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South African rapper, producer and musical artist, Sam Turpin

Sam Turpin’s notes on grief

The legacy of photographer Gisèle Wulfsohn echoes through her son’s music as Sam Turpin confronts sorrow through art

Loving memory: Maria McCloy was someone who made
Johannesburg feel possible. Someone who gathered people across
class, art, music, fashion and politics and convinced them that
beauty, style and radical care belonged together.

Maria McCloy made Johannesburg feel possible

Friends, creatives and a city in mourning gathered to celebrate the woman who helped shape how Johannesburg saw itself after 1994.

Prize-winner: Variations on a Theme was cast entirely from the local community. Photos: Supplied

Directors Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar push creative boundaries with Variations on a Theme

A poetic, genre-blurring film, Variations on a Theme excavates ancestral grief, memory and forgotten histories in a Northern Cape community still waiting for justice

Mother-and-daughter duo: Bettina Swart and Kelly-Grace Gibberd built Me&B to give South African women
stylish, size-inclusive clothing that celebrates comfort, confidence and individuality.

How Me&B built joy into South African fashion

What begins as a search for the right dress for a difficult goodbye becomes a window into the heart and purpose behind Me&B, a South African label celebrating comfort, confidence…

Embracing it: Instead of trying to camouflage loss by seeking distractions, the writer advises that we find a way to let the process of mourning
unfold fully. Photo: Khris Kunta

Grief allowed,  grants us room to heal

There is a way we find refuge from mourning. We distract ourselves. We move cities. We change jobs. We scroll endlessly. We convince ourselves that strength means silence. But…

Layered: Lebo Mazibuko’s novel Fabrics of Love came out in August. Photo: Thandukwazi Lungelo Gcabashe

Exploring the fabric of family and identity in Lebo Mazibuko’s Fabrics of Love

Lebo Mazibuko’s second novel, Fabrics of Love, looks at themes of family trauma, black womanhood, absent fathers and heritage

Refound belief: Donovan E Williams at his Confirmation at the Mater Dolorosa Catholic Church in Johannesburg at the age of 50. Photo: Velile Mhlungu

The God Edition | Losing my religion to find my faith

One writer’s journey through activism and grief led him back to the altar — on his own terms

Life and death matters: Author Khaya Dlanga deals with the loss of his brother and mother in Life is Like That Sometimes. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy

Khaya Dlanga: Writing his way to inner peace

Writer confronts family, grief and recovery in his most vulnerable, honest book yet

Home is where the heart is: Hendrik Nieuwoudt as Sean and Anathi Rubela as Gift in a scene from the Netflix Afrikaans series Tuiskoms.  Photos: Courtesy of Netflix

Tuiskoms: Finding healing in humour

Series captures the complexity of grief, family and rediscovery through love

Loneliness: A chain that melts the blood inside veins

An unknown woman’s death, alone and far away, inspires Iman Rappetti to sing her own confessional song, a cri de coeur for connection

(John McCann/M&G)

The Grief of Strangers

Through Umhlobo Wenene’s ‘Imiphanga’, writer Lidudumalingani remembers his mother connecting with the pain of others

Not enough: It seems that the regular salary is not enough for young South Africans. Many turn to side hustles to make ends meet.

Mind the toxic workplace

While people are taking mental health more seriously, the commodification of workers can turn a job into a toxic space that depletes more than it uplifts

What’s your flavour? Whether your tastes run to virtual sex, sixty-nining, or bondage, you don’t have to be cishet or gender nonconforming to enjoy a touch of novelty. (Photos & illustrations: Siphumeze Khundayi and Katia Herrera)

‘Touch: Sex, Sexuality and Sensuality’ — the erotic in action

Full to the point of rupture, Touch still leaves the reader yearning for more

there are no flowers in the streets where children play and the area has experienced four cases of child suicide in recent months. Photo: David Harrison

‘The children cannot cope any more’: Suicide in Calvinia highlights lack of support for young

How Covid-19 has intensified the physical and emotional burdens placed on children’s shoulders.

Khanya’s predecessor: Quintin the robot. (Damien Schumann)

The robot that allows Covid-19 patients human contact

A mental health pandemic: It’s far from ideal, but a dying mother was able to blow kisses to her child thanks to Khanya the robot

The system turned our mourning into a minefield. Graphic: John McCann/ M&G

Grief is different for everyone

Some people need to seek professional help so that they can learn to accept the death of a loved one

Mourners carry the casket with Ahmed Timol’s body in October 1971.

Justice for Timol leaves us with bittersweet grief

“Long live Ahmed Timol, long live!”.

‘He thinks that Palesa can’t hear him when he whispers a plea to God: “Please think about me. I cannot do this any more

Slice of life: Making tea with love

Palesa Sauhatsi lost her grandfather in May 2015 and misses making him tea

Moving on: Youths arrive on Utøya for a ­summer camp

Slowly, Norway reclaims the land where it lost its innocence

For the first time since Breivik murdered 69 people on Utøya, the political youth group he attacked has returned to the Norwegian island to camp.

Dying to talk about death

We would all choose a quick death if we could, but for some of us that won’t happen. We should talk more about it.