On the Zambezi River In 1993, while sitting in a boat on the Zambezi River floodplain, far north of Mongu, watching the beautiful flights of hundreds of pelicans, I began to make notes and sketches for a book about climate change for my grandson, Stephen Kupakwesu Bush. It was called The Drought Witch. Stephen was 3 years old. It would […]
Paris Noir 1950 – 2000 Black Paris – Artistic Circulations and Anti-Colonial Struggles, 1950–2000
Black Paris – Artistic Circulations and Anti-Colonial Struggles, 1950–2000 I had to see the Paris Noir exhibition. Art and anti-colonialism have always been part of my life, most of which I spent in southern Africa before 1996. I was born in Zimbabwe and studied art in South Africa, but the most significant years of my artistic life were spent working […]
Afrikaners
The Bittereinders and Trump gaslight President Cyril Ramaphosa Trump’s appalling behaviour towards President Cyril Ramaphosa in the White House yesterday has created a storm of different opinions about it in the papers and on Facebook. What Trump and Ramaphosa have in common is no knowledge of art. Trump showed an art installation of white crosses (not graves or on graves) […]
Storytelling on the Borderlines of Colonial and Post-Colonial Literature
I have been working towards a doctorate about storytelling and this blog is part of my thesis. Storytellers and artists both entertain and to help us survive by making sense of our lives and world. All stories follow similar patterns of a quest, a passion, and a mistake, followed by a resolution or acceptance of fate, as JD Salinger explained. […]
Grandmother’s Sandwich Story
Sandwich stories by columnist Stephen Bush, was in the Financial Times last week in response to Kemi Badenoch’s Spectator statement that she doesn’t eat them. Somehow Grandmother was mentioned, too, so Grandmother determined to write her own stories about sandwiches – here they are. Read at your peril if you don’t eat or do eat Bread. Padkos or Road Food […]