apartheid | Pandaemonium

INEQUALITY AND THE POLITICS OF DIVISION

July 20, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the violence n South Africa, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the GB News debacle) It was published on 18 July 2021, under the headline “Gross inequality stoked the violence in South Africa. It’s a warning to us all”. “It feels qualitatively different this time.” There are few people I know in South Africa who don’t think this about the carnage now engulfing the nation. Violence was institutionalised during the years of apartheid. […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties • Tags: anc, apartheid, corruption, covid 19, economic freedom fighters, identity politics, inequality, jacob zuma, police killings, poverty, racism, sectarianism, south africa

A QUIET RAGE AGAINST APARTHEID

June 29, 2018 by Kenan Malik

‘My prime concern was with values – what did we value in South Africa, how did we get to those values and how did we express those values,’ David Goldblatt observed. ‘I was very interested in the events that were taking place in the country as a citizen but, as a photographer, I’m not particularly interested, and I wasn’t then, in photographing the moment that something happens. I’m interested in the conditions that give rise to events.’ David Goldblatt, who died […]

Categories: Justice & Liberties, Photos • Tags: apartheid, david goldblatt, photography, south africa

‘I KNEW I WAS WITNESSING A TERRIBLE EVIL’

February 11, 2016 by Kenan Malik

Today marks 50 years since the South African apartheid government declared District Six, in the heart of Cape Town, a ‘whites only’ area from which all non-whites would be forcibly removed. District Six was one of the most mixed areas in Cape Town, home to freed slaves and immigrants, labourers and artisans. It was a rundown area, overcrowded, many houses without running water or sewage. But District Six was also Cape Town’s cosmopolitan heart, an area in which blacks and […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties • Tags: apartheid, cape town, district six, noor ebrahim, racism, south africa

SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EROSION OF HOPE

September 23, 2015 by Kenan Malik

From my latest column for the International New York Times, which was entitled ‘What Happened to South African Democracy?’: As the failure to transform the lives of the poor has eroded support for the party, many ANC politicians have turned to the politics of ethnicity and identity to strengthen their base. It is a development that has long been evident, but that has really gathered strength under the leadership of South Africa’s current president, Jacob G Zuma. Mr Zuma has unashamedly […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties • Tags: anc, apartheid, south africa

THE BROKEN RAINBOW: THOUGHTS ON SOUTH AFRICA

September 3, 2015 by Kenan Malik

These are some initial thoughts on the current state of South Africa, and how it has arrived at this point, emerging from various discussions I had with activists and academics while I was out there. I write, of course, as an outsider. But sometimes an outsider’s perspective can be quite useful, especially as I’ve engaged with many of issues at the heart of South African politics – such as race, class, identity, social change – though in a different context. […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties • Tags: anc, apartheid, democracy, freedom struggles, identity politics, jacob zuma, nelson mandela, nonracialism, racism, south africa

APARTHEID, THEN AND NOW

August 30, 2015 by Kenan Malik

District Six lies at the heart of Cape Town, along the flank of Table Mountain, and just south of the city centre. It was so-called because it was the sixth municipal district in Cape Town. In it lived freed slaves and immigrants, labourers and artisans. It was a rundown area, overcrowded, many houses without running water or sewage. But District Six was also Cape Town’s cosmopolitan heart. In a nation defined by ‘aparthood’ it was an area in which blacks […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties, Photos • Tags: anc, apartheid, cape town, district six, freedom struggles, racism, south africa