Afro-pop legend Miriam Makeba, also known as "Mama Africa," died on Sunday at the age of 76 in the south of Italy, following a concert appearance. This
powerhouse songstress's long and varied life included marriage to Black Panther Stokely Carmichael, exile from her home country of South Africa, a starring role in the film Sarafina!, about the 1976 Soweto youth uprisings, and an appearance in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony.
Over her lifetime Makeba made dozens of records and was responsible for bringing the issue of apartheid to the forefront in Western countries, though she always identified herself first as a singer, not as a political activist.
South Africa's aggressive affirmative action policy, which requires companies to give preferential hiring treatment to the country's 90 percent
black population, colored community, Indians, and women has
garnered both success and criticism.
South Africans growing up in destitute conditions perpetuated by apartheid have found financial security and professional fulfillment through increased opportunities. Some companies recruit the marginalized groups in high school and give them extra academic assistance and help through university.
Even though prostitution obviously goes well with soccer, religious groups and government opposition parties disagree with
South Africa's plan to legalize sex-for-sale before the 2010 World Cup.
The Durban municipal government wants to legalize the red light district, and make access to "services" safe and easy. Those in favor argue that Germany opened popular adult entertainment centers for World Cup 2006.
Damon and Eastwood Join Freeman For Nelson Mandela Movie Clint Eastwood is set to direct a script based on the true-life events documented in the book, The Human Factor: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Changed the World by John Carlin. Matt Damon will play star rugby player Francois Pienaar who befriended Nelson Mandela (who, as we learned a while back, will be portrayed by Morgan Freeman) during the run-up to a game that "gave whites and blacks in South Africa a common cause to rally around as the country was trying to heal from the wounds of apartheid."
In South Africa, xenophobic attacks on foreigners have left at least 20 people dead and 30,000 displaced. For the first time since apartheid ended, South Africa has
deployed its army on its own streets, in an attempt to quell the attacks which began about 10 days ago, and have spread throughout the country.
Taking out their frustration with a 40 percent unemployment rate, inflation, and crime, mobs of locals around Johannesburg are targeting Nigerian-owned businesses, or those who have fled turbulent and nearby Zimbabwe to settle in South Africa.
South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius won a landmark appeal from the Court of Arbitration for Sport allowing the runner
to compete for a slot in the Beijing Olympics despite a previous ban on his artificial legs.
Nicknamed "Bladerunner," Pistorius runs on specially-adapted carbon fiber blades and said of the ruling, I am going to try and make it to Beijing. I have a few chances ahead of me and I will try to make the most of them.
