An old Pashtun proverb sums up the motivation for war in three words, “Zan, zamin, zar” – women, land and wealth. The progress of Afghan women has been promoted as a positive outcome of the international occupation of Afghanistan. Women and women’s rights were seen as just cause for war. And even while some progress has been made to uplift the station of women in Afghan society, much remains the same. By KHADIJA PATEL.

If you haven’t heard of The Hunger Games, you soon will. A movie version of the bestselling young adult book trilogy has smashed box office records in a way, which has astonished even industry experts. To find out what it’s all about, REBECCA DAVIS read the first book so you wouldn’t have to.

The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and Internet giant Google have launched a thoroughly searchable, fully interactive archive website that brings thousands of Nelson Mandela’s diaries, letters, books, interviews, video clips and much more, including reminisces from friends, colleagues and family members to the global public. This is the latest Google Cultural Initiative project that is making worldwide digital access to important historical, cultural and scientific materials available to scholars, students and the average person. J BROOKS SPECTOR was at the Mandela Centre for the launch.

Farces are by definition designed to be farcical, but being a demanding kind of audience, I like them sophisticated too. By LESLEY STONES.

The African Union and good publicity aren’t usually linked, but for once it’s put itself on the right side of global public opinion. Seizing the initiative, the AU announced the creation of a 5,000-soldier-strong task force with one mission: Stop Joseph Kony and his merry band of child soldiers. SIMON ALLISON explains why this sounds suspiciously like a rebranding exercise – and why that’s okay.

It’s an awful feeling when you take your seat in a theatre and realise there aren’t that many other people around you. By LESLEY STONES.

With a burst of new operas like Opera Africa’s newly-premiered Ziyankomo and the Forbidden Fruit and its young cast of wonderfully talented singers, South Africa may now be finding its own, distinct national operatic voice. By J BROOKS SPECTOR.

Three weeks ago, an unarmed black teenager called Trayvon Martin was shot dead in Sanford, Florida, by a man called George Zimmerman because he looked “suspicious”. Under Florida’s self-defence laws, Zimmerman was not charged or arrested – until a growing outcry is now prompting an investigation. By REBECCA DAVIS.

Thousands of Jozi’s runners took to the streets of Hillbrow on Wednesday night, pounding the pavements in what for many was a first visit to the city’s dark, dangerous heart. SIMON ALLISON ran with them, and marvelled at how a mass marketing exercise turned into something genuinely special – and important for the future of our country.

When you play the game of thrones, you either win or you die. And when you are victorious, you get to dictate what history says. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

This week transport minister S'bu Ndebele has been at it again: calling for drivers who cause accidents to be charged with murder. Suggesting that they're guilty of a premeditated decision to go out and kill someone. He's fundamentally wrong. And the reaction that he is getting is a warning signal to all of us that something is deeply wrong with our society. This is dangerous. It's going to end badly. And we must all put a stop to this madness. By STEPHEN GROOTES.

French police have tracked down the “scooter killer” – supposedly a rightwing crackpot they and the media blamed for “racist” killings in southern France that left seven people dead in the last week. As alleged links to al-Qaeda emerge, the story is likely to have the opposite political effect. By REBECCA DAVIS.

RICHARD POPLAK has just landed in Entebbe, the satellite town that serves as Kampala's airport. This is where the hunt for celebrity bad guy Joseph Kony begins. He imagines a bunch of frat boys doing exactly that. (To be read as a series of Facebook status updates).

The current head of the Anglican Church, Rowan Williams, has announced that he will step down from his position at the end of the year. REBECCA DAVIS examines his nine years of tumultuous leadership.

When 16-year-old Amina Filali was raped, she probably wasn’t expecting to be married to her rapist only a few months later. But thanks to an archaic Moroccan law and a tradition of shaming rape victims rather than perpetrators, that’s exactly what happened. Amina eventually killed herself – but her desperate act might be just enough to force Morocco into some very necessary reforms. By SIMON ALLISON.

After 244 continuous years in print, the publishers of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (or EB) have decided they will no longer publish an actual paper edition, choosing instead to exist solely in cyberspace. Much will be gained in terms of ongoing, constant updating, fact checking and enhanced search capabilities – but something else will be lost. By J BROOKS SPECTOR.

The New York Times may have lost its top spot as the world’s most read news website (to the UK’s Daily Mail), but the Grey Lady may have found the sweet spot when it comes to monetising content. By MANDY DE WAAL.

Former presidency director-general Frank Chikane has set the Mbeki-cat among the Zuma pigeons somewhat with his book Eight Days in September, his insider's account of the rather abrupt recall of former president Thabo Mbeki in 2008. It is unusual to see an ANC man write in this way. The books' primary claim, that the main motivation behind the recall was fears about the corruption case against then president-in-waiting Jacob Zuma, rather than the Nicolson judgment itself, produced a slight shock. But then things swung back against Mbeki somewhat, as we remembered Aids, crime and Zimbabwe. But what we really need to be looking at is the motivation behind Chikane himself. By STEPHEN GROOTES.

It was an interesting weekend for personality-driven advocacy work. Anti-Apple campaigner Mike Daisey was found to have made up many of his claims about working conditions in Chinese factories, Invisible Children co-founder Jason Russell was detained for psychiatric observation after a bizarre public display and actor George Clooney was arrested for participating in a demonstration outside the Sudanese embassy in New York. By REBECCA DAVIS.

In a media world where newspapers have come up with all manner of membership clubs, partial paywalls, hard payment systems and other strange and fandangled solutions to extract money from readers who are reluctant to pay, Slovakia’s Tomáš Bella seems to have scored a hat trick. By MANDY DE WAAL.

Lebanon is the most popular destination for Ethiopian domestic workers in the Middle East but reports of abuse against Ethiopian domestic workers have grown worse as it grows in frequency. By KHADIJA PATEL.

The Orchids Safari Club and Hotel, located on a gently rising hillock just outside of the city of Bukavu in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, is many things, but mostly, it's expensive. That's because it has the distinction of being the only facility on the planet where gorilla tourists, mining executives and NGO hacks can secure a decent bottle of wine and crepes au sucre ou confiture. By a much poorer RICHARD POPLAK.

Brothers in Blood, a play about life in Cape Town in the late 1990s when Pagad’s vigilante activities held the city in a grip of fear, is being staged in the Mother City for the first time. REBECCA DAVIS spoke to director Greg Homann.

As South Africa reels in the wake of widespread video evidence of a Limpopo policeman officer suspected of brutally and repeatedly attacking an unarmed man, more cases of police violence continue to emerge from that province. By MANDY DE WAAL.

The Internet is often touted as an egalitarian space, but not all websites are created equal. REBECCA DAVIS looks at four sites, which have the power to ensure the viral spread of information.

As the Los Angeles Times battens down the hatches by erecting paywalls, the Guardian throws journalism wide open. But this is more than story about a schism in business models; it is the tale of what happens when journalism works for the public good and what becomes of the press when it merely serves shareholder returns. In the first of a three-part series, MANDY DE WAAL looks at what happens when newspapers are taken over by money-men who know nothing about journalism.

How do you cover 109 years of South African history in a single volume to everyone’s satisfaction? The short answer: with difficulty. By REBECCA DAVIS.

Following retirement from three decades of government assignments some eight years ago, and now, living for the most part in Johannesburg, reporting on developments in America and other foreign places for Daily Maverick and iMaverick has become a permanent challenge in the art of getting it right. Getting it right of course is not a synonym for a simple-minded neutrality. By J. BROOKS SPECTOR.