A crisis of definition, re-humanising the refugee

Olivia Woldemikael argues that the ‘refugee’ label can hide more about a person than it reveals Read More

Child abductions and torture: Northern Uganda’s forgotten war

by Karen Williams Uganda’s north was the inexplicable war that I first heard about during my London days in the early 1990s.  Reporting on it from Britain, it seemed an unfathomable conflict: bands of children marauding through the countryside, killing people, setting buildings and refugee camps alight and kidnapping other children. Years later I made… Read More

Dominic Ongwen: The abducted child soldier tried for crimes against humanity

by Karen Williams Uganda’s government recently announced that it has ended the manhunt for the leader of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army, Joseph Kony. At its height, the group wreaked havoc in northern Uganda, before dispersing across central Africa in recent years. It continues to attack civilians in the Central African Republic and the Democratic… Read More

Tourism, White Privilege and Colonial Mentality in East Africa

Two weeks ago the media reported that the Kenyan Government have offered a free holiday to the family of a 15 year old American tourist who was ‘harassed by a police officer’ because he mistook her for terror suspect Samantha Lewthwaite. If it was a Somali family holidaying in Kenya and their son had been mistaken for Abu Ubaidah the new leader of Al-Shabaab would the same courtesy have been offered? I highly doubt it.
The concept of white privilege is associated with predominantly white societies such as the United States of America and Great Britain Read More

Conversation with a Kenyan Sex Worker – Part 2

by Samira Sawlani “Working on the streets is becoming more and more of a risk, these men now they do not want to use condoms, I have lost count of how many of them just in this past month have forced themselves in me without protection, luckily I am now experienced enough to push them off,… Read More

The End Of Western ‘Spheres Of Influence’ Death And Fall Of Africa’s Big Men

by Charles Onyango-Obbo ONE OF the biggest mistakes the world has made about Africa over the years, is to work from the position that it is politics is driven by ethnic rage and fear, a simple desire to grab public goodies for one’s family and clan, ignorance, superstition, and an anti-technology culture. I suspect African… Read More

Crude, Capital and China #Africom

by Garakai Chengu All considerations about whether or not to release the dogs of war begin and end with the spoils. Uganda sits atop the geo-strategically important intersection of seven oil rich African nations which Senior US Dept of Energy Analyst Sally Kornfeld has called “the future Gulf” ”I am amazed by what I have… Read More

DR Congo the forgotten war? or #DRC the profitable war?

by BK Kumbi DR Congo is often referred to as a forgotten war,  but to say that would mean that this war has ever existed in the eyes of people. No, Congo is not a forgotten war, it is a war that is not spoken about because there’s a lot of profit in it. But… Read More