The Housekeeper’s Tale

Posted by Helen Douglas
On August 2, 2021

International Solidarity in Apartheid South Africa Keynote Address North American Levinas Society “Solidarity and Community” 29 July 2021 Need I remind anyone again / that armed struggle is an act of love? ~ Keorapetse Willie Kgositsile In 1987, my husband Rob and I were recruited in Canada to move to Johannesburg to run a safehouse […]

Posted by Helen Douglas
On July 18, 2016

For Nelson Mandela’s birthday, and because I’m reading Thula Simpson’s Umkhonto We Sizwe: The ANC’s Armed Struggle, thinking about and respecting the lives of everyone who stood against apartheid, those whose names are known or unknown, remembered or forgotten. Thinking that the aim of the struggle was peace, and how we’re not there yet. Thinking […]

Posted by Helen Douglas
On October 26, 2015

The student movement that flashed into life this year in South Africa, from #Rhodesmustfall at the University of Cape Town to the extraordinary #Feesmustfall protests last week in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Stellenbosch, Grahamstown and Pretoria, is a complex and dynamic phenomenon. Lots going on there. But there are two things I’ve been trying to think about. Two […]

Posted by Helen Douglas
On September 3, 2011

(This is the original of an opinion piece published as “Identity does not depend on race” in the Cape Times on 11 October 2011) Who are we? is the question posed in a timely series presented by the Cape Times and the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation. Really, it’s incredible. If “I am because we […]

Posted by Helen Douglas
On April 3, 2010

Three recent reviews published in the Cape Times (Cape Town, South Africa) 1. Re-imagining the Social in South Africa: Critique, Theory and Post-apartheid Society (Jacklin and Vale, eds)2. Nurtureshock: Why everything we think about raising our children is wrong (Bronson & Merryman)3. Africa: The Politics of Suffering and Smiling (Chabal) Re-imagining the Social in South […]

Posted by Helen Douglas
On February 14, 2010

Samantha Vice, a philosopher at Rhodes University, has been thinking about the moral condition of white South Africans. Is it possible to live a virtuous life here, given the continuing privilege that comes with whiteness? Believing that this will be “very difficult”, she argues that shame is “the morally appropriate emotion to feel”. She concludes, […]

Posted by Helen Douglas
On May 31, 2009

What should be the single priority for the new South African government? In his Sunday Times column (3 May 2009), Mac Maharaj invited readers to answer this question, following Peter Bruce’s observation that a government that tries to fix everything achieves nothing. “Let us… find some common purpose, which is the first step to success.” […]

Posted by Helen Douglas
On October 12, 2008

It’s become terribly unfashionable to be “judgemental”, but the fact of the matter is that life calls for judgement, all the time. So we should learn to do it well. For me, this is the purpose of philosophical practice: to study and understand what’s going on in the world and in oneself, in order to […]

Posted by Helen Douglas
On July 1, 2008

A friend in Vancouver asks me to “say in three lines why you would rather live there than here, not counting weather”. There are several ways I could answer, but my first quick response was: The people. Something about light. Something about deep. Something about real. Which means something like this…

The Housekeeper’s Tale

QA 56. Four touchstones for thinking about peace

QA 54. #What rises?

QA 29. The national question, or We we we all the way home?

QA 21. (Feb 10) Crying shame (Thinking about race again)

QA 14. (May 09) The first priority

QA 8. (Oct 08) Practising philosophy in trying times

QA 5. (June 08) A Canuck in Cape Town