Genius is an African who dreams up snow.

If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness.

I mean in the South African case many of those who were part of death squads would have been respectable members of their white community people who went to church on Sunday every Sunday.

I came back from university thinking I knew all about politics and racism not knowing my dad had been one of the youngest-serving Labour councillors in the town and had refused to work in South Africa years ago because of the situation there. And he's never mentioned it - you just find out. That's a real man to me. A sleeping lion.

I'm the whitest guy you will ever meet. The first time I saw an African-American my dad had to tell me to stop staring.

The memoirs that have come out of Africa are sometimes startlingly beautiful often urgent and essentially life-affirming but they are all performances of courage and honesty.

As a gay Jewish white South African I belong to quite a lot of minority groups. You constantly have to question who you are what you are and whether you have the courage to be who you are.

It is up to African leaders to show their will and political courage in order to assure that this new pan-African institution becomes an efficient instrument and not a place for endless discussions.

The simple truth is that balding African-American men look cool when they shave their heads whereas balding white men look like giant thumbs.

The sad truth is that without complex business partnerships between African elites and European traders and commercial agents the slave trade to the New World would have been impossible at least on the scale it occurred.