Mukoma Wa Ngũgĩ's (yes, his pop is Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, whose novels The Devil On the Cross [1980; Gikuyu or Kikuyu title: Caitaani mutharaba-Ini] and Weep Not, Child [1964] have been sitting unread on my shelves for close to ten years now) has an interesting column (the piece is titled "The Promised Land") in the current issue of the BBC's Focus On ( Read more... )

A co-worker lends me his news magazines about Africa; I'm interested in keeping abreast of the news from Africa (I used to listen to the BBC World Service's Network Africa -- just ended this year after a 40-year run -- and Focus On Africa over the Internet, before mine employer blocked most streaming media), even if sometimes I'd rather take a pass ( Read more... )

I still haven't read any of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest), but, what with the 23 December release of the U.S. movie adaptation of the first book, directed by David Fincher (Alien 3, se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin ( Read more... )

I began this year firmly intending to do better at the "read 50 books in a year" thing than I did last year, but now, at a little over the halfway point, I have to ruefully admit that I will in all likelihood fall short -- again. Yeah, I joined up with that 50bookchallenge group, but the mad influx of new blood ever since it was featured on LJ Spotlight this ( Read more... )

George Packer has a dispiriting editorial about the ongoing crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan in this week's issue of The New Yorker (issue of 9 October 2006, published 2 October 2006 ( Read more... )

I don't normally make New Year's resolutions, which probably speaks volumes about my willpower, or lack thereof; similarly, I haven't consciously vowed to read "x" number of books a year, although I do tend to make extremely loose reading goals for myself, such as "Read more about ancient Rome" or "Read more about Africa ( Read more... )

On the Wednesday, 16 March 2005 edition of On Point, the news-talk radio programme originated on WBUR-FM in Boston and syndicated throughout the U.S. on various National Public Radio (NPR) stations, the second hour was devoted to an interview with Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Chatter: Dispatches from the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping; ( Read more... )

The BBC World Service's half-hour morning (hence the annoying crowing cockerel that begins each episode) news programme Network Africa for Thursday, 17 March reported on a story that had escaped my attention: president of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe's verbal dope-slapping of U.S. Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice. Specifically, he called her a " ( Read more... )