South Africa

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Review: Life, Above All

A quietly moving coming-of-age tale
A grave, quietly moving coming-of-age tale of a young girl raised in a village where many (her infant sister, in this case) are robbed of the opportunity to come of age at all, Oliver Schmitz's film is told effectively through the sad, wise eyes of the 12-year-old protagonist, Chanda (Khomotso Manyaka).
By ALEXANDRA CAVALLO | August 02, 2011

Turning feminist theory into a visceral rape deterrent

Striking back
In Africa, your vagina can get spikes for $2. No longer just a revenge dream, this device — called Rape-aXe — was actually distributed for free last year at the World Cup in South Africa.
By DENA RIEGEL | April 28, 2011

Photos: Die Antwoord at Royale

Ninja and Yo-Landi tear it up at Royale, on October 26, 2010
How confident was Ninja’s swagger at Die Antwoord’s triumphant return to the Royale last night?
By REV. AARON | October 31, 2010

Kentridge's South Africa and Coe's disasters of war

Plus posters from Hatch
South African artist William Kentridge is often hailed for providing "a vivid history of apartheid and its legacy," as Time said when it named him one of the 100 most influential persons of 2009.
By GREG COOK | October 20, 2010

Die Antwoord's Ninja's zef squad

The brazen frontman talks the talk
Some artists figure out their signature style through a slow organic process.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | October 18, 2010

Review: White Wedding

Will black and white be allowed to kiss?
Jann Turner, an NYU film grad and a well-regarded novelist, co-wrote and directed this pleasant, intentionally lightweight, South African road-movie romance with a sly integrationist political agenda.
By GERALD PEARY | October 06, 2010

Enter Die Antwoord

The rap on a South African phenomenon
Die Antwoord have hit the sweet spot.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | July 21, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Escape from Soccer City

Outside the World Cup, seeing South Africa in black and white
The FIFA complex here is a swishy maze of a mall, all upscale shops and unrelenting fluorescent lights, attaching the hotels to each other before spilling out into Nelson Mandela Square, which is right now dominated by a Sony tent — a 3D World Cup viewing pavilion — and circled by tourist restaurants.
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | July 15, 2010

The 13th Annual Muzzle Awards

A look at the dishonorable enemies of free speech and personal liberty in New England
A year and a half into the Age of Obama, we are learning a lesson we should have figured out long ago — that repression, once in place, is rarely rolled back all the way, and that liberals no less than conservatives are reluctant to give up power.
By DAN KENNEDY | July 05, 2010

Ghana baby Ghana

A Letter from South Africa
Florida Road is a crowded strip of bars and clubs in Durban, a city on the eastern coast of South Africa.
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | June 30, 2010

A Congolese feast

Beans and rice, with African flair
I met Constance Kabaziga at the checkout at Mittapheap World Market. She was buying frozen cassava root and dried beans, and I really wanted to know what she was going to do them.
By LINDSAY STERLING | June 30, 2010

Sports Blotter: Dead Duck

Oregon's Masoli finally stalls out; plus, a World Cup ambush, and Florida strikes back
The saga of the University of Oregon football team grows sadder and sadder.
By MATT TAIBBI | June 24, 2010

Tugboats and bugboats

Balls, Pucks & Monster Trucks
As I write this, the Celtics are one win away from their 18th NBA title, but that is not our focus.
By RICK WORMWOOD | June 16, 2010

Balls of fire

Porn stars, witch doctors, elephant farts, and the worst soccer team on the planet take center stage at this summer’s World Cup
For one month every four years, the United States — try as it might — can’t impose its vacuous culture on the rest of the planet. The World Cup arrives and the Americans are, at best, an afterthought.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG AND LANCE GOULD | June 01, 2010

Freedom Watch: Speak no evil

Why are African-American leaders silent about slavery in Sudan?
It wasn’t the first time members of the Congressional Black Caucus had heard – and done nothing about – Sudan’s dirty secret. Even before a recent House international-relations subcommittee hearing on human-rights violations in Sudan, they knew that kidnapping and slavery had become a barbarous byproduct of Sudan’s bloody holy war.
By TIM SANDLER | May 20, 2010

Masterful metaphor

Trinity Rep’s enthralling Syringa Tree
Some individual experiences certainly can scale up.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 12, 2010

The way robots should be

Maine’s burgeoning automaton population
While Ray Kurzweil pursues the Nanotech Revolution, robotics researchers in Maine are chasing their own futuristic outcomes. Here’s what’s new on the local robot scene (didn’t know we had one of those, didja?).
By DEIRDRE FULTON | April 28, 2010

Hidden letters from the Holocaust

Dispatches
Thirteen years ago, a carpenter demolishing an old tenement in Amsterdam found 86 letters and postcards and one telegram hidden in the attic floor.
By ELIZABETH RAU | April 08, 2010

Sins of the father

Visiting the son in 'Master Harold'
On a rainy afternoon, Hally, short for Harold, (Michael Littig) comes home from school as usual to his wealthy parents' tea room in apartheid-era South Africa.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | March 10, 2010

True grit

A feisty, inspiring group of women combat child abuse in South Africa in Rough Aunties
Operation Bobbi Bear is a non-governmental organization in Durban, South Africa, devoted to finding care and foster homes for children who are abused and abandoned.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | March 03, 2010

Choir power

Ladysmith Black Mambazo raise their voices
The Romantic notion of artistic merit is that one must plumb the depths of despair to emerge with great work — and that the finest triumphs are often born of the direst misery.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | February 02, 2010

Play by Play: January 29, 2010

Theater listings, January 29, 2010
Boston's weekly theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | January 27, 2010

Oscar predictions 2010

With 10 Best Picture noms, is Oscar up in the air? Our critic predicts.
After years of shrinking audiences and low-grossing Best Picture nominees, the Academy this year is hedging its bets.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 29, 2010

Is there 'hope' in Hollywood?

Three controversial (and sure to be Oscar-nominated) films tackle race in the age of Obama
Buoyed by President Barack Obama's campaign slogan, many had hopes for change after his election.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 29, 2010

Rainbow Nation

The US isn't the only country exploring its complex racial history. South Africa prepares for its moment in the sun.
After a torturous history of being treated like second-class citizens, the black population in this country stunned the world by pulling off the unimaginable: voting a black man in as president.
By LANCE GOULD | January 28, 2010

Play by play: January 22, 2010

Theater listings, January 22, 2010
Boston's weekly theatre schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | January 20, 2010

Diamonds in the rough

Gatz at the ART, Groundswell at the Lyric Stage
The setting is more boring '90s than Roaring '20s.
By CAROLYN CLAY | January 13, 2010

Review: Skin

Love will tear us apartheid
"The definition of a white person is a person who in appearance obviously is a white person . . . or who is generally accepted as a white person and is not in appearance obviously not a white person."
By LANCE GOULD | January 13, 2010