History Matters

 Nalini Naidoo Natal Witness 15 Nov 2010   It’s funny how celebrating a historical landmark can become fraught with anxiety. This could only happen in a country like South Africa where, it appears, nothing is simple. Then again, we cannot make light of these anxieties as we come from a past of divide and rule and [...]

We lack a unifying national identity, but there is a way forward, writes Ivor Chipkin May 10, 2010 11:49 PM | By Ivor Chipkin. Time live The Big Read:There is renewed interest in the question of whether “South Africans” exist. Both the Helen Suzman Foundation and the Gordon Institute for Business Science have recently made [...]

Its Time for True Transformative Justice in SA Suren Pillay Cape Times 2010-05-06 On a recent visit to a government agency- as a citizen, not a researcher- I began chatting with an affable front desk consultant. After some general conversation on the dire state of the world, she – of Afrikaner descent – confided to [...]

By Imraan Buccus Date posted: 29 April 2010 on http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/472.1 One hundred and fifty years ago the first indentured Indians were brought to South Africa to work in sugar cane fields. They were soon joined by ‘passenger Indians’ who came of their own free will to trade. The indentured Indians were not the first Indians [...]

by Omar Badsha and Jon Soske During the latter half of 2010, a series of events commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the first Indian indentured laborers in Natal will take place across South Africa. The preparations have already inspired wide-spread debate; individuals from a variety of communities and political perspectives have raised similar questions: to [...]

By Saliem Fakir The death of Eugene Terreblanche and the racial rousing that Malema stokes, brings out from the underbelly of racial and ethnic discord, the remnant question – can we ever be a nation? Terreblanche’s death and these war songs also come at a time when the world will soon be descending upon South [...]

By Mondli Makhanya – Sunday Times 21st February 2010 At the height of the battle between Josef Stalin and Leon Trotsky, the former was doing everything in his power to ensure that Lenin’s mantle passed on to him. In later years, having won the struggle, Stalin went to the extreme lengths of airbrushing Trotsky out [...]

Seelan Naidoo Representations of the Robben Island Museum in the public domain have over the past five months been characterised by confusing commentary, accumulating unanswered questions, significant omissions and even serious misrepresentation.  This opinion piece is in the interest of a beleaguered institution that continues to incur reputational damage that it emphatically does not deserve. [...]

The Times – 8 September 2009 Yusuf Dadoo’s legacy is our tradition of non-racialism, writes Yunus Momoniat AT A conference last week, delegates mulled over the legacy of Yusuf Dadoo, a leader of the Transvaal Indian Congress, a communist leader and respected activist. The key theme of the conference was the question of non-racialism and [...]