You know that moment when someone says something that you have been thinking but been unable to either put it into the right words or even just say because you don’t think it was ‘a thing’. Sorry if I am rumbling : but this is what happened to me whilst listening to Mr John Githongo
READ MOREThe British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) recently had an online news feature titled, ‘Can Voluntary Colonialism Stop Migration to Europe?’. While the title itself is more a suggestion than a question what was shocking in the article were comments attributed to Germany’s Minister of state for Africa, Gunter Nooke. He is reported to have said the following,
READ MOREA picture is worth a thousand words, is the phraseology popularised in 1927, by advertising executive Fred R. Barnard. He coined the phrase, to refer to the notion that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single still image or that an image of a subject conveys its meaning or essence more effectively
READ MOREIn the DRC, only members and relatives of the regime can move freely in the country. They enter and leave the country without problem. But this is not the case for opponents. They are watched under a magnifying glass. Moses Katumbi Chapwe is one of them. The former governor of Katanga has been in exile
READ MOREGUEST BLOG The recent happenings in Kenya call for sober reflection on the nature of our democracy, and by extension, our political culture. When we champion ourselves as a model of democracy in (East) Africa, is that an accurate description? Could it be that we are self-delusional? As Marcus Tullius Cicero keenly noted, salus populi
READ MORE“The best thing to come out of Chimamanda-gate is all these deep conversations about theory on Twitter” – Nanjala Nyabola Grace A. Musila has reignited the social media debate on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s controversial comments on postcolonial theory during a recent interview. “As an academic”, the associate professor in the English Department at Stellenbosch University in South Africa informs
READ MORESince South African Airways dropped Dakar as their regular refueling stop, getting to Goree Island (a fifteen-minute ferry ride off Dakar’s coast) can be quite a journey. It took around 24 hours for me, flying from CPT to JNB-NBO-ABJ, then DKR. Eighteen bloggers from Uganda, Zimbabwe, DRC, South Africa and elsewhere have gathered for an
READ MOREWhen you Google most African cities, the first images you will probably see are those of conflict, urban slums and if you are a little lucky wildlife. To the Western world, that is what pretty much defines us. But is it? You have probably heard of the saying, “Africa is not a country, it’s a
READ MOREMalawi leaders are very good at finding quick fixes to complicated problems, akin to bandaging boils instead of bursting and treating them. Wishing problems away instead of dealing with them. Malawi is always in a state of crisis because its leaders always opt for quick but temporary fixes to complicated problems that seem popular at
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