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South Africa

Reprints Arts World Music

In the Jungle

How legends of the American music industry made millions off the work of Solomon Linda, a Zulu tribesman who wrote “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and died a pauper.

Rian Malan Rolling Stone May 2000 45min Permalink

Crime World

State Capture

The corruption investigation that has shaken South Africa, the world’s most unequal country.

Mark Gevisser The Guardian Jul 2019 25min Permalink

Crime Politics World

"State Capture": How the Gupta Brothers Hijacked South Africa Using Bribes Instead of Bullets

It started with black market rations and ended with “the wedding of the century.”

Karan Mahajan Vanity Fair Mar 2019 25min Permalink

Tech

How Cartographers for the U.S. Military Inadvertently Created a House of Horrors in South Africa

When IP mapping goes awry dozens of strangers show up to the same home again and again looking for their stolen gear.

Kashmir Hill Gizmodo Jan 2019 20min Permalink

World

Ballots and Bloodshed

The militarization of local politics in South Africa.

Christopher Clark Guernica Sep 2018 25min Permalink

World

Dry, the Beloved Country

A dispatch from Cape Town, where surprising things can happen when it feels like the world is about to end.

Eve Fairbanks Huffington Post Highline Apr 2018 30min Permalink

World

‘They Eat Money’

How Mandela’s political heirs grow rich off corruption.

Norimitsu Onishi, Selam Gebrekidan New York Times Apr 2018 25min Permalink

Business World

The Brothers Who Bought South Africa

Africa’s most important economy now appears to function for the benefit of one powerful family—the Guptas.

Matthew Campbell, Franz Wild Bloomberg Businessweek Nov 2017 25min Permalink

Crime World

A Death in the Winelands

The annual tradition in the grape-growing country of South Africa’s Western Cape was that locals could gather fruit before it rotted on the vine. But this season produced a body amongst the rows.

Christopher Clark Roads and Kingdoms Mar 2017 20min Permalink

Politics World

Why South African Students Have Turned on Their Parents’ Generation

Inside a movement.

Eve Fairbanks The Guardian Nov 2015 20min Permalink

Crime World

Dr. Shock

How an apartheid-era psychiatrist went from torturing gay soldiers in South Africa to sexually abusing patients in Canada.

Richard Poplak The Walrus Aug 2015 25min Permalink

Science

The Arc of the Sun

A trip to the South African Million Dollar Pigeon Race.

Read more

David Samuels on the Longform Podcast

David Samuels The Atavst Magazine Jul 2015 50min Permalink

World

Can Thusilie Madonsela Save South Africa From Itself?

On being South Africa’s “public protector,” charged with watching over the people who once liberated it.

Read more

Alexis Okeowo on the Longform Podcast.

Alexis Okeowo New York Times Magazine Jun 2015 20min Permalink

Politics World

An Interview with the President

Barack Obama on Africa, Putin and the gap between what CEOs tell him over lunch and what they tell their lobbyists.

John Micklethwait, Edward Carr The Economist Aug 2014 20min Permalink

Arts

Nadine Gordimer: The Art of Fiction No. 77

“I come to America, I go to England, I go to France…nobody’s at risk. They’re afraid of getting cancer, losing a lover, losing their jobs, being insecure. … It’s only in my own country that I find people who voluntarily choose to put everything at risk—in their personal life.”

Jannika Hurwitt, Nadine Gordimer The Paris Review Jun 1983 55min Permalink

World

"I Have Sinned Against the Lord and Against You! Will You Forgive Me?"

Adriaan Vlok, a former apartheid leader, seeks redemption.

Eve Fairbanks The New Republic Jun 2014 20min Permalink

World

A House Divided

Why the integration of a South African university didn’t last.

Eve Fairbanks Moment Jun 2013 25min Permalink

World

"You Have All the Reasons to Be Angry"

The fight for South Africa’s future.

Eve Fairbanks The New Republic Mar 2013 20min Permalink

Crime

Watching the Murder of an Innocent Man

In a shantytown near Johannesburg, an angry mob committed a horrifying crime that was caught on video.

Barry Bearak New York Times Magazine Jun 2011 30min Permalink

Best Article Science World

The Doctor Will Sue You Know

Mattathias Rath made a fortune selling cure-all vitamins in Europe before moving his business to South Africa, where he launched a massive campaign against retroviral AIDS medications and in favor of his own vitamin cocktails. When scientists, AIDS non-profits, and even Medecins San Frontieres objected, he sued.

Ben Goldacre Bad Science Apr 2009 20min Permalink

World

The Healer

After a racial hazing incident, the first black head of South Africa’s University of Free State confronts the myths of the reconciliation era.

Eve Fairbanks The New Republic Jun 2010 20min Permalink

World

The Smit Murders Reexamined

It is agreed that the 1977 political murder of a couple in Johannesburg was a political killing that covered up mysterious Swiss Bank deposits. Various reports implicate Cuban Nationalists, Italian Fascists and the CIA.

James Myburgh PoliticsWeb Jun 2010 Permalink