“I decided I was a feminist and this seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word. Apparently I am among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong, too aggressive, isolating, anti-men and unattractive.” These are the words of Harry Potter heroine [...]
Like a pair of odd shoes, that’s what Braamfontein was to Wits University ten years back. It did not make sense because Braamfontein and Wits are one. Braamfontein is to Wits what Greenwich Village is to New York University or what Bloomsbury and Camden is to the University of London. But the mismatch was real, [...]
They’re young, they’re unskilled, they don’t have jobs, most are not well educated and they are sitting at home not knowing what to do. Lisa Garson has a plan. Lisa Garson graduated from Wits with her BSc in 1989 and BSc Hons in 1990. There are millions of very frightened young South Africans who are [...]
When we talk about shale gas mining and fracking, we are not talking about one little well in the middle of the Karoo. We are talking about 60% of South Africa’s land surface being targeted for production. In this feature we journey through almost three years of the shale gas controversy, and question whether this [...]
“It feels fantastic to have an inner city and a place that you can go to with an ease that has not been here for many years,” says Wits alumnus William Kentridge whose studio is in the Maboneng precinct on the east side of Joburg’s inner city. […]
Sex symbols, protest marches and mother’s little helper. It was the era of the split personality. You had silver screen love goddess Rita Hayworth in black satin, performing a one-glove striptease as the ultimate femme fatale. This was taken to a sociopathic level when the bombshell’s image was featured on an atom bomb. […]
Tomorrow we may die, so let’s get drunk and make love. They raised their hemlines and their glasses, smoked in public, drove motorcars, claimed the same social and sexual freedom as men, and danced the Charleston until dawn. […]
From the day it was founded on the discovery of gold 128 years back, Joburg has always lived on its wits – the city of the bold, the city of opportunity, the city on the make. For some, it’s Egoli where fortunes have been made; for others, the dream has dissolved into lives of inner [...]
And God Created Women. It was the era of The Pill, the miniskirt, the bikini, Brigitte Bardot, Ursula Andress and the banning of the ANC. In this, the third essay in our series on Women Through the Decades, we look at women in the 1960s and 1970s. […]
The real Vuyo is Wits IT and Business alumnus Miles Kubheka. Not only is he a Big Big Dreamer, he’s also a Big Big Doer who is walking the long, hard road of being an entrepreneur. […]
