Rian Malan
Rian Malan is a Johannesburg-based musician and journalist best known for his 1990 memoir, “My Traitor’s Heart”, recently republished as a Vintage Modern Classic. A collection of his subsequent work, “Resident Alien”, was published in 2009. Malan has also made several award-winning documentaries, most recently The Splintered Rainbow, for Al Jazeera.
South Africa: a time to worry

South Africa: a time to worry

Spare a thought for South African journalists, reduced to peering into murk and gun smoke for clues to what’s going on inside South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the crisis-riddled state agency that decides the fate of criminal suspects in the...

Unpacking white privilege

Unpacking white privilege

South Africa: race relations When white ‘allies’ want to make a difference will there still be space for their contribution? By Rian Malan The great struggle of my life thus far has been to come to terms with and, if possible, escape the consequences of being white....

Unpacking white privilege

Unpacking white privilege

When white ‘allies’ want to make a difference will there still be space for their contribution? The great struggle of my life thus far has been to come to terms with and, if possible, escape the consequences of being white. The need is, of course, particularly acute...

Rian Malan
Rian Malan is a Johannesburg-based musician and journalist best known for his 1990 memoir, “My Traitor’s Heart”, recently republished as a Vintage Modern Classic. A collection of his subsequent work, “Resident Alien”, was published in 2009. Malan has also made several award-winning documentaries, most recently The Splintered Rainbow, for Al Jazeera.
South Africa: a time to worry

South Africa: a time to worry

Spare a thought for South African journalists, reduced to peering into murk and gun smoke for clues to what’s going on inside South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the crisis-riddled state agency that decides the fate of criminal suspects in the...

Unpacking white privilege

Unpacking white privilege

South Africa: race relations When white ‘allies’ want to make a difference will there still be space for their contribution? By Rian Malan The great struggle of my life thus far has been to come to terms with and, if possible, escape the consequences of being white....

Unpacking white privilege

Unpacking white privilege

When white ‘allies’ want to make a difference will there still be space for their contribution? The great struggle of my life thus far has been to come to terms with and, if possible, escape the consequences of being white. The need is, of course, particularly acute...