Foreign Legion Features • Quick Reads

Why France Created the French Foreign Legion

October 13, 2024 • The main reason the Legion exists was simple, to get rid of them. Or rather, put them to...

South Sudan Profiles • Quick Reads

Why South Sudan Has Five Vice Presidents

October 8, 2024 • South Sudan is one of several countries in the world that have multiple Vice Presidents,...

Quick Reads

The Weirdest Flag in the World

September 26, 2024 • While there are many contenders for the title of the “weirdest flag in the...

Ethiopia Features • Quick Reads

Why Britain Opposed Ethiopia’s Entrance into the League of Nations

September 22, 2024 • 101 years ago this week, Ethiopia formally joined the League of Nations, the precursor to...

Profiles • Quick Reads

The Case Against the Intellectual Dishonesty of David Ndii

September 21, 2024 • David Ndii is an unkind man who should not be in a position of responsibility in these...

Projects

‘If Gays Didn’t Exist’ Part II

June 6, 2024 • II Read Part I here. In November of 2019, the world descended on Nairobi for an important...

Features • Projects

‘If Gays Didn’t Exist: Inside Kenya’s Dalliance with Homophobia

April 9, 2024 • I In November 1999, Dr. Margaret Ogola, a renowned Kenyan author and paediatrician,...

Adventures

The City of No Contradictions

April 14, 2023 • Cape Town owns its identity. There’s something almost aspirational about the imbalance...

Listicles • Quick Reads

7 Bizarre Flexes by Rich and Powerful Africans

February 29, 2020 • You think you have money but have you ever had someone fly first class across the world...

Adventures • Quick Reads

Why You Need Travel Papers

February 18, 2020 • Wars might have an end-date in history, but the havoc they reap in the social fabric of...

Foreign Legion Features • Quick Reads

Why France Created the French Foreign Legion

October 13, 2024 •

The main reason the Legion exists was simple, to get rid of them. Or rather, put them to work outside France so they would not mess things up again. But to do so in a way that both served Paris’ global goals, and provided a route, albeit a very dangerous one, for them to become …

| October 13, 2024

South Sudan

Why South Sudan Has Five Vice Presidents

October 8, 2024 • South Sudan is one of several countries in the world that have multiple Vice Presidents, and it is often for the same reasons. The briefest answer is: War. The short answer is that it is not just any 5 Vice Presidents, they are mainly representatives of different armies/militias involved in the South Sudan conflict. It …

The Weirdest Flag in the World

September 26, 2024 • While there are many contenders for the title of the “weirdest flag in the world” depending on which metrics you choose, the Flag of Nepal stands out for the simple reason that it is the only national flag in the world that is not rectangular. It is not unusual just for the sake of it. …

Ethiopia

Why Britain Opposed Ethiopia’s Entrance into the League of Nations

September 22, 2024 • 101 years ago this week, Ethiopia formally joined the League of Nations, the precursor to the modern-day United Nations. Ethiopia is famously the only country in Africa that was never colonised. It defeated Italy’s first excursions in 1896, and was occupied during World War II because regaining Italy’s standing as a colonial power was important …

Listicles • Quick Reads

7 ‘Lost’ African Countries

December 30, 2017 • In the last fifty years alone, the independence of the Republic of Ambazonia has been declared thrice. The fight to get it recognised is still ongoing.

| December 30, 2017

Quick Reads

What Happened to Jomo Kenyatta’s Convertible?

October 15, 2017 • One of the gifts Jomo Kenyatta got in 1963 was a white, 1961 Lincoln Continental. But the convertible has never been seen in public since. Where did it go?

| October 15, 2017

Features

Seeing Vintage Nairobi through a 1970s Porn Film

January 31, 2017 • If your uncle worked at Kenol Ruaraka in 1975, you might want to ask him if he was featured in an Italian porn film.

| January 31, 2017

Listicles

7 Most Interesting But Obscure Kenyan Laws

January 24, 2017 • There's only one building in Kenya protected by a specific law, although there was once a bridge too. Back when it was illegal to be broke and unemployed. You could still, then, get your own coat of arms for your banners.

| January 24, 2017

Adventures

Rusinga Festival: A Photo Essay

December 27, 2016 • The Rusinga Festival celebrates the colorful history of the Subanese, descendants of a dynastic war for the Buganda throne.

| December 27, 2016

Listicles • Projects

Roughly 100 Fantastic Pieces of Kenyan Journalism

June 18, 2016 • A reading list of some of the best works of Kenyan journalism available online. And a chance for you to join this curation project.

| June 18, 2016

Features

The First Computers in East Africa –and what became of them

July 6, 2015 • One of them ended up at the bottom of the ocean, because of a snake, a gun, and bureaucracy. Another ended up in China, somehow.

| July 6, 2015

Profiles • Quick Reads

Monica Njeri’s Killer Killed Again

November 20, 2014 • In August 1980, Kenya arrested a US sailor for the murder of Monica Njeri in a drunken brawl. 32 years later, he killed three more women.

| November 20, 2014

Ethiopia Features • Quick Reads

Why Britain Opposed Ethiopia’s Entrance into the League of Nations

September 22, 2024 • 101 years ago this week, Ethiopia formally joined the League of Nations, the precursor to the modern-day United Nations. Ethiopia is famously the only country in Africa that was never colonised. It defeated Italy’s first excursions in 1896, and was occupied during World War II because regaining Italy’s standing as a colonial power was important …

| September 22, 2024

Profiles • Quick Reads

The Case Against the Intellectual Dishonesty of David Ndii

September 21, 2024 • David Ndii is an unkind man who should not be in a position of responsibility in these hard times. Because as a whisperer to kings, if what he shows the world is what he truly is, then it is clear why we have wasted so much time, so many precious lives, and so much peace, …

| September 21, 2024

Projects

‘If Gays Didn’t Exist’ Part II

June 6, 2024 • II Read Part I here. In November of 2019, the world descended on Nairobi for an important but highly controversial UN conference. By then, the United Nations had become a major arena for religious and social groups opposed to comprehensive sex education, and everything that fell within the “family values” container. In many UN gatherings, …

| June 6, 2024

Features • Projects

‘If Gays Didn’t Exist: Inside Kenya’s Dalliance with Homophobia

April 9, 2024 • I In November 1999, Dr. Margaret Ogola, a renowned Kenyan author and paediatrician, walked onto a podium in Geneva, Switzerland. She was there to receive an award, the World Congress of Families (WCF) Award for Humanitarian Service, at the WCF’s second congress. Dressed in a white dress and a white doek, Dr. Ogola’s acceptance speech …

| April 9, 2024

Adventures

The City of No Contradictions

April 14, 2023 • Cape Town owns its identity. There’s something almost aspirational about the imbalance and (lack of) contradictions in this particular city, and they are clear to me when I explore it on foot, on different days and times, and try to understand why my basic feeling is absolute discomfort. 

| April 14, 2023

Listicles • Quick Reads

7 Bizarre Flexes by Rich and Powerful Africans

February 29, 2020 • You think you have money but have you ever had someone fly first class across the world to bring you your favourite stick?

| February 29, 2020

Adventures • Quick Reads

Why You Need Travel Papers

February 18, 2020 • Wars might have an end-date in history, but the havoc they reap in the social fabric of humanity have a tenacious will to survive.

| February 18, 2020

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