Category Archive for:

South Africa


Picture This, Shots in the Dark: Billy Monk’s Underworld

Mike Morgan

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Repressive societies, like those ruled by regimes that rely on heavy policing to enforce state policy, have a way of creating unique situations and throwing up special characters. Often, the most interesting people are those who ...

More from the Vault: A Brief Encounter with Orlando Pirates

Jenny Morgan

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The following piece appeared in Issue #7 of Hard Crackers Magazine, which can be purchased here. ย  I don’t know why I looked round towards our production vehicle. We were in Soweto, in late afternoon sunshine, ...

Indigenous Peoplesโ€™ Day โ€“ Isandlwana, The Mother of All Battles

Mike Morgan

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This particular written project got percolating in my head when one of my co-editors, John Garvey, told me this. ย  John recently asked his granddaughter whether she had Columbus Day off from school. ย  She corrected ...

What is Happening in South Africa?

Abahlali baseMjondolo

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We are reprinting a statement from the group Abahlali baseMojondolo dated July 13, 2021.ย  Abahlali is a grassroots organization that represents shack dwellers, squatters and poor people in and around the east coast port of eThekwini ...

Varkie (Piglet)

Mike Morgan

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Varkie hailed from Kuruman, in the arid Great Karoo on the Ghaap Plateau.ย  Before he was drafted into the army, Varkie was hired by the South African Railways (SAR), the government owned institution that ensured employment ...

Recurring Dreams

Mike Morgan

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My friend and fellow Hard Crackers editor Chris Alexander is largely responsible for this one. ย Chris is a medical technologist in the emergency room of a busy downtown hospital in Detroit. ย He performs CT scans (what ...

Ho Ho This!

Mike Morgan

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Christmas is here and if you live in America you know this because the bombardment starts on Thanksgiving.ย  The television commercials are a dead giveaway, plus the specially named shopping days, โ€œBlack Fridayโ€ or โ€œCyber Monday.โ€ย  ...

On the Current Crisis in South Africa

Hard Crackers Editors

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Hard Crackers has reached out to a South African independent social justice publication called New Frame Magazine.ย  New Frame describes itself as such:ย  We are dedicated to a pro-poor, pro-working class focus that aims to report ...

Drawing Ourselves into the Picture

Mike Morgan

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My mother Leah frequented the Durban Public Library in South Africa at least once a week.ย  As the youngest child, I was often forced to tag along with her.ย  I enjoyed those sessions.ย  I used to ...

Weโ€™re Cooking with Gas, Brother

Mike Morgan

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My brother-in-law Norms responded to my recent Shebeen article in Hard Crackers with his own story.ย  I want to tell it and a little more.ย  Norms lives with his wife in the Walmer neighborhood of Port ...
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