I am an African: the loaded language of identity
If we don’t define for ourselves what it means to be African, we surrender the term to populists, politicians and reactionaries. We do so at our peril
Bad writing, like flawed thinking, can often be spotted by its deployment of the obvious contrast. A recurring example is the analysis of a political party’s pro-poor policies, accompanied by a photo of a politician’s luxury vehicle collection or mansion in Sandton.
And yet, sometimes it’s hard to avoid the obvious. Every morning as I walk past the hundreds of refugees camping on Greenmarket Square in Cape Town, I marvel at the rich tourists disembarking from the luxury hotels moored in the CBD like hermetic cruise ships. What do they think when confronted by this stark insight into how badly SA treats its fellow Africans?..
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