Mike van Graan
Mike van Graan is the president of the African Cultural Policy Network and an associate professor of drama at the University of Cape Town. Professionally, he works as a consultant in the arts and culture arena, while also serving on UNESCO’s technical facility for the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. Creatively, he works as a playwright and has written 30 plays to date, most of which interrogate the post-apartheid condition. In recognition of his work, he is the 2018 recipient of the Hiroshima Foundation for Peace and Culture Award, a prize previously awarded to Antjie Krog and John Kani.
Everyone is born equal, except when it comes to mobility
2018-06-01"Mobility of people reflects the fundamental and structural inequities in the world, inherited from a colonial past, exacerbated by globalisation and sharpened by the migration concerns and security interests of particularly Global North, 'liberal democratic' countries."
For whom the rainbow works
2018-05-04"Herein lies the paradox and the contradiction that is South Africa. On the one hand, a railway service that can compete with the best in the world serves the nation’s elite in the richest province, showing off the potential of the country, while on the other hand, an erratic, unsafe and poorly maintained railway service frustrates those on the underside of contemporary South African history, as they struggle to get to work and earn their meagre salaries."
The death of Winnie Mandela: A reflection
2018-04-06"We allow ourselves to be influenced and to have our attitudes shaped by those who have the power and reach to do so, to see the world, and actors within that world, according to the value systems and ideas with which those in power are most comfortable."
Ons is ’n land wat wag
2018-02-08"Die uitstel van die Staatsrede is ’n metafoor vir waar ons as land ons bevind. Ons is ’n land wat wag. Ons hoop en die drome van 1994 is uitgestel. Wéér."
