South African TV just debuted this commercial, below, for a popular chicken fast food chain. It features the character Evita Bezuidenhout, a kind of South African Dame Edma played by satirist Pieter Dirk Uys. My hunch is it will be well-received as with much of Uys’ satire and comedy (he even got a free pass [...]
Archive for November, 2008
Can African politicians take a joke?
Posted in South Africa, tagged comedy, humor, Jacob Zuma, Jonathan Shapiro, Nelson Mandela, Nhlanhla Nene, politicians, SABC, South Africa, Zapiro on November 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Made in China
Posted in politics, tagged arms trade, Benjamin Pauker, Democratic Republic of Congo, guns and war, PBS Frontline, UN MONUC on November 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“Show we a factory in the DRC that produces AK 47s. They don’t exist,” a UN colonel tells reporter Benjamin Pauker in this short PBS Frontline news piece on the source of the arms in that regional war (it implicates Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since 1998 at least 4 [...]
The music of Asa (Asha)
Posted in Music, tagged African music, Asa, Asha, funk, Music, music videos, Nigeria, Soul on November 26, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Video for her single “Fire on the Mountain.” Posted with vodpod Sample her music here.
Jazz, radio and Apartheid
Posted in Music, tagged Gwen Gill, Jazz at Columbia University, lectures, Music, New York events, South African jazz on November 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“You Think You Know Me…” Jazz Broadcasting Under Apartheid Gwen Ansell Louis Armstrong Visiting Professor, Columbia University Fall 2008 In 1955, the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s controller of ‘Bantu Music,” Dr. Yvonne Huskisson, had declared that the aim of official cultural policy was to wean Africans away from jazz. By 1969, however, she was praising [...]
Study: Mbeki could have prevented 365,000 AIDS deaths between 2000 and 2005
Posted in South Africa, tagged AIDS South Africa, denialism, Harvard University, health, New York Times, Thabo Mbeki on November 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Front page of The New York Times today: A new study by Harvard researchers estimates that the South African government would have prevented the premature deaths of 365,000 people earlier this decade if it had provided antiretroviral drugs to AIDS patients and widely administered drugs to help prevent pregnant women from infecting their babies. The [...]
Music: Abdullah Ibrahim, “reluctant teacher”
Posted in Music, tagged Abdullah Ibrahim, jazz, Music, Senzo, South African jazz, The National Abu Dhabi on November 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Pianist Abdullah Ibrahim talks to Philippa Kennedy in (the Adu Dhabi-based) The National about musical education: “… Ibrahim spends so much time in schools and colleges talking to young music students … He wants them to feel the music, not just play it. He talks about music as a holistic process that takes in body, [...]
It wasn’t gholf
Posted in South Africa, tagged Ernie Els, Gary Player, golf, Natal, Papwa Sewgolum, South Africa, sport, The Lost Dream of a South African Golfing Legend, Trevor Immelman on November 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
[Gary] Player’s website declares that he is “the most successful international golfer of all time.” But there is something extravagant about Mr. Player’s self-promotion, and not just because U.S. stars such as Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus have won more majors. His claim of supremacy outside the U.S. must also be qualified … During the [...]
The music of Ntjapedi
Posted in Music, tagged funk, jazz, Ntjapedi, Sesotho, South African music on November 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Sebokeng jazz. Funk. Soul. Poetry. Sesotho. Sankomota’s children. Posted with vodpod Sample their music here
The End of the White Guy
Posted in film, tagged Black Adam The End of the White Guy, film, racism, South Africa, whiteness on November 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A number of people have forwarded me the URL for the trailer and website of “Black Adam The End of the White Guy,” a film about whiteness in South Africa. I even recognized a few of the people in the trailer. Posted with vodpod The point of the film, according to its website, is to [...]
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