Eugene de Kock and the Violence of 'Nation Building and Reconciliation'

Siphokazi Magadla, SACSIS

The 27th of January 2015 marked the 70th anniversary of the ‘liberation’ of Auschwitz-Birkenau. This is the concentration camp in Poland where an estimated 1.1 million people were killed by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany during World War II. The victims of Auschwitz-Birkenau were killed in masses in gas chambers while some were beaten to death and others died of starvation, endured forced labour and suffered from infectious diseases. Speaking in front of the International Auschwitz Committee in Berlin, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel reminded the world that “crimes against humanity are not time-barred” and challenged that “we will always have the responsibility of ensuring that the knowledge about these atrocities is passed on, and of keeping the memories alive.”

Legal Band-Aid not for deep wounds

Mahmood Mamdani interviewed by Shaun de Waal, Mail & Guardian

Mahmood Mamdani’s book Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Colonialism (1995) is now viewed as one of the key texts on citizenship, modernity and post-colonialism in Africa. Last month he delivered the second annual Mistra lecture at the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection, as well as launching his new book, Define and Rule: Native as Political Identity (Wits University Press), which was based on his WEB du Bois lectures at Harvard.