Safia Aidid has given us permission to repost this open letter from Somali intellectuals, academics and activists. The Africa Collective feels that it is important to continue this conversation about making African Studies a more inclusive space, particularly for African scholars.
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Category Archives: Africa and Western World
Victoria Falls: A Natural Wonder of the World
A couple of weeks ago, I visited Victoria Falls for the first time since I was a child. The largest waterfall in the world, at a width of 1, 708 meters, this popular tourist site has remained largely natural. On the Zimbabwean side, the national park entrance allows visitors to explore on their own, with a … Continue reading
A Permanent State of Exception: Kenya’s New Anti-Terror Laws
The state of exception, as originally theorized by Carl Schmitt, argues that sovereign power is defined by the ability to declare a state of emergency and transcend the rule of law. According to Giorgio Agamben, the suspension of the law is intrinsically linked to the exercise of sovereignty and essential to the legal order itself. Rather than a rare … Continue reading
GMOs in Africa: Capturing frontier markets in the name of food security
Sibling Rivalry? The Unhappy Sisters of Journalism and Academia
I often joke that the only media attention Mauritania receives is on one of two subjects: 1) bidan (“white,” Arabophone) women who have traditionally strived to attain obese body size as a mark of wealth and beauty (See this BBC radio piece from 2004 or this video for examples); and 2) the persistence of slavery … Continue reading
Africa and Western World / Development / Economics / Health and Disease / Protest and Activism / West Africa
“Mahama-OO!” President John Mahama’s Woes
Two and four year olds play games amongst themselves called, “lights off-lights on.” “Lights off-lights on” is a local term used to describe the situation when the electrical power goes off and on. Accordingly, while the children play a game that requires electricity, one will suddenly shout, “lights off!” Immediately, all of them will simultaneously shout, “Mahama-oo!” After a few minutes of inactivity, obviously due to the lack of power, another shouts, “lights on,” and they all begin to laugh and continue where they left. Even when individuals cannot sleep well at night, they exclaim, “Mahama-oo!” Continue reading
The Real Africa: A Poem
Having been born and grown up in Zimbabwe my entire life, moving to Philadelphia for college was quite an adjustment. While I made friends easily and settled into life in the United States, even becoming an American citizen last year, a huge part of me always wished I were back home in Harare, the African … Continue reading
Migration, Cosmopolitanism, and Africa in the Twenty-First Century
The following is an excerpt from my newly published book, Africa in Fragments. It is lifted from the book’s conclusion, where I analyze Africa’s future or futures in light of globalization, migration, and cosmopolitanism. African peoples, problems, and issues have shifted radically as trans-national human mobility has intensified in a globalizing world. The resulting cosmopolitanism … Continue reading
Remembering Zane Ibrahim
Pete Tridish of Radio Mutiny reflects on his experience working with Zane Ibrahim of Bush Radio in South Africa, who recently passed away. Continue reading
Multinational Banking and Somali Remittance Flows: Exactly Who Should be Regulated?
Somali remittances, which are sent through money transfer operations (MTOs), have been the subject of much scrutiny since 9/11. Members of the Somali diaspora rely on MTOs to send money (thought to total $1.2 billion a year) to their families and extended kin in Somalia, which, until recently, had no central monetary authority. These operations, in turn, rely on the banking facilities of large international banks. Yet MTOs have faced closures due to accusations they they serve as vehicles for laundering money and financing terrorism. Largely absent from debates over Somali remittance flows, however, is the issue of corruption within some of the world’s most powerful multinational banks and international financial institutions. Continue reading
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