When you discuss getting dinner or lunch with friends, a litany of cultural choices are bound to come up: Thai? Mexican? Sushi? Nobody ever says, "South African?" Until recently, I barely knew it was an …
March 7, 2015
South Africa
South Africa
On the border of Miramar and South Africa
Holiday in South Africa, part 4
Part four of a four-part story about apartheid-era South Africa. First published in The Monthly, November 1986. Reprinted in the Reader, summer of 1990. In memory of Nelson Mandela.
January 8, 2014
Holiday in South Africa, part 3
“The man was an informer.” Riggs and I are sharing daytime fun, a black guy and a white guy driving around black townships, at risk both from South African security forces and enraged blacks who, …
December 30, 2013
Holiday in South Africa, part 2
Next morning I begin making the rounds, schedule interviews with a well-known activist who’s teaching at University of Witwatersrand (he has since been detained), with Brendon Berry, president of the National University Student Association, recently …
December 25, 2013
Holiday in South Africa: Johannesburg in 1986, revisited
May 8, 1986. I am the only passenger on the 30-minute shuttle from Jans Smuts International Airport to Johannesburg’s city center. Joburg’s population is three million plus and its downtown bears an uncanny resemblance to …
December 18, 2013
The Cape, South Africa
South Africa is becoming a destination of choice for good reason. We were happy to arrive in Cape Town, the mother city, after a very long flight: 24 hours across two continents on South African …
January 25, 2012