Arts & Books

South Africa’s liberation struggle historiography is well-established and longstanding. In the 1970s, for example, an intellectual insurgency erupted against the hegemonic versions of past struggles in which the ruling classes feature as protagonists.

I first met Assata Zerai in 1999 while visiting the family of Horace Campbell in Syracuse University where they were colleagues. It was my first Thanksgiving dinner in the United States.

The artist invites art critics to identify the main elements in the piece of art, discuss about the various main themes in the artwork and identify the main medium that is discernible in this piece of art.

If you have ever imagined being a daring foreign correspondent flying into parts unknown, you may at first find vicarious adventure in Judi Rever’s book

The film, Us, written, directed and co-produced by Jordan Peele, is a clever metaphor for the United States of America.

The working class, if it decides to win in class struggle, has to assess the power of capital. Without this assessment, the struggles the working class carries on against capital turn to adventurism or capitulation or puerile disorder.

Michael D. Yates has probed the questions in chapter 4 of his recently released book Can the Working Class Change the World?(Monthly Review Press, New York, October 2018). The chapter – “What hath the working class wrought?” – proclaims: 

“When copies of the Kinyarwanda editions of my children’s books were delivered from Kigali recently, I counted the books and realised that it was the 50th language on the shelf.

I have not appeared here in Pambazuka News, for a minute too long! But a child never forgets where home is. It is good to be back!

Again, Professor Michael D. Yates raises critical questions in chapter 3 of his recently released book Can the Working Class Change the World?(Monthly Review Press, New York, October 2018): “How much has the working class changed the world so far?