Janet Smith – författare

Based on historical case studies in Chicago, John J. Betancur and Janet L. Smith focus both the theoretical and practical explanations for why neighborhoods change today. As the authors show, a diverse collection of people including urban policy experts, elected officials, investors, resident leaders, institutions, community-based organizations, and many others compete to control how neighborhoods change and are characterized. Betancur and Smith argue that neighborhoods have become sites of consumption and spaces to be consumed. Discourse is used to add and subtract value from them. The romanticized image of "the neighborhood" exaggerates or obscures race and class struggles while celebrating diversity and income mixing. Scholars and policy makers must reexamine what sustains this image and the power effects produced in order to explain and govern urban space more equitably.

Based on historical case studies in Chicago, John J. Betancur and Janet L. Smith focus both the theoretical and practical explanations for why neighborhoods change today. As the authors show, a diverse collection of people including urban policy experts, elected officials, investors, resident leaders, institutions, community-based organizations, and many others compete to control how neighborhoods change and are characterized. Betancur and Smith argue that neighborhoods have become sites of consumption and spaces to be consumed. Discourse is used to add and subtract value from them. The romanticized image of "the neighborhood" exaggerates or obscures race and class struggles while celebrating diversity and income mixing. Scholars and policy makers must reexamine what sustains this image and the power effects produced in order to explain and govern urban space more equitably.

The fact is that the role, relevance and contribution of the Black Consciousness philosophy is more warranted now than ever. See, Black Consciousness does not die. It remains relevant even when it is apparently dormant. Its approach and method are always readily available to be used by the oppressed when the need arises to confront particular and universal challenges posed by institutional racism and violence. Black Consciousness has turned up the heat against oppressive rule, exploitation and racism in South Africa and around the world, as young people and politicians, academics and campaigners reconfigure a global socioeconomic revolution. Long linked with universal freedom movements, Black Consciousness has a particularly profound and proud history in the country that gave birth to Steve Biko. An intrinsic part of international solidarity actions, it still captures the imagination of resistance fighters young and old. Embracing African liberation, the Black Panthers, Black Power in England, Marxism in the Caribbean and remarkable links even to Mao Tse-tung’s Cultural Revolution, it remains at the centre of struggles for people’s power. First published in 2017, the year of the 40th anniversary of Biko’s murder by the apartheid regime, The Black Consciousness Reader has been revised and updated as an essential collection of history, interviews and opinions about the philosophy. A contribution to the world’s Black cultural archive, it examines how the proper acknowledgement of Blackness brings a greater love, a broader sweep of heroes and a wider understanding of intellectual and political influences. Although Biko is a strong figure within this history, the book documents many other significant Black Consciousness personalities and actions, as it predominantly focuses a South African eye on its influence on power, feminism, land, art, music, society and religion. Keorapetse ‘bra Willie’ Kgositsile and his son, American rap prodigy Earl Sweatshirt are inside it. So too Onkgopotse Tiro, Vuyelwa Mashalaba, a young Nomzamo Winnie Mandela, Bobby Seale, Assata Shakur, Neville Alexander, Thomas Sankara, Walter Rodney, Lefifi Tladi, Ready D, Ntsiki Biko, Nina Simone, Barney Pityana, Zulaikha Patel and many others. It looks at links between K-Pop and Black Consciousness, militancy in Harlem and the uprisings in Soweto, Black theology and the bible’s red commandments. This amalgam of facts, ideas, images and moving pictures is written and compiled by political journalist Baldwin Ndaba, culture writers Therese Owen and Masego Panyane, columnist and poet Rabbie Serumula, author and political analyst Janet Smith and multimedia specialist and church leader Paballo Thekiso.

Business tycoon Patrice Motsepe is never shy to shake up the status quo. He has always followed his instincts to stay ahead of the curve. An icon of corporate South Africa, he is as much known for his leadership in the world of football as for his philanthropy. He was a top lawyer when he followed his dream of being an entrepreneur, making a deal with Anglo American in the late 1990s that marked the beginning of a series of unique relationships which today define his African Rainbow Minerals empire. As the owner of Mamelodi Sundowns, he led it to becoming one of the most accomplished clubs in Africa. Then came the powerful seats of president at the Confederation of African Football and vice-president of FIFA, football’s global governing body, in 2021. Yet questions linger about his political ambitions because of his close links to the ANC and particularly his brothers-in-law, Cyril Ramaphosa and Jeff Radebe. In this unauthorised biography, best-selling author and journalist Janet Smith mines public archives, academic papers and international media to find what lies behind this hugely successful, intensely private man, and what may lie ahead.

Chris Hani’s assassination in 1993 gave rise to one of South Africa’s greatest political questions: if he had survived, what impact would he have had on the ANC government? On the 30th anniversary of his murder by right-wing fanatics, this updated version of the best-selling Hani: A Life Too Short re-evaluates his legacy and traces his life from his childhood in rural Transkei to the crisis in the ANC camps in Angola in the 1980s and the heady dawn of South Africa’s freedom. Drawing on interviews and the recollections of those who knew him, this vividly written book provides a detailed account of the life of a hero of South Africa’s liberation, a communist party leader and Umkhonto we Sizwe chief of staff who was both an intellectual and a fighter.

Chris Hani's assassination in 1993 gave rise to one of South Africa's great imponderables: if he had survived, what impact would he have had on politics and government in South Africa? More pointedly, could this charismatic leader have risen to become president of the country? Hani was a hero of South Africa's liberation, a communist party leader and Umkhonto we Sizwe chief of staff who was both intellectual and fighter, a man who could inspire an army but carried a book of poetry in his backpack. Hani led MK into its earliest battles, and carved a formidable reputation as a thinker, debater and peacemaker. This book tells the story of Hani's life, from his childhood in rural Transkei and education at Fort Hare University to the controversial Memorandum of 1969, the crisis in the ANC camps in Angola in the 1980s and the heady dawn of freedom. Drawing on interviews and the recollections of those who knew him, this vividly written book provides a detailed account of the life of a great South African.