identitylatest news & developments
Spirit leader: Zawadi Yamungu.

Zawadi Yamungu: The African Dramaturg

Blending jazz, folk and indigenous instrumentation, Zawadi crafts a sound that reconnects audiences to heritage while confronting the politics of the present

South Africa cannot afford frivolous debates that treat borders as provisional or sovereignty as negotiable.

South Africa’s dangerous drift away from sovereignty and nationhood

Transnational commitments are celebrated, while attachment to the nation‑state is treated with suspicion

Homecoming: Celebrations scenes from Mgidi Moms. Photo: Mzansi Magic

Inside ‘Mgidi Moms’: Where tradition, love and celebration meet

From initiation to homecoming, Mzansi Magic’s bold new reality show explores family, identity and Xhosa heritage

Quietly radical: Zee Nxumalo occupies a rare position in South African music, both a product of a digital
moment and a shaper of it. Photo: Supplied

Zee Nxumalo isn’t chasing depth — she’s living it

At 23, the singer-songwriter is shaping South African music on her own terms, blending beats, introspection and a fearless sense of self

‘Cape Fever’: When fiction fills the gaps of history

Through Soraya’s journey, Cape Fever explores identity, resilience and the hidden histories of Cape Malays in post-war South Africa

Ndumiso Zondi’s three must-reads

Many commit to reading books every year and are not sure where to start. Here are three books poet Ndumiso Zondi suggest

Author: Abdulrazak Gurnah at LiteretureXchange Festival (2025
Denmark) Photo: Hreinn Gudlaugsson

Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Theft: A story of servitude, survival and the search for home

Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah returns with Theft, a moving portrait of loss, longing, and the elusive idea of home.

All that glitters: Artist Johnathan Schultz’s most distinctive and dominant medium is gold. Photo: Sonder Rose Media

Typos & change: Jonathan Schultz and the alchemy of identity

In his latest body of work, Johnathan Schultz trades spectacle for soul, reimagining gold as a vessel for memory, resilience and identity

Done waiting: Campbell Meas, winner of this year’s National Playwright Competition at the National Arts Festival. Photo: Boipelo Khunou

Campbell Meas is done waiting

A candid look at Campbell Meas’s journey navigating creativity, identity and the challenges of breaking into the arts industry

Do the rite thing: Reflections on the transition to manhood

Jeffrey Rakabe ponders transformation, trauma and tradition in a debut that challenges what it means to grow up

Runaway success: Gert-Johan Coetzee’s The Arrival collection at the opening of the South Africa Spring/Summer collections, which took to the runway on 24 April at in Johannesburg’s Hyde Park.

Gert-Johan Coetzee: The return of the self

The designer’s The Arrival opens South Africa Fashion Week, proving that fashion can be both a mirror and a vessel

The struggle to reclaim or protect land is fundamentally a struggle to restore human dignity. Photo: Lucky Nxumalo/City Press/Gallo Images/Getty Images

Land and dignity: A global reflection anchored in Palestine

Land is more than a physical resource — it is the foundation of identity, freedom and dignity in places as far-flung as North America, Australia and New Zealand to Gaza, India and Brazil.

Author shares his life through an ethnic lens

One boy. Three matriarchs. Endless food, love, and drama. A memoir that’s as touching as it is tasty

Congolese artist Alexandre Kyungu Mwilambwe. (Supplied)

The art of identity and migration

Artist explores the way that personal history challenges the concepts of home and belonging

The classroom must adapt for Generation Alpha

Teachers must ensure mental health and create relevance for children of the digital age who know about identity diversity, global crises and an uncertain world

The Western Cape education department says it has filled 477 teacher posts despite  announcing last year that 2 407 contract teachers would not be reappointed as a result of severe budget cuts.(Photo by Gallo Images / Sunday Times / Thuli Dlamini)

The classroom must adapt for Generation Alpha

Teachers must ensure mental health and create relevance for children of the digital age who know about identity diversity, global crises and an uncertain world