Opinion
LitNet contributors voice their opinions about current affairs.
Open letter to President Ramaphosa: support the true arts in this country
2019-01-04"To use arts and culture money to record the favourite struggle songs of Jacob Zuma is a slap in the face of every artist and writer in this country."
Intercontinental entanglements: slavery, Dutch colonialism and post-colonial identifications
2018-12-20"The questions that need to be asked, are: 'whose history is under discussion here?' and who is the 'us' 'who call themselves the Dutch'?"
In memoriam: Justin Cartwright
2018-12-18"That was Cartwright's gift. A vein of laconic comedy runs through almost all his work which draws on his preoccupations with movies, advertising, American oddities as well as British pretensions and to which he gave exuberant rein in novels like Look at it This Way ..."
Video: Keynote and public lecture by Achille Mbembe
2018-12-14Internationally acclaimed Achille Mbembe was a keynote speaker at the international conference Recognition, Reparation and Reconciliation: The light and shadow of historical trauma.
Video: Keynote lecture by Homi Bhabha – A memory of neighbours: On history and the afterlife
2018-12-14"Internationally acclaimed Homi K Bhabha was the keynote speaker at the international conference Recognition, Reparation and Reconciliation: The light and shadow of historical trauma."
Afrikaans is a major African asset – Dele Olojede
The more we eliminate this diversity, the lesser we become, says Africa’s first Pulitzer Prize winner
2018-11-22
What does Afrikaans mean in the context of Africa? And what can an institution such as Stellenbosch University gain, should it make work of ensuring there is no lesser place for it? Willem de Vries spoke to Dele Olojede, who has become a supporter of the campaign, Gelyke Kanse (Equal Opportunities).
Jakes Gerwel Memorial lecture: Imagining a post-apartheid future
2018-11-14"To realise our dream of a truly free, fair and equal society, we have to take action. And I think that at the heart of any action we take, we have to 'invest' in young people. They are the future, here and in the rest of Africa."
(How) can decoloniality inform "educational (curriculum) knowledge" selection?
2018-11-01"The call for decolonising education is thus nothing less than the full incorporation of all of humanity’s knowledge systems, past and present, and in anticipation of future knowledge constellations, into the knowledge selection systems of universities."
In response to Marlene van Niekerk’s poem, “Fallist art”
2018-08-15"Words hurt, and Bongani Mayosi paid the ultimate price for this kind of hurt. Let us be critical, by all means, but let us give more thought to how our words might affect one another."
Press release: Women’s Day and the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People
2018-08-08Iziko Museums of South Africa and the Supusupu Khoe Language Project will commemorate Women’s Day, as well as the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, on 9 August 2018.
The changing global higher education landscape: an interview
2018-07-26"As much as commentators like to argue that many education systems around the world have become more 'anglicised' or 'Americanised', it is important to remember that local actors – and here, I am referring to students – are not passive. Students today are more plugged into the news of the world, and demand that their professors explain the relevance of what is happening 'there', to 'here'."
Personal reflections on the 16th Nelson Mandela Lecture, delivered by Barack Obama
2018-07-19"I sat hundreds of metres away from Obama, but I wasn’t moved the way Pieter W Grobbelaar’s books moved me as a child. I wasn’t moved the way I was when my nanny told me about Tselane and the Giant."
Hermann Giliomee speaks about his latest book, Die Afrikaners
2018-07-04"There was a hard-hitting question about the future of Afrikaans."
The decision to declare English as the only language of record in court in South Africa: a reaction
2018-07-03"The question inevitably arises whether the obligation to convert all legal communication to English would have any influence on the ability of many citizens to express themselves efficiently and understand the language of the court (particularly as regards vocabulary), given the fact that English is arguably the third or fourth language of the majority of the population."
Binding the nation through language diversity: A challenge to a new president
2018-06-20"Mr Ramaphosa’s call, 'Send me', has made us perk up our ears. Nothing will ensure the wholehearted co-operation of the Afrikaans-speaking community with his presidency more than offering a fixed, secure and sustainable place for Afrikaans at both school and university level."
The school’s dress code
2018-06-11"I forecast that it will take just one steadfast learner, backed by a half-decent legal team, to expose the dress and conduct code for what it is: a discriminatory house of cards that will tumble once subjected to serious scrutiny."
In memoriam: JC (Kay) de Villiers, 7 March 1928 – 5 June 2018
2018-06-11"Out of all the great accomplishments in De Villiers’s career that reached universal proportions, the historical medical aspects of the South African Anglo-Boer War stand out as some of the supreme achievements of this genius and intellectual giant."
The classification of Afrikaans
2018-05-29"Following a geographical point of departure, Afrikaans is an African language that originated here and reflects the name of the continent (the only language in Africa having this characteristic)."
DocuFest Africa 2018: a celebration of documentary photography
2018-05-16"To me, they [the images] are a portal to a world I can never visit. They are also a recording of our history, a barometer of the time. In some ways, I hoped the show would take the viewers out of their current lives, away from the current political climate, and perhaps remind them of what we overcame as a people."
Water reuse to deal with urban water scarcity – lessons from afar and the Southern African neighbourhood
2018-05-10"Encouragingly, we can learn from some successful experiences in this field right here on Cape Town’s doorstep. The first is Windhoek, which has been making use of recycled water for some 50 years now, and has become a world leader in this practice."
