Bessie Head is one of my favorite African writers. Her books, though not numerous, have had a huge impact on both how I see Southern Africa and how I see myself in relation to a part of the world that I deeply cherish. In case you don’t know who Bessie Head is, here are some [...]

Reading the regional newspaper I still occasionally write for I discovered that a Kenyan citizen is working in my hometown of only 7000 people. His name is Ayacko Paul Odero. He is 34 years old and works for a local construction company. As the author of the article mentions, he is the first African to be exploited in the otherwise uninteresting city of Tirgu Bujor.

In my country is the type of movie one might see no reason in reviewing. The seriousness of the topic combined with the predictability and banality of some of the characters, the sloppy writing and the cheesy nature of some of the scenes makes me just want to get through my review as soon as [...]

This is a short paper I wrote for a course on Women in Modern Africa. I think there are some interesting debates on how life histories should be interpreted and analyzed here, so I’m posting it on my website hoping that it might be of interest to young scholars and researchers who are are doing [...]

When many Westerners hear of Africa, they think of violence, civil war, famine and rape. However, in many African cities I often felt much safer than in Chicago where I have been living since 2006. Therefore, I decided to make a list of major or at least well-known African cities where I truly felt safer than [...]

Art in Tanzania is an NGO operating in East Africa with projects in Tanzania and Ethiopia. One of their amazing initiatives has been to promote and support local artists and assist them with recording and promoting their music. This project has had some success and the organization is working on new strategies that will give [...]

“Women in Modern Africa” is a class I’m taking at U Chicago this quarter. It is, according to Professor Rachel Jean Baptiste, the course instructor, the first time in the history of the university when such a course is taught in Chicago. Out of the 31 people registered in the class, only two are men. [...]

The following event will take place at the University of Chicago next week. Those interested are invited to attend it. A participation fee will be charged. If you want to get more information about this event, click here.
Introducing the “The Great Booth Debate on Africa”
Date: Saturday, April 17 2010
Venue: The University of Chiago Booth School [...]

I haven’t been that active on my blogs lately because I’ve been working on a long overdue academic article on my research in Tanzania, on “China in Africa”. Things should go back to normal next week. In the meantime, I managed to make a list of all the Africa-related books that I own. These books [...]

Today I participated in a radio debate on BBC Africa Have Your Say. It was an actual debate in which I argued against the opinions of the editor-in-chief from Zimbabwean Independent. The subject was active citizen participation in radio programs all over Africa. The journalist from Zimbabwe argued that call-ins are generally a waste of [...]