I officially became a South African citizen this morning. This bright, sunny spring morning, in a dull, grey bureaucrat’s office, in the presence of said bureaucrat and an administrator who were both very kind and chatty (and who reminded me that I now was sworn to supporting Bafana Bafana no matter who they were playing,… Read More Home Affairs
Images by Gavin Aung Than, Words by Bill Watterson, borrowed from zenpencils.com My husband sent me this cartoon by Gavin Aung Than. It’s been going around for the last few days but I only managed to get round to reading it today. Than beautifully illustrates a speech given by Bill Watterson, the legend behind Calvin… Read More Inventing Your Life’s Meaning: Advice from a cartoonist
Feminism is not exactly like a religion to me, but if we’re talking about religion as the framework through which you understand life and make meaning of it, then it’s pretty close. And whilst I am in conversation with my ‘religion’, like all people who hold fast to our frameworks, there are a few… Read More Losing my Religion: Stopping Gender-based Violence
“Feminism is not a possession. It is not a credential. It is not the mantle on which to build one’s brand. There are liberal and conservative feminists. There are religious or spiritual and atheistic or agnostic feminists. Feminists inhabit the gender spectrum and are represented by all races and ethnicities. Breaking news! Feminists are individuals… Read More What’s in a name: Meditations on Feminism
By some strange coincidence, in the 6 months preceding my aunt’s death I had worked my way through three seminal ‘grief narratives’. I have half-joked to friends that I was sort of ‘studying up’, without knowing it, in preparation for what was to come. There really is no preparing for it, though. The best… Read More The Grief Book Club
One of the weirder things about grief is that all of the cliches – the ones you’ve seen play out on TV shows or movies, the ones you’ve read about it in books by more sophisticated authors who write in ways that mask the pallid clicheness – are true. It all comes to life… Read More On Grief
I broke up with one of my best friends last year. It was a spectacular, real-life, parting of the hearts – angry words were sent back and forth across the interwebs and via our phones, accusations were flung, incredibly hurtful things were said (by both of us). Reader, it got ugly. And as these things… Read More On Friendship
by Shehnaz A few weeks ago I bumped into an acquaintance of my mum’s at the mall. She knew of my current illness and inquired after my health, she then gave me a once over and asked, “Are they not giving you anything for the swelling?” That evening we had dinner with (my husband) family and my… Read More On being a ‘chubster’ – meditations on beauty and bodies
Rumbi Writes 
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