Authoritarianism
Harambee! Harambee Tena!
The first ever fundraiser in Kenya took place in December 1928. It has been 96 years but we still say, Harambee!!! October 1, 2024 The year is 1926. Kenya is under colonial rule. Natives in [more…]
Authoritarianism
21st Century
Macron & Ruto, Part Two
Dark clouds gather over Paris and Nairobi as the administrations of France’s President Macron and Kenya’s William Ruto become increasingly authoritarian. Noé Michalon and Syo Ivia take up the story… A growing accountability deficit The [more…]
21st Century
Macron & Ruto
The parallels between France and Kenya, and between Emmanuel Macron and William Ruto, lead us to question what fundamental trends brought both countries to experience quite similar crises, to which both leaders responded in a [more…]
21st Century
Will Mushrooms Bloom in Haifa?
Underneath the appropriate concern of conventional airborne attacks on Israel by Iran and its progeny lies an anxious appraisal of a potential nuclear attack. That fear is the basic driving force of U.S. policy towards [more…]
21st Century
Teargassing a Baddie
September, 2024 The log had fallen from my eye. It was time to come from behind the screen and take action. If you were to ask 16-year-old me whether a day would come when I’d [more…]
Authoritarianism
Drunk on Power
Keith has been taking steps, rather large ones, as he attempts to implement the UK equivalent of the former German Democratic Republic in this once green and pleasant land. Much of what follows comes under [more…]
21st Century
Debt and the Gen Z protests
31 August, 2024 A generation after the 1980s debt crisis triggered the rebirth of democracy on the continent, will Kenya’s youthful idealists spark a pan-African revolt? The protests in Kenya mark a turning point [more…]
21st Century
Building on Sand? The Perils of Peacemaking in Sudan
After 16 months of civil war, Sudan increasingly resembles a ‘failed state’, with displacement and man-made famine driving one of the ‘worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory’. Following early setbacks, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) [more…]
20th Century
European Journey 1953, Part Three – Hamburg
You climb into an aeroplane at Amsterdam Schiphol and as soon as you are comfortably airborne, you order an excellent dry sherry and nibble at a picnic lunch which you don’t really need. You try [more…]