Zanele Mazibuko has always hated the violin. And the flute? Forget it. For a child growing up in the black township of Soweto, she said, those instruments represented a distant world of white privilege, beyond a seemingly uncrossable racial divide.

But last week, something began to change her mind. It was a live performance by Freshlyground, one of South Africa’s hottest bands, which features both a violin and a flute — not to mention five white members out of seven. The music, a fusion of rock, jazz and Afro-pop, sounded “black,” Mazibuko said, delighted and amazed.

(Read more…)

In theory, what happened to 14-year-old Sibongile in this hilly, crowded township outside Durban in November could not happen today - at least, not legally.
 
On a broiling Saturday morning, as more than a dozen women looked on, Sibongile joined 56 other Zulu girls outside a red-and-white striped tent. One by one, they lay on a straw mat beneath the tent; one by one, they received a cursory inspection of their genitals by a woman in a ceremonial beaded hat. As the inspector pronounced judgment on the state of their hymens - “virgin,” “nice,” “perfect” - each departed to the excited trilling of the women who were observers.
 
(Read more…)