Items

• The African Renaissance

  The article frames the question of whether or not Africans can be held to the same esteem as Europeans; it suggests that Europeans have tried to assimilate African nations by having African nations adopt British public school systems, by requiring the learning of Latin, by teaching Hume and Ayer, Descartes ad Gilson. "It wears academic dress, or drinks vermouth in cafes...when this elite wants to write poetry, or do scientific research, or run a business, or make political speeches, or philosophise, it is obliged as a rule to use a European language." The article then asks: "How can we make use of European ideas, institutions, and techniques, without becoming their prisoner--without ceasing to be African?"
• Mr Hain aims for Springboks' Achilles heel

  [Excerpt]: "SUPPORT has snowballed beyond our wildest dreams,' says Peter hain, 19-year-old chairman of the Stop the Seventy Tour Committee formed recently to co-ordinate opposition, to next year's visit to Britain of the South African cricket team but now in the thick of the furore over the current Springbok rugger tour... It was through Denis Brutus, black South African president of SANROC (the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee) that Hain met 22-year old Hugh Geach, a Reading University student in Soil Science who is now honorary secretary of STST. Brutus is one of the few activists now hounding the Springboks with first-hand knowledge of het grim realities of Apartheid..."
• Afrikaans poet released

  Mr Breyten Breytenbach, South Africa's most famous living Afrikaans poet, has been released from prison after serving seven of the nine years to which he was sentenced in 1975 for promoting the aims of the banned African National Congress (ANC). By far the best known white political prisoner in South Africa, Mr Breytenbach is also the first prisoner of note to be freed under a new policy announced earlier this year by Mr Kobie Coetsee, the Minister of Justice, which makes it possible for those convicted of "offenses against the security of the state" to qualify for remission of sentence. [Article continues to describe how political prisoners are chosen for release.]
• New drive to ease fate of apartheid prisoners

  "Dennis Brutus: a story of "pogus" experiences"
• Vorster answers prison criticisms

  "The IRC inspection was made by Dr. Georg Hoffman in May 1964.
• Report indicts S African prisons

  "A massive indictment of the South African prison systems based on the testimony of former political prisoners has come to the Sunday Times."
• S Africa's blue-pencil slips

  "The South African censors that are quick to protect the country's morals, spent hours with their blue pencils "expurgating" last week Sunday Times Airmail Edition."
• Free Maziar Bahari

  "For over a month now he has been held in Iran without charges or access to a lawyer."
• Surviving Spirit

  "I must confess an interest I have known Hugh Lewin for over fourteen years, and admire him a great deal."
• Today BBC1

  "10:45 Read all about it. Hugh Scallon, Kingsley Amis, Jackie Collins, choose paperbacks; Michael Innes and Hugh Lewin (Imprisoned in South Africa for 7 years) Interviewed
• Troops Kill 24 in Congo: Riots Go On

  "A statement issued by the Stanleyville authorities said a warrant for M. Patrice Lumumba."
• Anti-British Deputy Becomes Ghana High Commissioner

  "Mr. Armah, who is 32, is the chairman of the London Commitee of African Organisations, a highly political group which has organised large-scale demostrations in London against American bases in Britain, apartheid, and the arrest and detention of Patrice Lumumba."
• Repressing the Rebels

  "When news that Benjamin Moloise had been hanged in Pretoria prison was confirmed on Friday, a Johannesburg businessman commented: "This government has a reputation for shooting itself in the foot. This time it shot itself in both feet.""
• Strong world from freedom fighters

  "When the late Nigerian writer was first arrested in 1994, a small group of his family and friends in Britain tried to have him released from prison."
• Pariah

  "The shock was as pronounced in the other great forum of the world debate, the United Nations.
• World Service

  "10.30. The Play of the Week: A Month and A Day. Drama based on the diaries written during his imprisonment by the executed Nigerian writer and activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa."
• World Service

  "10.30. The Play of the Week: A Month and A Day. Drama based on the diaries written during his imprisonment by the executed Nigerian writer and activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa."
• Poker game with death in fragmenting Nigeria

  "Ken Saro-Wiwa once wrote a farce about prison."