JAMES WALSH is moved by a provocative and original take on the relationship between ecology and architecture, and a plea to work with, not against, the materials and minerals of our world
Tested by legacies of colonialism and apartheid
STEVE ANDREW recommends a comprehensive and revealing narrative about the most significant communist party in Africa
CPSA leadership meets in Cape Town in 1930. (L to R) bottom row: Bill Andrews, WH Harrison, Sidney Bunting. Johnny Gomas holds Lenin portrait. Second row: Gana Makabeni (above Harrison), Rebecca Bunting (third row fourth from right), Douglas Wolton (top row fourth from right)
[CPSA]
An immersive, participatory display by a queer Australian Aboriginal performer, and a rebellious unravelling of traditional Scottish dance
EWAN CAMERON witnesses a political farce that lacks a clear message
EWAN CAMERON picks out two fascinating music shows, fusing the Korean, and the Celtic, with the modern
BENJAMIN POTHIER suggests that Palaeolithic cave paintings in Spain point to the ceremonial use of hallucinogenic flora
The bard confirms that the right has a humour bypass, and replays the English Revolution on period instruments
Red Road to Freedom: A history of the South African Communist Party 1921-2021
by Tom Lodge
James Currey £70
BUILDING on earlier seminal texts such as RE Simons’s voluminous Class and Colour in South Africa and Michael Harmel’s more celebratory account Fifty Fighting Years, Tom Lodge’s latest work is a monumental, fascinating and painstakingly researched book that provides by far the most up-to-date and comprehensive history of the South African Communist Party.
Unlike liberal and Trotskyist commentators, Lodge also emerges as a critical but undoubtedly sympathetic observer who skilfully captures a dramatic and compelling story that has film-like qualities.
Lodge kicks off his book by demonstrating how the organised left in South Africa can effectively date its history back to the 1890s, a period in which a myriad of socialist, anarchist and syndicalist organisations began to be formed.
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