When you write about Africa, make sure to always include sad and starving characters, advises Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainana in his famously ironic essay “How to write about Africa”, which takes aim at Western prejudices. In the same way that everyday laughter has been excluded from all-too-familiar depictions of the continent, African humour and satire as a form of social and political engagement remains underexplored.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, 21 October, xenophobic attacks broke out in Grahamstown. Foreign nationals as well as South African citizens from other parts of the country were attacked, and their shops looted. The Unemployed People's Movement warned police of rising tensions in the community, and convened a community meeting on October 12 to discuss matters with the police.
This publication sets out to provide a critical assessment of South Africa's Expanded Public Works Programme from the perspective of those most vulnerable: impoverished women.
Since June 2015, activists from community based organisation the Unemployed People's Movement (UPM) have began a capacity building programme that includes research into and writing about the most pressing problems facing impoverished communities in Grahamstown and surrounds. 'But Still We Rise' is their first report from this process, and exposes the daily realities of violence faced by women across South Africa. The report is the creation of Siyasanga Bentele, Linda Gagayi, Siyamthanda Dyanti, Unathi Class and Ayanda Kota.
The articles gathered in this edition of Perspectives capture the complex and plural ways in which Africans are attempting to use ICTs to democratise democracy on the continent, the challenges they face, and the valuable lessons learned.
