Cecil Rhodes, 1895, as he tried to overthrow Kruger’s South African Republic government: “in order to save the … inhabitants of the UK from a bloody civil war, we colonial statesmen must acquire new lands … The Empire … is a bread and butter question.” See Saul Dubow’s chapter in amzn.eu/d/6zBAy2u

With the sole exception of the Catholic priest, it's striking how similar the aesthetics of the 1950s/60s Estado Novo in Portugal were to those of the National Party in South Africa in the same period.

Judith Butler thought I was the photographer accompanying the student journalist who was interviewing her.

New article by @jimmy-pieterse.bsky.social.

📢 New article! Campus radio in Pretoria emerged under apartheid-era restrictions, with the SABC dominating broadcasting. Tracing Radio Tuks from the late 1970s to democracy, this article reveals how UP students contested media power in a changing SA. ishortn.ink/campus-radio

😂 science fiction. We’re living in science fiction. As a kid in the 1980s, I would have appreciated this as a sci-fi short story

📢📢New article! How did apartheid South Africa weather the 1973–74 oil crisis? Despite sanctions, no oil reserves, and global recession, the immediate impact was limited. This article explores why, and how the crisis was turned into political capital. l1nq.com/sv0oJ

Congratulations to Dr Garikai Chaunza, a postdoctoral fellow and part-time lecturer at Rhodes University, who has been awarded the Colin Murray Award for the project 'Silencing Gukurahundi Victims: State Repression and the Erosion of Peace Journalism in Zimbabwe’. #jsas #colinmurray #gukurahundi

I'm old enough to remember when AI stood for Amnesty International.

There are eight political prisoners currently on hunger strike in the UK.

Time again for this annual post.

On-brand for The Economist to celebrate the plundering of Portugal as economic success. Try telling that to the Portuguese who can no longer afford to live in their own capital city. www.portugalpulse.com/the-economis...

Has anyone looked at the acknowledgements in Citizen and Subject recently? This is so, wholesome, as the Gen Zs say.

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you have seen in the wild (In Africa predictable answers are easy - I'll avoid those & name beasts that don't appear on banknotes & which brought delight) Chimpanzee (Uganda) Banded rubber frog (Mozambique) Springhare (South Africa) Coypu (Czechia) Reindeer (Norway)

Gmail users, take note and change your settings.

Bad enough hosting actual fascist leaders - did we really need to adopt the aesthetics too? #G20

Parabéns Angola! 11.11.1975-11.11.2025 Um prazer te ter conhecido quase a metade da tua via.

Bit rich coming from the person who was VP when the 1996 Constitution was approved and was the first president to be elected with that Constitution in force. www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...

Nice juxtaposition of skeets here. #halloween #puppies

Formerly known as Prince.

Everyday State & Democracy in Africa, ed. Wale Adebanwi, now open access. Includes my chapter 'Disputing Democracy & Challenging the State in Mozambique' based on fieldwork around the 2013-16 insurgency. (Bluesky crops the pic as per 'bottom-up case studies'.) ohioopen.library.ohio.edu/oupress/39/

This, common sense could have told us in academia with out a study. When will common sense about AI return to universities?

Hello BlueSky! Starting this account to showcase the ever growing list of radical online archives and collections. Nearly 1000 collections from the around the world are listed at the link below. Please follow for updates and collection highlights! hatfulofhistory.com/radical-onli...

My reaction to the Moldova election results: Maia who? www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

I don't really polisci post much anymore because it's like "Hi, political scientist here. I'm a big brain expert who ran 5 trillion lines of code in R and read 900 books and I'm here to tell you it's bad when masked stormtroopers kidnap your baby. Don't forget to like and follow."

can't wait for kids 20 years from now to create carefully handcrafted visual media that looks like creepy AI slop and call it 2020s aesthetics

Post a banger that's not in English. www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6wl...

It is the feast day of St. Jerome, who had a pet lion. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...

Reading Zille's response to this, I'm struck by how she digs herself ever further into her delusional sub-Trumpian reading of South African politics. www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...

The more interesting question to discuss is why British people on the whole are so averse to ID cards, which co-exist with democracy and freedom in many other countries.

It's taken him this long to realise?

Not weird at all. I cannot imagine listening to a podcast nor to an audiobook. Radio is like that annoying person who talks too much.

As a vegan I understand. I recently ate fake meat for the first time in ages (it was the only vegan thing on the menu) & regretted it for the rest of the day. Processed fake food is not the way to promote veganism. www.theguardian.com/food/2025/se...

'für Captain Kirk das gab ein großes Feuerwerk' #toosoon

Applications are now open for the 2025 Colin Murray Award. Deadline: 30 September 2025. The award supports post-doctoral researchers to carry out original ‘engaged field research’ in Southern Africa. Please see the link below for more details jsas.blog

One of the creepiest things about Facebook is when it's the birthday of a long-dead friend. No problem with the 'happy heavenly birthday' or 'missing you always', but it's the comments like 'HBD have a blast, mate' sent by someone who's been out of contact for so long that the death passed them by.

New development in the MAGA-Boere crossover?

Joburg friends... I'm back in my favourite city on Wednesday to stock up on good company and interesting conversations. And I'm speaking at Wits on Wednesday. Hope to see you either at the talk or elsewhere.

Once again, the Ukraine situation provides an opportunity for some of the worst people in the world to look maybe not so bad. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Just received the cover for my latest book! Coming in February 2026 to a bookstore near you in Southern Africa (available in North America and Europe, too), but published in RSA. Exciting stuff!

This is maybe the worst part about being an educator in the AI era. AI companies are *stealing your time* by making you work around it/find it/adjudicate it. Time that, 4 years ago, you would have used to improve your materials, or stay up-to-date on some area of research.

I have some students aspiring to that even younger.

Furthest I've been: N: Bit north of Narvik 68.55 N, 17.53 E E: Dubai 25.25 N, 55.36 E S: Cape Agulhas 34.83 S, 20.00 E W: San Francisco 37.81 N, 122.48 W Though I've spent more than half my life in the southern hemisphere, my N-most point is almost twice as far from the equator as my S-most point.

Amazing to think I was born in what was once the East Indies. Great article by @gianamar97.bsky.social on changing concepts of what the east was, and where the Cape fitted in. (The province's own uneasy relationship with the continent abides.)

Wow, apparently I'm part of a trend, I'm an AI vegan! (To the point where I was shocked to learn that this Guardian columnist for whom I have some respect admits that AI has become part of her daily routine.) www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Life in the global semi-periphery... can't deny I am closer to Perpignan than to Poitiers but not particularly close to either 🤣

Just realised that the song that I have spent 30+ years hearing as 'kiss from the rose on the grave' is actually 'rose on the grey'.

Having read the article I have no doubt the answer to the (rhetorical?) question in in the headline an emphatic yes. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

It's nearly 11pm in departures at Rome airport. I should have been on the plane 3 hours ago. The experience is redeemed by a free-to-use piano. Everyone who's played is pretty good and even if there's an odd wrong note, it's such a relief from the blandness & monetisation you expect at an airport.