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David Ndii’s decision to publicly renounce Kikuyu ethnicity last year and adopt a “Jaluo” one may spark a long overdue debate about the nature of ethnicity in Kenya and in Africa. For many people, both on the continent and outside it, the idea of tribe – with its connotations of strong, primitive, primordial ethnicity and ancient
READ MOREGo well Samanyanga! Fambai zvakanaka! You have left us with troubled hearts and souls. We will remember you day and night as we mourn and simultaneously celebrate a great life you lived not only for yourself but for the community at large. It’s also a painful fact that you are irreplaceable. I find an obituary
READ MOREAs a Congolese, I rebel against some statements made around the world about elections in the DRC. Everyone gets up one morning and thinks they have something to say about my country. I dare to believe that these various statements are intended to preserve peace in my country, but I can not accept exaggeration. And
READ MOREAmidst a worrying trend for human rights globally, civil liberties took major hits in 2018. Perpetrators continued to ride on impunity to brazenly violate rights in obvious disregard of the rule of law. Civil liberties are a crucial pillar for peaceful, just, open and prosperous societies. During the two-day Kampala Geopolitics Conference convened by the
READ MOREFor Kenyans, 2018 begun on a knife edge. The final months of 2017 had been dominated by a dispute over the annulled August presidential election and the repeat in October. After President Uhuru Kenyatta was controversially sworn in for a second term in November, his rival, Raila Odinga promised to have a parallel inauguration ceremony,
READ MOREAt 3.30 PM on Tuesday 15th of January 2019, five gunmen blasted their way into the Dusit Complex on 14 Riverside Drive in the Westlands area of Kenya’s capital Nairobi. They shot at anyone and anything on sight. When the guns went silent thirteen hours later and with all the attackers having been neutralized, 20
READ MOREThe attack on the Dusit D2 hotel complex seems frighteningly familiar. From the images of people crouching along flower beds as gunshots ring out, to the smoke billowing from the top of the building, to the report of people hiding in rooms from terrorists, it feels like a rerun of the attack on the Westgate
READ MOREFrom time to time we are treated to a powerful critique of, or contentious debate on, African Studies. This time it has come from Haythem Guesmi’s viral article on ‘The Gentrification of African Studies.’ In a way, it is coming on the heels of Jean Allman’s celebrated address on “#HerskovitsMustFall? A Meditation on Whiteness, African Studies, and the Unfinished Business of 1968.”
READ MOREThere is a growing culture of intolerance and impunity by some African leaders. This makes it increasingly difficult for civil society movements to play an effective role in keeping governments in check, particularly on their observance of human rights and the rule of law. Persons with disabilities are a historically marginalised group who experience some
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