You know, Obama did not get into the White House for nothing. The US blockade of Cuba is one of the most truculent, cruel and ineffective policies of the last 50 years and now Obama is headed toward changing it. The idea that Cuba is poor because of its economic system is undermined [...]
Ex Africa semper aliquid novi; buy an African farmer a chicken or a goat
There is always something new out of Africa. The latest being the website lastminute.com offering you, its customer, a chance to ‘buy a sheep, a goat or some chickens from FARM AFRICA.’ (I quote directly off their website) As you make last ditch vacation plans, you may also have a last minute change of heart [...]
What is English honour I wonder?
Is there such a thing as English honour? I mean really, what is this thing bandied about in every film and novel about the English ruling classes? I only bring it up after watching the latter half of a 1960s TV adaptation of Kidnapped, the Robert Louis Stevenson novel. The word honor was uttered [...]
The Love Affair Between the Maasai and the English
Colonialists like their savages savage in a romantic mould. There is a streak of masochism in having your material world dismissed by people who have little but vanity and some sick cows. Colonialists want to believe their subjugated people were worth conquering…they are also good for a shag now and then says AA Gill in [...]
Africans and the European Soul
Are the Formerly Colonised Set To Colonise Their Colonisers?
(A speculation)
It has come to my delighted attention that African churches are increasingly sending missionaries to the United Kingdom. And that the declining number of British volunteers joining the Catholic priesthood - in Wales for instance - has meant that African priests are increasingly taking over rural [...]
THE PAIN MACHINE: The Collapse of the Gikuyu Social Contract
This is the beginning of an essay that I am writing for publication and that I felt driven to post before its completion in the hope that it would elicit stories that confirm or contradict it. I will post the complete version in the coming months - probably in late September - for now [...]