new book - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

US Christian right has taken aim at LGBTIQ+ rights, sex education and abortion in Africa – new book

A new book – The US Christian Right and Pro-Family Politics in 21st Century Africa – reveals the role played by some right-wing US Christian groups in trying to spread their social and moral influence in African countries. Sociologist Haley McEwen, who specialises in the subject, answers five questions about her book. HALEY MCEWEN, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Gothenburg What do you want readers to take away? I hope that readers can better understand the reasons why lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) rights, abortion and sexuality education have become so highly politicised in African countries (and other…

May

2023

By The African Mirror

Zulu vs Xhosa: how colonialism used language to divide South Africa’s two biggest ethnic groups

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

SOUTH Africa has 12 official languages. The two most dominant are isiZulu and isiXhosa. While the Zulu and Xhosa people share a rich common history, they have also found themselves engaged in ethnic conflict and division, notably during urban wars between 1990 and 1994. A new book, Divided by the Word, examines this history – and how colonisers and African interpreters created the two distinct languages, entrenched by apartheid education. Historian Jochen S. Arndt answers some questions about his book. Author JOCHEN S. ARNDT, Associate Professor of History, Virginia Military Institute What is the key premise of the book? The…

Nov

2022

By The African Mirror

Juby Mayet, legendary South African writer and journalist, remembered through new book

LITERATURE

SOUTH African writer Juby Mayet passed away in 2019 at the age of 82. She wrote her autobiography in 1997 but it has only now been published, 25 years later. Freedom Writer: My Life and Times finally places the spotlight on an outstanding figure in South African journalism. Mayet was a reporter in Johannesburg from 1957 until 1978, and during those two decades, she wrote for important popular and political publications. These included the tabloid newspaper Golden City Post, the famous Drum magazine, the UBJ Bulletin published by the anti-apartheid Union of Black Journalists, and the anti-apartheid periodical The Voice.…