i kinda stumbled into an impromptu dinner after the cricket [Go Proteas!] last night. One of the people sitting at the table with us was Phil Potter [no relation!] from the UK who is here to speak at a conference called Fresh Expressions, which looks at different ways of doing and being church. We all got talking about some of the issues South Africa is facing at the moment and right in the middle of it [...]
My name is Michael and I'm married to Deborah. We both grew up in the Cape Town southern suburbs where people are generally wealthy and generally white. We don't really remember anything before 1994 and so we've basically grown up in the "New South Africa". This year we've been living in rural Mpumalanga while Deborah does her community service as a dietitian. Although we've been involved in projects and work in Mfuleni, Heideveld, Nyanga, and [...]
[a guest post by Sindile Mlingo Vabaza] I will not pretend to have grasped the inherent difficulties in running a country but I think I can confidently assert that if we want not only a free and fair and just South Africa, but one that has clearly engaged it's past and moved into a post-colonial and post apartheid state, we are going to have to be both honest and have intellectual integrity no matter what [...]
I think it is important that I give an examples of how 'baseline' thinking can help us navigate difficult waters. 1.) The issue of employment equity is a difficult one. My take on it is that from my experience both young white and black people fundamentally want to feel like they are being treated fairly and of course that is a most reasonable thing, but I do want to latch on to the idea of [...]
i won't lie, writing about Race in South Africa can feel a little daunting. Especially when you have been out of the country for three years - one of the things i didn't want to do was come charging in with all the answers and so i chose instead to use my little platform to create a space and invite some people to share their thoughts. There have been a whole bunch of conversations about [...]
I would like to think that I am good at putting my thoughts onto paper (virtual or not) but sometimes I come off as ignorant or unaware of something because the thought process that made me think or say something just wasn’t explained properly. So when the topic of transformation came up I was weary to even try to say anything about it. If you have been following the discussion there have been some really [...]
i have loved the conversations happening on my blog with regards to matters of Race recently. A lot of the posts are specific to South Africa, but i imagine there are themes, ideas and principles that will translate to other contexts around the world and it will be good to get some outside voices as it were to comment as well. What has been particularly exciting to see has been the spirit of engagement that has taken [...]
i have loved the conversation going on in the comments section of the blog piece Nkosi wrote for me on First Steps White South Africans can make towards a really new South Africa. My friend Lex passed on a response from her friend, Sindile, which i thought would be good to use as a standalone post as i'm sure it will also generate some good conversation. So we would love to hear from you and please [...]
My good friend, Linda Martindale introduced me to a friend of hers, Nkosivumile Gola at the TRC Re-Enactment meetings we both went to a week or so ago in Stellenbosch. When i heard that Nkosi had a blog i immediately asked him if he would consider writing a piece for mine. Not to give him an easy ride, i posed this topic to him - the fact that for white people who do want to [...]
