Africa is a Country

Reggae musician Lucky Dube‘s tragic murder has ironically resulted in greater attention to his cultural and social significance inside South Africa (he had always had larger fame outside). More immediately, the event itself (he was killed in a failed carjacking incident while dropping off his children at his brother’s house outside Johannesburg) has raised questions about crime and class apartheid in postapartheid South Africa: Of all people Time magazine (their South Africa correspondent to be exact) wonders whether his death has shattered the public myth (widely subscribed to in some quarters) that violent crime in South Africa is ‘a black-on-white issue.’