Arts & Culture

Many South African filmmakers have reached more than standard quality and depth in storytelling.

South African filmmakers like to say that TV commercials are their Hollywood. Making ads for TV is how they earn their daily bread and how they express their creativity (with some noteworthy results, as it happens to be, but that’s another story). ... more

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South African art is currently all the rage, locally and abroad. Several auctions held in October and November 2010 have set new records price-wise and alerted the art world to the works of South African artists.

On 11 October, an Irma Stern painting from 1939, Gladioli, was sold for record R13 million on an auction in Cape Town.  Only about two weeks later, on 27 October, that record was surpassed by the price paid for another Stern’s painting, a 1945 Bahora Girl, which was sold to the highest bidder in a London auction for R26.42 million. ... more

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An in-depth report on Social giving among South Africans, conducted over three years and published in December 2005, ranked South Africa as the nation of givers. The report found that as many as 93% of the country's people support charities and other social causes, with 54% donating money, 31% giving food or goods, and 17% volunteering time to help the needy. The findings were based on a survey of  3,000 South Africans over the age of 18 in all parts of the country, including informal settlements and rural areas. ... more

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A friend who recently moved to South Africa once spent half an hour driving in circles, looking for the landmark his colleagues had pointed out to him: a robot. Naturally, he thought that this referred to a gigantic figure erected by some toy manufacturer.

Do not make the same mistake. When visiting South Africa, take the word “robot” to mean what it means in South Africa – a traffic light. (Robot can also mean robot in South Africa, but it is not likely that you will be directed to “turn right” at the robot-robot). ... more

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Nadine Gordimer, iconic South African writer, activist and 1991 Nobel Laureate for Literature, was born in 1923 to an English mother and a Latvian father, both Jewish immigrants. Her writings reflect her preoccupation with moral issues, with particular emphasis on the injustice of apartheid. During the apartheid years, Gordimer’s books were a cause of great discomfort to the then white-supremacist South African regime. Several of her books were consequently banned repeatedly in South Africa, even in the post apartheid era.  ... more

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