Using the anthology 'Our Ghosts Were Once People: Stories on Death and Dying' as a springboard, we meditate on death, the toxicity of the everyday, and what it means for the cathartic act of grieving to be curtailed. Featuring writing by Bongani Kona (in an interview with Imraan Coovadia), @mapulemohulatsi, Zuko Zikalala, and Thobile Ndimande (on eternal lessons from professor Bheki Peterson), @lidudumalingani (on grieving with others), and photography by @marcshoul and Thato Monare. For more great writing and photography subscribe at mg.co.za

"In 'Selfie I' (2020), @dlaminilwando renders the self in an obscure, pinkish, eyeless, complex layer of paint. Instead of a direct representation of the self, we're confronted with the 'spirit' of what the artist seeks to communicate. This is, once again, visible in the work, 'Lulondwe Kubheka' (2021), which is a portrayal of a young woman in a yellow shirt and coiled hair. Dlamini offers us something (not everything) in his retelling. He satisfies our gaze, but not completely, thereby subverting absolute and total consumption." Nkgopoleng Moloi's critique of 'Everything was beautiful ...' is the lead review of our @fnbartjoburg special edition. Get a copy or subscribe to read more art criticism at mg.co.za. #fnbartjoburg #opencity #everythingwasbeautifulandnothinghurt

The curators of 'Touch', come bearing gifts this week. @kagsmugo and @blazingnonbinary put together a special thing for #pridemonthsa, featuring @nakhaneofficial (who put together a playful and defiant series of self-portraits for the edition, one of which graces our cover). Look out for @mamas_machine_gun 's rigorous review of 'Touch', q and a's with @zoeyblackza and Nakhane and write ups on @goesbygabriel, @mx_mokgoroane and others. Get a copy. #pride2021

Our current lead feature is possibly the best thing @dambakushamba has written on Marechera (he's written his fair share). Here he tells the backstory to our cover: "Just before the beginning of lockdown last year, I passed by the artist @mongezincombo 's old studios on Commissioner Street, Johannesburg. I had followed his career since his days at the Artist Proof Studios, where he was a student from the 2010s,  and had been meaning to sit down and do a story about him and the new space which he shared with a few other artists. I don't know what gave me the idea - it must have been the style of some of the paintings he was working on: raw and arresting, his striking use of contrast and his  distinctive and playful black and white grid system  - so I asked him whether he could do a painting of Dambudzo Marechera for me based on a photograph by the German photographer Ernst Schade. (During that time I bought other works by the designer @boeta_gee ; his prints of the pianist Andile Yenana, who I was listening to a lot during those bleak times). Ncombo agreed and we discussed a price. Over the next few weeks, whenever I was taking a walk to go to the supermarket on Main Street, I would pass by and admire the work from the window. Ncombo's process,  slow and methodical, is one that resonates with me. I write slowly. The result is this painting, Marechera looking past us, as if he has spied a better land yonder." Read the masterpiece on mg.co.za or subscribe for more long-form goodness if you haven't. #dambudzomarechera #thehouseofhunger #blacksunlight

"Even in ordinary conversation, despite his speech impediment, his evident pleasure in words was palpable. He was some kind of an alchemist, oxidising words created in a different, colder context, to make sense of his own situation in the far, tropical reaches of the empire."  @dambakushamba on Dambudzo Marechera in the current @mailandguardian_friday Artwork by @mongezincombo

"I feel very honoured to have been asked to contribute to a very important collection of essays that captures the life and times of black photography in South Africa. Reading the essays, I am reminded distinctly of the times we lived and the events we faced daily.  This collection is a record of the tremendous contribution made by black photographers to the liberation of South Africa through our pictures. I hope photographers of today will be inspired by these essays, to not rest on their laurels, sitting around waiting for editors to tell them to go on assignments; but to learn to go out on their own initiative and create their own projects, guard their copyright, and not go hungry." An excerpt from Peter Magubane's foreword in 'Black Photo Libraries', presented by the @_marketphotoworkshop in partnership with the @mailandguardian . The book launches tomorrow. For more information on the launch check out photoformafrica.com/bpl/

"Her career was the embodiment of artistic dexterity, a tree with many branches equal in strength and solidity. We already know that her earliest influences were from her music professor father, Khabi Mngoma and her musically gifted mother, Grace, who worked as a nurse. The environment under which she grew up was primed for exposure to music as a discipline and furthermore, a skill. In this way, she was not just a mere talent.  Her father instructing her to sit at the foot of Princess Magogo ka Dinuzulu and listen to her play the indigenous instruments ugubhu, umakhweyana and isithontolo while singing, served as her entry point into the sonic identity of Zulu traditional music." @nomfundoxaluva paying tribute to #sibongilekhumalo in the @mailandguardian_friday . Get a copy, better yet, subscribe at mg.co.za. Image by @siphiwemhlambi

Headlining this year's Fête de la Musique, which is free, are @blkjks @tbmomusic @maleh_music & @mandlaismlangeni at #NewtownJunction, Hector Peterson Memorial, @afjoburg and @victoria_yards_joburg from 11h00-18h00 today. COVID-19 protocols will apply.

"'Sugar Mill Barracks: The Making of Mount Edgecombe' runs through the social, economic, cultural, and religious aspects of labourers' lives with fondness; however Sathasiva Pillay often refers to the indentured labourers as "settlers", falling into the oversimplified lexicon of arrival and settlement that elides the violence of both White settler colonialism and the system of indenture itself. Indentureship complicated notions of settlerdom - many indentured labourers were kidnapped, did not fully understand the contract they signed or thumb-printed, and their "arrival" and "settlement" in South Africa was not as organic a process as those two words may imply." @charred_ous on @sugarmillbarrackssunny 's book, a product of about 40 years of tireless archiving. Read it in this week's @mailandguardian

Brief in running time but expansive in scope, @singhmeghna and @shadydocumentarian's film 'Container' unearths the ghosts of history and the present, offering a way to think about "modern-day slavery and modern servitude within a capitalist system." Existing at what Singh describes as the intersection of fine art installation and virtual reality, 'Container' is "elegantly, disturbingly and harrowingly cinematic", writes Niren Tolsi in this week's @mailandguardian_friday.

Our lead is Njabulo Zwane's masterful take on the trajectory of Lewis Nkosi the essayist. The departure point is the recently published 'Lewis Nkosi The Black Psychiatrist | Flying Home! Texts, Perspectives, Homage'. Get a copy of the @mailandguardian #lewisnkosi #critique #psychiatry

@tselimon and Siya Mthembu's (@tbmomusic ) convo on protest culture and the place of music in it goes live in about 40 minutes. @msaki_za will also be joining in. Tune in.