The Man Who Walked Alone

This story comes from Pietersburg, Northern Transuaal. Shortlyafter we received it, we read of episodes of a very similarnature having actually occurred in the life of the grandparentsof Mary Susan Malahlele, the first Bantu woman doctor, who tookthe Hippocratic oath on the 21st June.     

Searching for the Sugar-coated Man

Proclamations of the excellence of the film Searching for Sugarman, directed by Malik Bendjelloul, ignore its contrived narrative. The film violently yokes the singer’s South African popularity to the struggle against apartheid. This article argues that the film capitalizes on white South African nostalgia and that the tours subsequent to the film’s release have offered occasions for the performance or endorsement of this problematic phenomenon. Through describing the suburban approbation of Rodriguez’s music in the 1980 and 1990s and the homogeneity of his audiences, then and now, I suggest that the salvaging of his career and reputation needs to be approached, not ecstatically, but in ways that are cautious and qualified.     

Charles Bean: Man,Myth, Legacy

Charles Bean: Man, Myth, Legacy . Edited by Peter Stanley (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2017), 249 pp. AU$39.99 (pb).     

Cut Loose in the Caribbean: Neoliberalism and the Demise of the Commonwealth Sugar Trade

This article focuses on the way the Anglophone Caribbean succumbed to the overhaul of the European Union sugar trade and how these countries have attempted to restructure their economies in its wake. We show how the protagonists of reform gave a sense of inevitability to the demise of the Commonwealth trade system and conveyed (unrealistic) strategies for how this should be managed for the benefit of the Caribbean. In this way we detail the hegemony of neoliberalism in contemporary trade politics and the need for alternative strategies for rural development in the Caribbean region.     

Thailand's Theory of Monarchy: The Vessantara Jataka and the Idea of the Perfect Man

Thailand's Theory of Monarchy: The Vessantara Jataka and the Idea of the Perfect Man . By Patrick Jory (New York: SUNY Press, 2016), £62.93 (hb), £17.75 (pb).