“the town seemed to exist only for sickness and death”
Time has this story about the “most malarial town on earth,” Apac in Uganda. The pictures tell it all, life in Apac appears to be singularly harsh. The story also reports that malaria steals away 1.3...
View Articlea very nigerian affair
The BBC reports that the Nigerian state owned oil company (NNPC) is insolvent, with a US $ 5 billion debt. Most of the money ($ 3b) is owed to the Federation Account a lootable cash cow that...
View ArticleAchebe’s take on the trouble with nigeria
Chinua Achebe has an editorial piece in the NY Times on the prospects for economic and political development in Nigeria. Below is an excerpt that I think applies to most of Sub-Saharan Africa. During...
View ArticleOn Rwanda’s brand of Developmental Authoritarianism
Many, including yours truly, have a love-hate relationship with Paul Kagame and his RPF regime in Rwanda. On the one hand, his adventures in eastern DRC; alleged involvements in the assassination of...
View ArticleDid European Colonialism Benefit Africans?
“We find it difficult to bring the available evidence together with plausible counter-factuals to argue that there is any country today in Sub-Saharan Africa which is more developed because it was...
View ArticleChinua Achebe, dead at 82
Renowned Nigerian author Chinua Achebe passed away last night in Boston, Mass. He was 82. Achebe was the father of modern African literature, and a fearless critic of dictatorships in Nigeria and...
View ArticleHow to write about Africa in one picture
This is a story about Kenya building the first new railroad since the British built the old one more than a century ago. The new line goes through a National Park. A watchman was attacked by a cheetah....
View ArticleIs Civil War in Africa Unique?
Paul Staniland raises important questions in his review of Philip Roessler’s latest book (highly recommended): I just finished reading Philip Roessler’s excellent book for my graduate Civil War...
View ArticleOn NYT’s Misguided Nostalgia for Conrad
The smoked monkeys brought the point home. During my first day on a boat on the Congo River, I’d embraced the unfamiliar: how to bend under the rail to fill my wash bucket from the river, where to step...
View ArticleNigeria’s President Buhari sets himself up for failure in second term
This summary of Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari ‘s cabinet picks says it all: With an extra five members, stuffed with party loyalists and an average age of 60, President Muhammadu Buhari‘s new...
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