE organiser of this year’s Silent Protest at Rhodes University, I read Dave Rankin’s letter to the editor (“Pointless protest”, DD August 7) with interest and empathy.

Professor Achille Mbembe from the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER) discussed the most crucial questions that have not been resolved in South Africa in the past 20 years, pertaining the future of the country.

The Rhodes University production at the Student Theatre Festival never fails to draw a crowd. Solo, which follows a mother's journey to retrieve her drowned daughter, opened to a soldout theatre.

Today, wherever we are, we hear discussion about “the failure of post-Apartheid South Africa”.

“The truth is not beautiful, but the search for it is,” Nadine Gordimer once famously said.

ARECENT contribution considered the importance of dress as a form of language, a way of communicating meanings ("Politics of dress and the Economic Freedom Fighters", DD July 29) ).

The Unit for the Humanities at Rhodes University (UHURU) will host one of South Africa’s most potent contributors to the analysis of modern politics

HAZEL CRAMPTON is a writer and artist, author of The Sunburnt Queen and the recently published The Side of the Sun at Noon, and coeditor of Into the Hitherto Unknown: Ensign Beutler's Expedition to the Eastern Cape, 1752. She currently teaches in the Master's in Creative Writing at Rhodes University, Grahamstown.

Writers, poets and academics commemorated Nobel Prize winning author Nadine Gordimer's contribution to South African literature

The Department of Political and International Studies at Rhodes University offers a range of post-graduate study options at PhD, Masters, Honours and Diploma levels. Masters degrees are offered by course-work and thesis or by thesis only.

Professor John Daniel was an internationally respected researcher and academic who first made his mark as a young student activist, but he continued to be an inspiring mentor throughout his life.

Remembering a man who had a profound influence on my life; whose lessons and poetry have been constant companions.

This year marked 40 years of the Grahamstown-based National Arts Festival, which is not only the biggest festival in SA, but also in Africa.

Former UCT academic, TRC member and author Pumla GobodoMadikizela is helping foster all-important reconciliation by confronting our past

The ruthless assault on Gaza has sometimes been presented in our media, and on occasion in some solidarity efforts too, as an issue that is solely of concern to Muslim people.

In a barren political environment, the EFF has understood the power of symbolism, using dress to dramatise their entry into Parliament.

IS THE problem with the trade union movement that it is too radical — or not radical enough? As the metal strike drags on

Protests are an everyday feature of life in the new South Africa. This practical, lived experience raises questions that need examination. Does voting realise its promise, and does the system work for the electorate?

As the Israeli state rains its murder on the people of Gaza we are confronted with a stark demonstration

AS THE Israeli state rains death on the people of Gaza we are confronted with a stark demonstration of the ways

The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform has made much ado about the reopening of the land claims process under the newly amended Restitution Act.

The notion of citizenship is sometimes taken for granted and in South Africa's 20 years of democracy it is far from being a settled concept.

Building non-racialism is one of the values of South Africa’s democratic constitution.

Sylvaine Strike and Andrew Buckland’s collaboration ‘On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco’ produces a festival winner. This being my first ever time at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, I was very lucky to obtain a ticket for this sold-out production.

The nightclub bouncer approach to immigration is doing us more harm than good.

The panel discussion entitled Is Ubuntu dead? brought together academics and audience members in a conversation about the merits and limitations of the Ubuntu philosophy.

EVERY day we read about corruption or misappropriation of funds. Consequently, in our imagination as well as lived reality, holding office is associated with enrichment. Discussion tends to focus on illegal acts.

USING the words of former South Africa president Nelson Mandela, Professor Barney Pityana will be "retiring from retirement" when he steps down as rector of the Grahamstown College of the Transfiguration at the end of the year.

Vesterday's 40 Years of Theatre in SA panel discussion at Think!Fest ended on a note of disagreement — a good sign for the theatre.

Higher education in an African context is the focus of two Research Chairs that explore fundamental issues about the delivery of higher learning.

The contemporary South African academic community has a rare opportunity. Unlike many other places around the globe

Rhodes University invites potential candidates, to apply for the Patrick & Margaret Flanagan Scholarship for international full-time postgraduate for study in 2015.

Eligibility: The Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships are open to the Social Sciences and Humanities. Candidates must have been awarded their Doctoral degrees within the last five (5) years.

Our real ticking time bomb may be not poverty, but what it always has been – race. Our angriest people may not be those forced to survive on much less than they need, but the black middle class.

“My love for Grahamstown shines through my artwork,” these are the words of Dr Amanda Tumusiime

The adoption and implementation of the Research and Development Plan (RDP) in 2008/2009 has paid dividends if the Faculty of Humanities’ 2014

University of KwaZulu-Natal Press presents Ubuntu: Curating the Archive, edited by Leonhard Praeg and Siphokazi Magadla.

At the 1963 Moroka-Jabavu Jazz Festival in Soweto, the crowd went wild over a slightly-built pianist named Chris McGregor. But they also wondered why he wore a cap that covered most of the top of his head.

A controversial report by a South African think tank calls for the abolition of affirmative action

Andrew Buckland, Rob van Vuuren, Gerald Machona, Richard Antrobus and Genna Gardini are only a few of the Grahamstown names that spring to mind when thinking about the National Arts Festival.

Despite the gruelling subject matter of Miners Shot Down, the message of the documentary which had its first public screening in Grahamstown this week, is one of hope.

History is written by all those who have the resources to tell their version, writes Gary Baines.

WHAT we call one another and how we identify ourselves in South Africa is an expression of a complex relationship of sameness and difference, belonging and exclusion.

When the images of forceful evictions (a word that has become the trigger to a familiar loaded gun) in the Nomzamo informal settlement in Strand emerged, shock and outrage trended on social networks.

My politicisation and later involvement in the African National Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party (SACP) did not begin with an understanding of power as a theoretical concept, nor was I conversant with high-powered analyses.

Community engagement is increasingly playing a key role in university life in South Africa, but the concept itself remains underexplored.

The Ruth First Scholarship is intended to support candidates whose work is in the spirit of the life and work of Ruth First, whose research poses difficult social questions, and who are interested in linking knowledge and politics and scholarship and action.

One year ago, The Guardian newspaper published National Security Agency (NSA) spy Edward Snowden's revelations about mass surveillance in the US.

The 'I' in the following article is fictional. He was created in order to highlight the very real issues discussed in this article.

Rhodes Alumnus, Dr Tendai Murisa has been appointed the Executive Director of TrustAfrica, starting from October 2014.

Our real ‘ticking time bomb’ may be not poverty, but what it always has been – race.

IF THE public debate is a guide, we are again wasting a “crisis” — this time, the fact that the economy shrank by 0.6% in the first quarter

In his 10th year of performing at the National Arts Festival, Richard Antrobus, an ex-Grahamstown local and Rhodes Alumnus

What we call one another and how we identify ourselves in South Africa is an expression of a complex relationship of sameness and difference

When we evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of our democracy we need to move beyond criticising our experience of parliamentarism

A RESPECTED political commentator has warned the DA to think long and hard when it comes to replacing opposition parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko.

BUSINESS and the government will not find out what they have in common unless they look harder at what divides them.

WITH new kids on the political block, the EFF, and Numsa's proposed workers' party both vying for support, the relationship between the two could be a defining moment in South African politics

IF THE social justice agenda here depends on inflating the popular support and the commitment to equality of a loud group of racial nationalists, it is in more trouble than we thought.

STEVEN Friedman correctly concludes that the ANC may not face electoral defeat for the foreseeable future

The Post-Count Recriminations: it sounds like a made-for-TV movie, but actually, it’s a good title for South Africa’s post-election week.

The news is bad, it seems. We need to recognise that, if where our politics is headed depends on tensions within the ANC, it cannot lead to an emancipatory politics.

Durban, the city where Jacob Zuma has his firmest urban base, is a hard place to do politics.

THOSE who claim that elections do nothing to change lives may care to look at the way in which the government will now begin to operate in some of our major cities.

If the social justice agenda here depends on inflating the popular support and the commitment to equality of a loud group of racial nationalists, it is in more trouble than we thought.

The Land Claims Court in the Grahamstown high court ruled on Friday 2 May that the claim of indigenous Salem residents to the remaining 33 farms and properties in the old Salem Commonage was valid.

ANC scores a major electoral victory despite hopes for change on the political scene of South Africa.

I confess that as I stood alone in that voting station, I became apoplectic with fear, says Malaika Wa Azania.

WHY should we care about an election whose result won’t differ much from the last four?

TEN days before his untimely death in Durban on April 15, Brian Sandberg spoke eloquently at the launch of the Neil Aggett labour studies unit at Rhodes University'

Because of a conflict of interest, municipalities are responsible for a rise in 'unlawful' protests he South African Constitution guarantees the right to assemble, demonstrate and picket. But to what extent are South Africans able to practise this right?

SA deserves better than to be ruled by a party that flirts with totalitarianism, writes Barney Pityana.

In a disappointing but not altogether unsurprising move, the communications regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has leapt to the defence of the censorious state broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and confirmed the de-facto ban of two opposition political advertisements for the national elections.

Nelson Mandela, generally viewed as the embodiment of South Africa’s democracy, was not always the genial, open-minded fatherly figure whose smiling face is associated with the hopes that many cherished for the new South Africa.

Superman is not returning to save us. If we can all come to terms with this, our chances of moving forward will grow.

For anyone concerned about gender equality it is significant that patriarchy is not raised by any political party in their election campaign.

The Mail & Guardian carried a very interesting story in its most recent edition.

For anyone who is concerned about gender equality, it is significant that patriarchy is not raised by any political party in their election campaign.

Rhodes University alumna, Ms Efemia Chela’s short story “Chicken” in Feast, Famine and Potluck published in South Africa 2013

If numbers can’t bring realism to election predictions, perhaps common sense might.

In recent days Ronnie Kasrils has been referred to as ‘a rebel, a Judas, a scoundrel’, as ‘Satan’, and as a ‘disruptive, reckless and counter-revolutionary’ figure spitting on ‘the long struggles and the sacrifices of our people’.

Reports on municipal unrest miss the wider picture of peaceful protest in South Africa violent service delivery protests have dominated the news recently.

The 2014 elections are held on the 20th anniversary of the advent of democracy. Instead of celebration, the atmosphere is suffused with anger and mistrust.

Spoiling your vote is a valid democratic option, but it just doesn’t do enough to make your voice heard.

RHODES University opened its three day graduation period on a high note yesterday, with the institution set to award 2 367 degrees

A new edition of Sello K Duiker's Quiet Violence of Dreams prompts Siphiwo Mahala to reflect on how the 'poster boy for black writing' outlived that label WAS BORN at Baragwanath Hospital and my parents are Judah and Meikie Duiker.

The Unit for the Humanities at Rhodes University (UHURU) will host a one day colloquium on 17 April 2014 entitled, “The Marikana Moment and the Post-apartheid state: migrant-worker subjectivity and state violence”.

The Marikana Moment & Post-apartheid State

At the end of his critique of the Democratic Alliance (April 1), RW Johnson offered some observations on the United Democratic Front: that it was ‘a pawn of the ANC', as was supposedly ‘demonstrated by the way in which the movement simply folded itself into the ANC without a murmur after 1990.'

ELECTIONS are often not about what is fair, but about what is seen to be fair. Demands that Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC)

What is depicted as politics today sees the predominant areas of contestation being in relation to positions of power and wealth.

Dr Neil Hudson Aggett was found hanging from the bars of his prison cell in 1982, after spending 70 days in detention. He was only 28.

Neil Aggett, the labour and anti-apartheid activist who died in police detention in 1982, did not allow his white skin to stop him from joining the predominantly

For Future Generations, an exhibition recognising the immense contribution of International Library of African Music (Ilam) founder Hugh Tracey, is opening at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum at 1 Park Drive today at 5.30pm.

Urban land is acutely contested in contemporary South Africa. There are regular land occupations, some taking the form of quiet encroachment

Most South Africans are aware of the public spat between South Africa’s largest cellphone operators, MTN and Vodacom

Grocott’s Mail, one of the oldest newspapers in the country, has moved out of its historic home close to Grahamstown’s cathedral into Rhodes University’s Journalism and Media Studies school in an integration that is seeing the newsroom become the training ground for journalism students.

"WHEN people elect a president, they don't look for angels. They look for somebody they think will be able to run their country at that given moment."

There is a sense of crisis that pervades South African politics in the aftermath of the Public Protector’s Nkandla report.

Jacob Zuma will not be redeemed by a "Lola moment" or "second transition". His name will go down in history with Marikana and Nkandla.

I am so tired of being afraid.

King's bread dough creation and Makalima's 'similar struggles' forge through to next round.

RHODES University has bagged a National Research Foundation grant worth nearly R700 000 to study South Africa's fraught academic space.

THE NATIONAL Research Foundation has given a grant to the Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning (CHERTL) at Rhodes University

Robyn Sassen notes a wild kind of paganism in some of the works.

THE TASK of a writer engaging with the work of artists and activists is important.

What is happening to South Africa? We need to return to the principles of peaceful resistance that guided the ANC of Mandela, Tambo, Luthuli and Sisulu

CHIEF Albert Luthuli is a Nobel Prize winner who receives less attention that he deserves, for his life has important lessons.

AS STRANGE as this may seem, the story of the past 20 years is not purely that of the African National Congress (ANC).

South Africa celebrates its twentieth year of democracy this year. It has been an eventful twenty years, with much debate and contestation around the political values and practices in a new and noisy democracy.

With a view of debating the extent to which South African schools and universities are ethical institutions, panellists Dr Sizwe Mabizela, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Rhodes University and Chairperson of the Umalusi Board and Ms Madeleine Schoeman, principal of Ntsika High School recently participated in a panel debate under the theme, ‘The Ethical Educational Institution’.

My favourite Rhodes University fine arts professor Ruth Simbao opened her home which she shares with adopted baby son, Quba, in Grahamstown to La Femme and shared her favourite room.

Some people love and desire people of the same sex. This is true everywhere and it has always been true.

OUR problem is not that the government does not have enough people who know how to get things done

The need to rethink international relations from a personal perspective was the focus of a paper presented by a lecturer at the Political and International Studies, Ms Siphokazi Magadla.

I came to study at Rhodes in 2013 after spending a year at Gadra Matric school, working to improve my matric results.

There’s undoubtedly been some improvement in the quality of life since 1994, but it can’t be denied that there’s a certain sense of déjà vu.

IF THE Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) were half as good at impressing voters as they are at enthralling journalists and commentators, they would form the next government.

A MENTOR, father figure and a fine human being were some of the words used to describe former Daily Dispatch editor Gavin Stewart by speakers at his memorial service yesterday.

As with most transitions, South Africa’s hard work of rebuilding our society really began after the formal institution of democratic rule.

Glitzy opening of Parliament belied reality of mounting tension, writes the public discussion around the pageantry at the annual opening of Parliament often treats the event more like the Oscars than a serious attempt to take some measure of where we are as a country.

Denying uncomfortable realities is a South African habit. And the most common and damaging form of denial happens when some of us wish away our most important divide — race.

Midrand Group’s think tank wizard, Prince Mashele, has co-written a new book called The Fall of the ANC.

WHILE some analysts have dismissed political parties' election promises as unrealistic pipe dreams impossible to achieve

hando Njovane, the Lusikisiki-born scholar, who graduated with a distinction in Masters in English at Rhodes University in 2013

HISTORY, the proverb says, is written by the victors: whoever comes out on top provides the filter through which we view the past.

Sharing anecdotes from their latest book, The Fall of the ANC - What Next?, at Rhodes University recently, authors Mr Prince Mashele and Dr Mzukisi Qobo

The glitzy opening of Parliament belied the reality of mounting tensions and popular protests, writes Richard Pithouse.

It is through the people taking part in service delivery protests, and those who refuse systematic dehumanisation that the founder of the PAC lives, writes Malaika Wa Azania.

He was detained on suspicion of driving anti-apartheid activists to the Botswana border.

Six Professors will deliver their inaugural lectures at Eden Grove Blue from May until September this year.

A CAMERA is Tara Mette's lens to her art and to the world.

RENOWNED journalism advocate, journalist and founder of the South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef) Professor Gavin Stewart died on Monday.

Journalist and SA National Editors Forum (Sanef) founder member Gavin Stewart has died, the organisation said on Tuesday.

Nomalanga Mkhize remembers the days when the ANC used to take marches and election campaigns into no-go areas.

We take a look at the role South African women have played in our history.

The Unit for the Humanities at Rhodes University (UHURU) is presenting the falling seminar on Wednesday February 19th.

ON one level, the question seems ridiculous. All elections offer choices and all of us are allowed to vote.

The Centre of Economics Journalism in Africa (CEJA) hopes that funding from the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa

On one level, the question seems ridiculous. All elections offer choices and all of us are allowed to vote.

Grahamstown - The road from Port Elizabeth to Grahamstown winds past one luxury game farm after another.

And another one bites the dust. Yet another Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Lulama Makhoba, has left the beleaguered South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)

The scale of protest currently under way in large parts of South Africa is comparable to the period of ungovernability under apartheid.

The party's use of categories defined by apartheid planners blinds it to the realities of class politics.

South African Humanities Deans’ Association in association with the Ministerial Project on the Future of the Humanities and Social Sciences Doctoral Schools.

UNITY may be a strength for some people sometimes — but not for opposition parties in our electoral system.

The road from Port Elizabeth to Grahamstown winds past one luxury game farm after another.

UHURU is a newly established Research Centre in the Faculty of Humanities focussed on research on questions relating to human emancipation in Africa and the Global South.

In recent decades, writers, enironmentalists and activists of every stripe have sought to remind us

Many South Africans long for something new and refreshing in the South African political landscape as a counter to the decadence and violence of the Zuma-led ANC government.

As a new political party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has generated both excitement and criticism in a short space of time.

Are the media hostile to the ANC? Do they attack the dignity of ANC politicians? Do they operate to the detriment of the public interest? Is responsible and ethical reporting treated as less important than the protection and promotion of media freedom? By JEANNE PRINSLOO.

NUMSA may become the first mass worker's party to oppose the ANC.

Eastern Cape author Bandile Magibili has been invited to the University of East London in Britain for three weeks to deliver a series of lectures based on his self-published book, 2 B Black.

At its special national congress last month, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) took a significant decision not to support the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in the next elections.

For a long time the ANC was able to sacralise its authority by invoking the key events, ideas and personalities of the struggle like Catholics recite the Stations of the Cross.

The media alongside the state is one of the most important institutions in society. The media act as a watchdog and are an important counterbalance to the state.

Don’t feed the trolls. That’s the general advice when confronted with these online pests.

As Numsa head towards their special congress in Boksburg next week the tensions within Cosatu

In the Students’ Union Foyer, at the base of the University of Cape Town’s Jagger Library, hang a series of paintings by the South African artist Richard Baholo.

Rhodes Journalism Review is now online with a new monthly edition called RJRALIVE (www.rjr.ru.ac.za/).

EVERY now and then, we are reminded that South African liberalism, like its counterparts elsewhere,

The Allan Gray Orbis Foundation in-conjunction with Rhodes University officially launched the Allan Gray Centre For Leadership Ethics

OUR reality is that too many who occupy positions of power, and are entrusted with the leadership are sorely wanting in the core values

"How do I translate the nebulous energy of ideas into language, words, in order to convey an image?"

A FREQUENT theme as we prepare for the election is the "born free" factor: it is the first in which the generation born after 1994 is eligible to register and some of us insist that this will change how people vote. Registration figures are watched closely to see how many newly eligible voters sign up because it is assumed the African National Congress (ANC) may battle to attract their support.

Vincent Truter is the founder and CEO of Cycology, which imports electric bicycles and promotes green mobility.

CELEBRATED photographer Obie Oberholzer, who lectured at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, for many years, has released a new book of images capturing the timeless beauty of the Karoo.

LAST month, forensic auditor Lawrence Moepi was killed in a suspected hit, as he arrived at his Johannesburg office.

This is a collaborative piece between learners from Ntsika Secondary School and Pedro Tabensky. The learners have been having conversations with him for a few months and wish through this article to reflect their thoughts and feelings about growing up in Grahamstown East.The result is a reconstruction of these conversations.

ALMOST exactly 20 years ago, in November 1993, the results of a survey of South African attitudes to democracy was released.

WHEN, as a first-year student at Rhodes University in 2000, Rebecca Hodes and a friend established an association called SHARC

It will take about 250 years for South Africa to make serious headway in ensuring ownership of land in the country is fair.

The impending closure of the only Eastern Cape Drama company, Ubom! threatens to put an end to 11 years worth of community service. However, one actor refuses to let this stop him.

Veteran actor returns with artistic tour de force of political satire and visual comedy, writes Karen Rutter.

Rhodes University academics Professor Fred Hendricks and Professor Kirk Helliker will present a seminar at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) on 1 November titled “Ongoing land inequalities in South Africa: what role for engaged scholarship?” along with Professor Lungisile Ntsebeza of the University of Cape Town.

President Jacob Zuma is either confused or disingenuous for calling for more patriotic coverage of news that puts the state first.

With digital television imminent, broadcast media are anxious for the opportunities inherent in multichannel. In Digital Terrestrial Transmission (DTT), the use of digital signals allows a large amount of spectrum to be released for other purposes.

If we think that flashy and wasteful spending is the invention and sole property of the government, we have not been paying attention.

When Bruce Springsteen steps on to the stage in Cape Town on the 28th of January next year it will be his first performance in South Africa, but it won’t be his first connection to South Africa.

Local journalists, with their reliance on the official spokesperson, are failing to tell the real story of police violence, writes Jane Duncan.

Primedia, South Africa's leading media group, invites applications for postgraduate scholarships from South Africans who wish to study media management at Rhodes University's Sol Plaatje Institute (SPI) for Media Leadership in 2014.

Delivering his inaugural lecture last week on Wednesday (16 October), Head of the Department of English, Professor Dirk Klopper spoke about the emergence of the imaginary in the space of the interval; the space among the actualities of everyday life, the space of possibilities, filled with potentiality.

Although the Hewitt’s experience Mamelodi for a Month has been written and talked about (and hit the front pages of newspapers around the world),

Rhodes Drama students specialising in Physical Performance, Contemporary Performance, Choreography and the new Visual Theatre will showcase their original theatre pieces in a series of performances that have been described as inspiring, intelligent, disturbing and delightful.

At least four lobby groups across the country have called on Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga to review her recently drafted norms and standards for school buildings.

Africa’s share of the global creative economy is less than one percent. This means that Africans were consigned largely to being consumers of creative products – films, television, music – from more dominant economies, said Mike van Graan, executive director of the African Arts Institute.

We have been incorporating elephants into our lives since humans first became... well... humans.

Not for the first time, a vast gulf has opened up between the country in which we live and the one in many people’s heads.

It is mid-afternoon in a sunny Grahamstown as children begin arriving for their Sakhuluntu cultural group gathering —the delight on their faces and in their voices testament to their enthusiasm and anticipation.

Noluthando was allegedly possessed by izizwe (spirits). Her boyfriend from Katlegong, it seems, put them inside her.

The Humanities Faculty, the largest Faculty at Rhodes, emphasises an education that promotes the development of a well-rounded and critical graduate with the ability to play a meaningful role in society.

A task team set up by South Africa’s print and digital owners has rejected calls for a transformation charter – which has been opposed by newspaper editors as a back door to regulate the press inappropriately – and instead demanded more rigorous implementation of existing Black Economic Empowerment codes.

Dr Cecil Wele Manona, 76, revered Rhodes University scholar, expert Eastern Cape researcher and radio celebrity, died in Nelson Mandela Bay on Tuesday.

Celebrated author and poet, Sabata-mpho Mokae, has received two M-Net Literary Awards at a ceremony held in Sandton, Gauteng. Both awards are for his debut Setswana novel Ga ke modisa.

Dr Wele Cecil Manona was born in Durban location, Peddie in 1937 and completed his early schooling at the Methodist Mission school

Artists are dressing up - or undressing - to make a point about who they really are. But is the spectacle more than just cheap drag?

Stel jou voor dat jy tien dae lank nie mag praat nie. As jy boonop daarop uit is om inligting uit iemand te kry, is dit ’n nog meer gedugte taak.

Print and digital task team releases their blunt assessment on race and gender in ownership, management.

IF POLITICAL parties wonder why many young people don’t bother about party politics, they should look at the way they treat those who do.

Chris Mann, Honorary Professor of Poetry at Rhodes, will be in Italy this week to present the keynote address at an international conference on post-colonial literature.

Professor Jonathan Jansen is rector of the University of the Free State. On 18 September 2013 he delivered the English Academy of South Africa’s Percy Baneshik Memorial Lecture.

Biography pays tribute to the innovative South African pianist and arranger Chris McGregor.

In 1752 Governor Ryk Tulbagh dispatched a well-kitted-out expedition with the ultimate goal of discovering who and what lay beyond the eastern frontier of the colony, then the Great Brak River.

Andrew Buckland and the Baxter Theatre Centre present the world premiere of a new solo production, Laugh The Buffalo, from October 16 until November 30.

Rhodes University has secured another prestigious National Research Foundation (NRF) chair position.

Had he lived — he died in 1990 — jazzman Chris McGregor would be in his 80s now. But, like jazz veterans across the globe, he would probably still be surprising audiences with harmonic innovation. Health permitting, jazz isn’t a calling in which years mean much.

The latest issue of New Coin magazine, out this month, was edited by Vonani Bila. He is the first black editor in the nearly fifty-year history of this Rhodes University-published poetry magazine which has a national and international reputation.

I am a 31-year-old African male with university degrees from two higher education institutions.

Nkosinathi Mngomezulu was shot in the stomach on Saturday morning. He was shot at the Marikana land occupation at Stop 1, Cato Crest in Durban during an eviction.

NEWS practitioners should take serious note of Herman Wasserman’s comment that "trust and credibility" underline the relationship between the media and society (Call for media to maintain public trust, September 9).

The national budget for basic, free education is almost R17.6bn. Even so, free basic education in SA is in crisis. Most schools have no library, face staff shortages and suffer mismanagement.

UConn philosophy professor Lewis R. Gordon will serve as the Nelson Mandela Visiting Professor in the Department of Politics & International Relations at Rhodes University in South Africa during the fall semesters of 2014 and 2015.

Rhodes University has welcomed President Jacob Zuma's decision to refer the Protection of State Information Bill back to Parliament.

Rhodes University masters student Sabata-mpho Mokae's novel, Ga ke Modisa, has been shortlisted for the 2013 M-Net Literary Awards. Mokae is completing his MA in creative writing at Rhodes, where his thesis is a novella in English.

Negotiating changes in the media industry in the wake of. the explosion of social media and other online platforms was one of the hot topics discussed at the 17th annual Highway Africa conference, which ended in Grahamstown last weekend.

The ISER in conjunction with the Faculty of Humanities will host the fifth Dr AB Xuma Memorial Lecture. The lecture is held in honour of Xuma, a pioneer of an inclusive tradition of social policy in South Africa who drew attention to the social effects of Segregation and Apartheid on the health and welfare of blacks.

The media could lose the reason for its existence if it loses its ability to speak to people in a language they understand, about experiences they recognise and through stories that they believe to be true, says Herman Wasserman, chairman of the Highway Africa steering committee.

The media face multiple pressures both from within and outside the profession, writes Hopewell Radebe.

Journalists and media houses should be wary of publishing tweets, blogs and Facebook postings of third parties because they can be held legally responsible for the publication of offensive or defamatory material, says legal consultant Justine Limpitlaw.

Seamus Heaney, the much loved Irish poet and Nobel Prize winner who died in Dublin last week, was no stranger to South Africa.

Huw Morris's photographic exhibition reflects on the ?master-servant dynamics and the desire for the other that probably existed in 1970s SA.

Imagine you’re in the prime of your life and a big-boned man drops by your office. After introducing himself as “Peter van Rensburg, financial adviser” he sits down to dispense some advice on future investments.

A landmark conference aims to establish the field of ‘medical humanities’ in South Africa.

AWARD-WINNING poet and playwright Kobus Moolman will launch his sixth collection of poems, Left Over (Dye Hard Press), at Ike’s Bookshop tomorrow at 6?pm.

The Media magazine pays tribute to some of the most influential women in the broader media industry. Joanna Wright seeks them out.

Political activist and Port Elizabeth lecturer Dr Janet Cherry has been awarded the Distinguished Old Rhodian Award from Rhodes University.

The future is bright for Glenvista’s Gareth Crocker as prominent Hollywood producer takes a liking in his books. Julie Maule gets the story behind Gareth’s story.

“Marikana is probably the lowest point in democratic South Africa,” said Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza at a Marikana memorial seminar at Rhodes University last Friday 16 August.

“It’s a novel recording a breakdown,” explains Paul Wessels, former supervisor of newly-published writer Songeziwe Mahlangu.

The arts world is mourning the sudden death last week of an award-winning Bathurst dance teacher who helped many youngsters realise their dreams of performing around the world

A leading academic in the field of philosophy will join Rhodes University when he takes up the Nelson Mandela Visiting Professorship in the department of politics and international relations.

As the first World War came to an end, more than 14 000 black French soldiers entered occupied Germany.

Public funding must be made available to the legal team representing the 270 miners injured and arrested following the Marikana massacre on 16 August 2012

THE African National Congress (ANC) is far better off with a Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) which gives it a hard time than one which doesn’t.

When it comes to taking pictures, you might liken Port Elizabeth- based professional photographer Karl Schoemaker as a bit of a cowboy.

He may have designed the South African Democratic Teacher’s Union (SADTU) logo, the logo of the House of Traditional Leaders in the Eastern Cape, the 2004 South African Games logo, and contributed 70% to the design of the South African flag, but Mr Thembani Hastings Mqhayi remains unknown.

Award-winning writer Siphiwo Mahala has written several short stories and anthologies. He works for the Department of Arts and Culture.

The voices of mine workers featured little in media reports on last year's strike-related unrest at Lonmin's Marikana mine in North West, academic Jane Duncan said on Monday.

Accountability was key to the long-term success of a business and an enabler of economic growth, but the lack of accountability in South Africa was not only government’s burden to bear, Professor Steven Friedman said on Monday.

Our city is born of conquest: divided, broken, brutally unjust - and beautiful in the eyes of some of its inhabitants. But most in our town are not in a position to see much beauty.

Eastern Cape-born Songeziwe Mahlangu will be launching his first novel, Penumbra, in Grahamstown next week.

Poets, scribes and would-be-authors from country districts take centre stage during the open microphone session at the long weekend Schreiner: Karoo Writers Festival in Cradock, which launches today.

On 16 August 2012 a tactical response unit of the South African police shot and killed 34 striking workers and seriously wounded at least 78 others, who were part of a peaceful gathering on public land near the town of Marikana in North West Province.

Most media don’t really give a hoot about young people. Coverage for youth is centred on two events per year: matric results and Youth Day. In between? Not much. And the feeling is mutual. But this is not good for the future of our country or the media.

Recent revelations by former National Security Agency (NSA) computer analyst Edwin Snowden that the NSA was undertaking unwarranted mass surveillance of Americans has thrown the communications surveillance activities of governments into sharp relief.

Lucy Grinker from Clarendon High School for Girls in East London came second in the 2013 De Beers English Olympiad that drew more than 7500 entries this year from high schools throughout South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique.

Every year, hundreds of Eastern Cape boys, some as young as nine, are mutilated, beaten and even murdered in the name of a tradition that has gone horribly wrong.

Dr Catherine Burns of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, emphasised that rape has been part of human life for a long time. She was addressing the Rhodes community on the fourth day of the Teach-In Lecture Series on Thursday, 25 July, at the Barratt Lecture Theatre.

Last week Inigo Gilmore's documentary, South Africa's Dirty Cops", was screened on British television.

Chaotic official data on school infrastructure in the Eastern Cape and chronic underspending are perpetuating poor learning conditions.

Poet Kobus Moolman was born in Pietermaritzburg in 1964. He has been awarded the Ingrid Jonker Prize, the Pansa award for best drama, the Dalro poetry prize and the South African Literary Award for poetry.

Moving to another city meant having to adjust to another lifestyle. Arriving in Grahamstown I soon realized that the Muslim community was very small.

With more than 30 years of performing at the National Arts Festival, South African theatre legend Andrew Buckland has developed a signature style of performance.

Visual presentation offers a unique fusion of Japanese and South African forms of theatre and art.

Another National Arts Festival has breezed in and out of Grahamstown for an 11-day shindig in frontier country, leaving some enriched — either by way of monetary or creative fulfilment — and others disappointed.

Eighteen months of work are coming to fruition at the National Arts Festival for Alette Schoon and her team of documentary film-makers.

Exploring the arts of the Eastern Cape 1900-2013. Venue: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, until July 14.

Prof Russell Kaschula, the National Research Foundation SARCHhi Chair of Intellectualism of African Languages will launch short story anthology as part of the Wordfest Programme on Sunday, 30 June 2012, in Eden Grove Red lecture theatre. The book is entitled Displaced, explores past and present complexities in South Africa.

I was fortunate enough to attend a pre-screening this week for one of the most anticipated sequels of the year (at least in my mind): Despicable Me 2, and I must say, my love for animated movies grows stronger and wilder every year.

Striking miners at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana, North West, in August last year.

The launch of the “Generations of Jazz Exhibition” at the Red Location Museum, on Friday, 21 June 2013 from 19:00 is already fully booked.

Aadila Mahomed explains why despite urban decay, Hermann Niebuhr has managed to capture the richness and flux of Johannesburg.

This June, we will once again commemorate the student uprising of 1976. In our public discussions, we will try to extrapolate lessons to tell a new generation how to follow the students’ example in their fight for freedom.

Bay ratepayers and residents need leaders with a firm grasp of good governance stopped a filling station at Five Ways, Cape Road, sometime in March.

The Red Location Museum is in its element as one of our most exiting exhibitions ever, will be launched on Friday, 21 June 2013!

Friends, family and colleagues of the late Dr David Ryan have donated R1.2 million towards a scholarship for fulltime post graduate students in Philosophy. The scholarship, was launched on Monday (3 June 2013) at Rhodes University.

Setting out to investigate the reasons for Africa’s marginalisation in International Relations (IR) discipline and theory and how this issue can be addressed, the Department of Political and International Studies at Rhodes University recently held a two day conference, ‘African Voices in New International Relations Theory’.

The team charged with gleaning what afflicts the social sciences is all set to forge ahead on its newly charted course.

It was shocking to hear someone on Xolani Gwala's SAfm early morning news programme this month referring to the use of African languages in the schooling system as "dragging us back to the days of apartheid".

It was shocking to hear someone on Xolani Gwala’s SAfm early morning news programme this month referring to the use of African languages in the schooling system as

Given South Africa’s stated commitment to multilingualism, you might not think that a requirement from one of the country’s universities that its students learn an indigenous African language would raise much alarm.

Given South Africa’s stated commitment to multilingualism, you might not think that a requirement from one of the country’s universities that its students learn an indigenous African language would raise much alarm. Yet alarm has nonetheless been the reaction from a few unexpected quarters to the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s announcement that all first-year students enrolled from next near onwards will be required to develop “some level” of isiZulu proficiency by the time they graduate.

We recently read about the Eastern Cape’s forgotten schools where teaching and learning is simply not happening.

A MULTILINGUAL Grahamstown language activist who uses a hilarious mix of Xhosa and English to tickle the funny bone has been nominated for a top South African Comics Choice Award.

South African author Eden Venter recently launched the English version of his latest novel Wolf, Wolf at the Eastern Star in Grahamstown. The novel was originally published as in Afrikaans and has been translated by Michiel Heyns.

Plans to replace Rhodes University’s apartheid era Academic Freedom Declaration have been shelved after an open debate by leading academics ended in a stalemate.

In a public debate on Tuesday this week, a panel of academics discussed the proposed new Academic Freedom Declaration for Rhodes University.

Apartheid used our languages to divide and rule. Today we want to use them to increase social cohesion and economic participation.

BREAKING down long-held beliefs that indigenous African languages could not be used to teach science would go a long way towards ridding South Africa of “linguistic apartheid”.

For 90 minutes a week Alex Sutherland spends time playing, learning and singing songs in interactive drama workshops with groups of six to eight incarcerated men. She does this in the medium security local prison and the maximum-secure unit at Fort England Psychiatric Hospital.

It is fascinating to watch how people interact - or don't - on trains. What are they thinking? In Yasmina Reza's play The Unexpected Man we get to look inside the heads of two people on a train as they unwrap their lives and desires.

White South Africans should not speak out about the county's politics, because it was black people's turn to rule, controversial Rhodes University philosopher Samantha Vice said last night.

Academic debates can often be confusing for the general reader, and this is the case with some the arguments around academic freedom taken up in Suren Pillay’s recent Mail & Guardian article: “Decolonising the humanities” (Getting Ahead, April 5).

As South Africa commemorates another World Press Freedom Day, this day will no doubt focus minds on Parliament’s decision to pass the controversial Protection of State Information Bill, or the Secrecy Bill. It will now be forwarded to the President for signing.

Rob Murray and Gaetan Schmid first started working on physical theatre piece The Dog's Bollocks way back in 2006. "He had this wonderful, crazy idea about this professor who does a mock lecture and we discovered we had a mutual love for the etymology of words.

MORE than 60 years ago, Queenstown, in the Eastern Cape, was South Africa’s "Little Jazz City". Almost every black home hosted an instrument, or a player or singer of note, and musical dynasties such as the Matshikiza family were being established.

RENOWNED Eastern Cape theatre company, UBOM! is at it again with the introduction of their latest production, Betti & the Yeti.

Labour and social conflict forced its way into the public consciousness last year when scores of people, mainly miners, were killed and injured in Marikana.

A PORT Alfred surfer has opened criminal charges with police for the alleged illegal discharge of Kowie River dredge within 100m of the sea.

THE STATE of the Nation address occurred amid a national outcry and introspection on gender-based violence.

It was a sight that demanded interpretation. Athi-Patra Ruga, wearing stilettos and stockings, his upper body and head hidden under a cloud of balloons, was stuck outside a revolving door.

A local choreographer is confronting the loaded issue of gender-based violence and silence.Athena Mazarakis is an award-winning choreographer and performer who works in the areas of physical theatre and contemporary dance.

PSAM study points to department’s financial woes for past 10 years.

The Afrikan Hip-Hop Caravan is about to sweep through six African cities, from Cape Town to Timbuktu, over the next two months.

Thin line between the perceived reality and the need for social contact and acceptance Now, 25 years on, Dance Umbrella has developed into one of the main platforms for contemporary choreography and dance in Southern Africa.

THE 21st century has seen three c words dominate almost every part of our lives: "Made in China' ? It is this domination that has 1 prompted artist and Associate Professor in the Fine Arts Department at Rhodes University, Ruth Simbao, to put together a collection of works that discuss the China-Africa relationship, including education, economy and culture.

The invitation extended this year to SA born composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen by the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival (JIMF) is of significance, especially in the context of SA classical music.

COMING to the Midlands, fresh from a successful performance at the Musho! International Festival of One and Two-Hander Theatre in Durban, is Tristan Jacobs' Hambre Del Alma. Directed by Andrew Buckland, this solo mask performance tells the story of the Durban-born, Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa.

MUSICIAN Lucy Kruger has come a long way in just one short year. Since this time in 2011, the Durban born and Joburg-raised songwriter has recorded and released her debut album Cut Those Strings, played gigs all over the country and shot her first music video.

I have a confession to make: I love good administrators. It's true – I love modest, orderly and efficient fellow human beings who sit at desks in front of computers and telephones doing their job properly from eight to five until they retire.

Three Rhodes University students, Lihle Mancoba, Abigail McDougall and Michael Glover, are amongst the 29 young Africans to receive the prestigious Mandela Rhodes Scholarship for 2013.

“The Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa,” drew on Prof Barney Pityana’s own experiences as one of the founders of the movement, and particularly, the culture of education and activism that he and his contemporaries were so committed to.

“The home is the site of struggle,” said Ms Nomboniso Gasa, “the central point of struggle.” Gasa, a researcher and analyst of gender, political and cultural issues, shared her thoughts about South African customary law at the talk, “Women in Tradition in Democracy”.

The rampant belief that all South African protests relate to service delivery issues is ignorant and uninformed, said Political and International Studies lecturer, Mr Richard Pithouse in his talk “Community Politics in South Africa”.

Last weekend, the South African Literary Awards were hosted at the University of the Free State.

Taking stock of the media since the onset of democracy, Prof Jane Duncan of the School of Journalism and Media Studies critiqued the established systems of news in South Africa, examining specifically, the coverage of Marikana -- one of the media’s most glaring failures.

No other world, a compilation of essays on the life and work of South African poet Don Maclennan (1929-2009), offers insights into the man and his thinking, and provides analyses of his writing, notably of the longer poems, Notes from a Rhenish Mission (2001) and A Letter to William Blake (2003).

Contributing to the interdisciplinary colloquium entitled, Lineages of Freedom, which took place recently, Firoze Manji spoke on the topic: ‘Pan African Perspectives on Current Struggles’. Born in Kenya, Manji is an activist, internationally respected scholar and the founder and former editor-in-chief of Pambazuka News, a pan-African email and online newsletter committed to social justice.

A former Umkhonto we-Sizwe (MK) soldier, Barry Gilder launched his latest book in Grahamstown entitled From Rebellion to Governance: The Songs and Secrets of Barry Gilder.

Independent analyst and gender activist, Ms Nomboniso Gasa said patriarchy domination is not treated in the same way like other forms of oppression in South Africa. She was addressing an audience at Rhodes University as part of the Lineages of Freedom series of critical conversations.

Tracking the history of struggle movements in South Africa and abroad was the focus of Lineages of Freedom, an interdisciplinary colloquium that opened a critical dialogue around the social and political tensions that exist in South Africa eighteen years into democracy. It brought together community activists and academics from sociology, politics, biology, economics, history and journalism.

Andrew W. Mellon Senior Scholar, Prof John Holloway said that capitalism will fall if the exploitation of workers does not increase, when he addressed a packed audience at the Eden Grove Blue Lecture theatre.

Dr Kirk Helliker, senior lecturer in Sociology Department at Rhodes University said the contemporary Zimbabwean experience provides interesting insight into the role and behavior of civil society organisations, running contrary to most prior conceptions.

The idea of changing the society through the state has failed. These were the sentiments of visiting Mellon Senior Scholar and a Congolese historian at a recent two-day Sociology conference on Politics at a Distance.

Social movements discussed the challenges they are facing and different initiatives that they are involved in at a recent Sociology conference on Politics at a distance from the state.

Mark Hunter, Research Associate in Population and Development Studies at the University of Kwazulu-Natal (UKZN), demonstrated how the mobility of children between city schools counteracts government attempts to address education inequalities and creates a situation in which schools are increasingly divided according to class.

Africa today faces both an opportunity for major social change and the potential for increasing barbarism in what is perhaps the most exciting period in our history. “This is a period pregnant with hope, but also pregnant with its twin, despair,” said Mr Firoze Manji, former-director of Pan African online news publication Pambazuka.

A recent two-day sociology conference has opened space for the discussion of politics that is at a distance from the state.

Associate Professor Andrew Nash of the University of Cape Town (UCT) Department of Political Science, argued that the implosion of South African Marxism at the moment of transition to a constitutional democracy resulted in the loss of the moral and political culture the country had known at the end of the struggle.

The Faculty of Humanities and the Sociology department recently hosted the launch of the book “Peter Gabriel, From Genesis to Growing Up”. The book was edited by Michael Drewett, Associate Professor in the sociology department, Dr Sarah Hill of Cardiff University and Kimi Kärki of the University of Turku, Finland, with a contribution by Professor Brenda Schmahmann of the Fine Art department.

A Rhodes University art student Nyaniso Lindi was recently awarded the much coveted Gerard Sekoto award for most promising artist at the ABSA L’atelier arts awards. The awards, held annually, not only ensure South Africa’s emerging artists of recognition, but also afford them the opportunity to develop their talents abroad.

Thabo Mbeki Rhodes Visit - Mbeki makes History at Rhodes on Africa Day

News from all of our departments during 2008

The Faculty of Humanities, by far the largest faculty at Rhodes University with about 40% of our student enrolment, had a very productive year.

Winners of the 2009 Bayer Young Environmental Envoy (BYEE) programme announced. Outstanding young environmentalists off to Germany in November.

Rhodes hosts cutting-edge orality and innovation conference For the first time the South African Folklore Society (SAFOS) has chosen to hold its prestigious annual conference in the Eastern Cape.

ORDER OF PROCEEDINGS The Congregation is requested to stand while the Choir sings Vis Virtus Veritas and the Procession enters the Auditorium.

ORDER OF PROCEEDINGS The Congregation is requested to stand while the Choir sings Vis Virtus Veritas and the Procession enters the Auditorium. The Chancellor will constitute the Congregation.

Deans of humanities from eight South African universities assembled at Rhodes University to discuss the present condition of their faculty. In a move to address ongoing questions about the demise of humanities programmes in the country, they established the South African Humanities Deans’ Association (SAHUDA).

A heartfelt goodbye: Mark Hipper Prolific and internationally esteemed South African artist Mark Hipper, died unexpectedly of natural causes at his home in Grahamstown last Wednesday*, aged forty-nine.