Nedine Moonsamy Based in 2023, South African writer Lauren Beukes’ novel Afterland captures the devastating effects of a global pandemic. A highly contagious virus, called HCV, has killed around four billion men. Society is in disrepair and, with no cure in sight, women are barred from procreation. The few males who have proven immune have become hot commodities for various agendas. And the odds are stacked against the protagonist Cole in her bid to return home to Johannesburg from America with her young son Miles – who possesses the HCV-resistant gene. Cole has lost her husband and been forced into…

This section of Lynn M Thomas’ history of skin lighteners considers Steve Biko’s role in raising consciousness and pushing the ‘Black is Beautiful’ campaign in South Africa. LYNN THOMAS Black Consciousness and biomedical opposition AT A marketing conference held in Durban in 1969, one presenter, Mr A Tiley, expressed an abiding optimism in South Africa’s skin lightener trade. Tiley explained that another business consultant, a recent immigrant – likely from the United States – had offered a “misguided” prediction: political independence elsewhere in Africa and the US Black Power movement with its affirmation “Black Is Beautiful” signaled the trade’s long-term…

Chabani Manganyi carefully reflects on black consciousness, defining it as having mutual knowledge of the thoughts, feelings and impressions of all black people, which leads to solidarity. CHABANI MANGANYI THE MARRIAGE between the words “black” and “consciousness” has in some instances led to panic and consternation in certain sections of the South African public. There have been arguments, debates and naggings. It all happened so quickly that some observers have even suggested that the bogey of swart gevaar [black peril] was suddenly becoming real. After this marriage it even became customary for some people of liberal bent to suggest that…