It wasn’t guns and bullets that woke me from my writing slumber, it was the ballots cast peacefully across SA today, May 18, which made me jolt from my seat and announce myself once again on these pages. Dear reader, nothing makes me happier than a peaceful, free and fair election in Africa. This because…
In his book, The Black Swan, The Impact of the Highly Improbable, Nassim Nicholas Taleb furthers the argument (he introduced in Fooled By Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets) that in life there are rare events, normally outliers, with impacts that are decisive and often irreversible. Such events happen…
The decade-long crisis in Zimbabwe has affected the psyche and social fabric of the nation. There were senseless and callous murderous acts that today dominate the news headlines and community talks. From Beitbridge to Victoria Falls, Gokwe to Zaka, stories abound about rampant killings and general decay in morality. Not only have these been normalised…
Inside the Zimbabwean political amphitheatre are scenes of the tired, the old and the uninspiring. These are scenes not too gladly and willingly watched but forcefully shown to the audience. It sounds really absurd but in reality no one is spared from the ever-disappointing drama coming out of Zimbabwe. Like many, I have watched with…
This might not be a topical area today given the global excitement around Obama and other developments in the continent. However, I have been hoping to put my thoughts on paper on African representations and interpretations in the media for some time now. The following are just thoughts and must be treated as such. The…
The dirty face of politics in Africa is the abnormal fixation on sharing rather than distributing responsibilities in managing the resources and the sovereignty of states. This seems to be the main underlying problem in the current Zimbabwe impasse, for instance. The same is still true of Kenya, and other hot spots in the continent….
This article first appeared last month in Alliance Magazine (Volume 13, No.3, 2008). Since its publication, I have received many requests to reprint it. The article has since appeared in other media houses. In order to get more feedback, I am reproducing it here in its original form. This article attempts to answer three related…
I am introducing a “series on civil society laws” across the African continent. Some may ask why civil society? It is a subject very close to my heart but more importantly, civil society is perhaps the most effective platform we have to further our democratisation and development agenda. But as most of you would know,…
They have no choice but to work together if indeed they believe in ending the political deadlock and ending a decade-long recession. It is supposed to be a landmark agreement ending a decade of political crisis and economic downturn. It is September 15 2008 and the venue is the Rainbow Towers Hotel in Harare. The…
A review of: Rose Lukalo-Owino, A Legacy of Giving: The Story of Mohamedally and Maniben Rattansi Educational Trust, Allavida, Nairobi: 2008. — In Trust for Tomorrow: Kenya Community Development Foundation, Allavida, Nairobi: 2008. — One Woman At a Time: The Kianda Foundation, Allavida, Nairobi: 2008. Connie Ngodi-Houghton, Promoting Philanthropy in Kenya: The Case for Tax…
