people

The story of an African crusader

Olive Schreiner may be widely known and best remembered for her novel The Story of an African Farm, but her influence extends so much further than that.

04.2025 | Olive Schreiner

The need to bleed: Taking on extreme sports to control your pain

In Ethiopia, men participate in brutal stick-fighting battles and sometimes bash each other’s heads in, all to win a woman’s heart.

04.2025 | Haji Mohamed Dawjee

Queen: The Amazing Life of Madam CJ Walker

23 December 1867 in a town called Delta. Former slaves and sharecroppers Owen and Minerva Breedlove toil away, barely at a subsistence level, in the harsh sun and humid heat of Louisiana.

02.2025 | Amanda Jones

Is purpose a decision or a discovery?

We would all like to have a sense of purpose in our lives that drives us forward regardless of the obstacles in our path. But is our life purpose a decision or a discovery? Many of us are drawn to the notion of a singular, overriding passion.

02.2025 | Kibo Ngowi

Mentorship and mastery: the middle way to self-development

With pharmaceutical cognitive enhancements on the one side, and delayed or deferred adulthood on the other, is there a better way to develop to your full potential?

12.2024 | Lee Blake

How much would you pay to be James Bond?

On the 9th of September 2015, an auction house in Guernsey had a peculiar item up for bid; amongst arts and antiques, there was a small plate with three digits on it.

08.2024 | Alistair Duff

The life and times of Hunter S.Thompson

A self-professed hillbilly, Hunter Stockton Thompson entered the world on the 18th of July 1937 and left it of his own accord in 2005. His life was a complex and bizarre mélange of impotent creativity set against a backdrop of seminal influence on almost everything he touched.

08.2024 | Toni Botes

Ethical lies

Lying is wrong, except when it isn’t, and morality is not as black and white as we sometimes like to believe. Scientifically.

One of my earliest memories is when my mother, to her embarrassment, forgot about a doctor’s appointment. Calling the doctor to reschedule, she made up an excuse supported by fictitious car troubles.

12.2023 | Josh Gordon

When the guy in the changing room corner ends up as your coach one day

In a classic case of gamekeeper turned poacher, French international referee Alexandre Ruiz recently quit officiating to become a defence coach for club side Montpellier

11.2013 | Simnikiwe Xabanisa

Because I said so

“The attacks against Trump have taught me something about myself,” one Donald Trump supporter was quoted as saying..

11.2022 | Debby Edelstein

Nigeria’s national treasure

He may have famously stated: “If you don’t like my story, write your own”, but Chinua Achebe certainly never lacked an audience and was instrumental in placing a spotlight on African literature.

11.2022 | Ingrid Wood

Kids and violent behaviour

What has self-esteem got to do with it?

Major self-esteem issues in children can lead to unacceptable and violent behaviour in adulthood. Issues of self-esteem are the building blocks for creating caring human beings, but we need to start early.

02.2022 | Martin Scheepers

“If I do humblebrag so myself…”

The humblebrag: what it is and why so many of us are guilty of it

“I hate that I look so young – Another 18-year-old just made a pass at me.”

“Oh no! Spilled red wine on the contract for my new book.”

01.2022 | Tiffany Markman

Bottling water in the desert

This is an article for those of you who, like me, love trivia. As a bonus for reading this article, I’m offering you a handful of fascinating little nuggets of relatively obscure information.

12.2021 | Barry Dwolatzky

Resilience Part 2: Shellshock, resilience and meaning

In contrast to the “ghastly mental health issues” afflicting the millennial generation, a little over 100 years ago, 60 million young peoples’ lives were moulded and defined by a world at war. 9 million died.

11.2021 | Nicole Wills

Oversharing vs Authenticity

The ancient Greeks believed that mental and physical health were interrelated and that the body and mind should be in harmony.

10.2021 | Charmain Naidoo

I’m so lonesome I could cry.

When Hank Williams turned those few words into his first really big hit in 1949 he was making capital of a sad truth - that loneliness can reduce grown people to tears.

09.2021 | Peter Dearlove

The rise of the only child

First off, allow me this disclaimer: I think only children are great. Because I am an only child and, out of choice, I have an only child.

09.2021 | Tiffany markham

A spirit of excellence

Bomber pilot, ukulele player and winner of 72 professional tournaments, South African golfing legend Bobby Locke was a charismatic and talented man.

08.2021 | Ingrid Wood

Resilience Part 1: Shellshock and Snowflakes

“You are not special. You’re not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You’re the same decaying organic matter as everything else.”

05.2021 | Nicole Wills

High society hoaxes

Anna Vadimovna Sorokina may not be a name that immediately rings a bell for most people. Anna Delvey on the other hand is a name that sends a shiver of anxiety along the very spine of the New York elite and has become synonymous with fraud around the globe.

02.2021 | Alistair Duff

We date like we shop

As much as this is such a tired cliché, there is some truth to the widespread millennial observation that dating in this generation is harder and more complicated than it used to be.

09.2020 | Rebone Masemola

The Ivy League and other elite schools- can you get in?

There is no obvious, fail-safe method to being accepted into a school in the Ivy League, but there are some definite patterns exploited and strategies adopted by top performing, successful candidates.

09.2020 | Rachel Edelstein

Anger Series: When domestic violence comes to the office

Anger and male-perpetrated violence are a pandemic in this country. How do companies approach the sensitive issue and are there policies in place to help employees who are victims of violence?

08.2020 | Martin Scheepers

In defence of millennials: Speak to us, dammit

Another day, another article about the supposed habits of millennials written by older generations, with contributions from other members of the same generation. It is hilarious.

08.2020 | Moyagabo Maake

How to host a conversation

Everyone hates meetings. Most of us concede that they are a waste of time and an opportunity for the preening and posturing of only the most powerful and obnoxious.

08.2020 | Debby Edelstein

The bully in the boardroom

If you see bullying as essentially a playground problem – one that doesn’t affect adults in the course of their working lives – you couldn’t be more wrong.

06.2020 | Kim Segel

One size fits all - or does it?

Marketers tend to make sweeping statements about entire generations. Is it dangerous to create a ‘one size fits all’ scenario when talking about any group in particular?

05.2020 | Denise Slabbert

Can we trust the public with decisions?

Any survey worth its salt will clearly illustrate the current mindset of people worldwide.

05.2020 | Alistair Duff

What men can learn from women on the sports field

Different gender traits could make the difference between winning and losing on the sports field and in the workplace.

04.2020 | Martin Scheepers

My water, life and surfing…

I am a 36 year old South African Xhosa man. I live in Johannesburg and I was born in Alice, Eastern Cape. My parents are divorced, and I have a 30 year old sister. I am married to an incredible 32 year old Xhosa woman, and she was born in Mthatha.

04.2020 | Lungi Phinda

Why TV is more violent now than ever before (and we love it that way!)

A serial killer drains his victims of blood, chops them into pieces and drops the body parts in the ocean. A horde of hungry zombies rip into the flesh of a wounded victim.

03.2020 | Jared Orlin

Nudge Theory

Nudge theory and behavioural economics are terms increasingly used, even by those who are not economics scholars. This is most likely for two reasons:

02.2020 | Adam Edelstein

Don’t believe me

In most knowledge systems doubt excludes you from membership. Questioning authority, tradition and dogma is taboo. But in science, doubt is the key to entry.

11.2018 | André Croucamp

Why good old children’s stories, close up, are as scary as anything

Considering the origins of this activist byword, has it been diluted into mere online slang by mainstream use?

06.2018 | Tiffany Markman

Observations on the entrepreneur and the corporate animal – a biased view from an entrepreneur

Is time of less value in big buildings?

05.2018 | Nicole Wills

Anger Series: Taking a long hard look at anger (and violence)

Read the headlines on any given day and you’ll find a new story in which the violent details take your breath away. How do we begin to fix that?

12.2017 | Martin Scheepers

An analysis of President Donald Trump’s use of language

Is Trump’s unique brand of presidential oratory deliberate and strategic, is it the disjointed output of a disordered mind, or is it something else?

04.2018 | Tiffany Markman

Anger Series: Kids and anger – let’s get them while they’re young

To address issues of violence, we need to start with children, and boys in particular. As social reformer, writer and statesman Frederick Douglass said: “It’s easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”

04.2018 | Martin Scheepers

Why service delivery successes in South Africa don’t always translate into community satisfaction

Despite the refrain to the contrary, living standards in South Africa today are much higher than at any point in the history of the country.

10.2017 | Frans Cronje

The unlikely aesthetic premium that millennials are willing to pay for luxury goods

How millennials rent luxury lifestyles – and savvy brands are cashing in.

07.2017 | Victoria Aadnesgaard

Have you floated before? Money for nothing

The sensory deprivation tank seems fundamentally different to all other luxuries. It promises nothing.

06.2017 | Deena Dinat

The school shooting

A few days after I turned 15, I was in the cafeteria waiting in line to buy my lunch, when a coach told us to shut up and get down.

07.2019 | Kathy Carlston

Killer ratings: our obsession with true crime TV series

Are TV audiences evolving into bloodthirsty voyeurs, desperate for more true tales of violence and crime? Or are other factors propelling the true crime genre up the popularity charts?

07.2019 | Jared Orlin

Corporate animals

The notion of a “corporate animal” reminds me of Yann Martel’s idea in Life of Pi that wild animals enjoy the physical safety and food security of living in a zoo more than having to fend for themselves in the wild.

07.2019 | Jon Stilwell

The child-free life and its unexpected dilemmas

Deciding to not reproduce triggers complex and conflicting emotions.

07.2019 | Sylvia Swart

My TEDx experience

Like most people, I had a wish list of things I wanted to achieve and check off in my lifetime. Speaking on a TED stage was one of them.

07.2019 | Rebone Masemola