Threads & Works

THE UNDOING PROJECT: Writing to awaken | The Elephant [Link] : “

“Their generations were broken, but they were also blessed. Mine is too. I am a millennial, and my generation is struggling to define itself. To find its purpose. To do its best and worst.”

Where Nothing is Sacred [Link]

“A man called Alex Madaga died a cruel and unnecessary death, but the nation will move on. As it always does.“

Religion in a Time of HIV and Austerity: The Curious Case of Prophet Owuor [Link]

“As Kenyan society grappled with an uncertain economy and a disease for which there was no cure, charismatic churches and sects filled a void left by a kleptocratic political class that could not provide solutions.”

The Gift of Life [Link]

“In 1978, the same year the eldest of my five sisters was born, a 15-year-old girl from West Pokot was wheeled into Nairobi Hospital on the brink of death. She was also missing her right kidney.”

‘Nita Ride Boda Boda’: How the Bicycle Shaped Kenya [Link]

“The earliest bicycles in Kenya were used by the unholy tripartite of colonial conquest: administrators, missionaries, and settlers. Some were given as presents to servants and friends, such as Nabongo Mumia, and before long the domestic market grew.“

The History Kenya Forgot: Untold World War II Stories [Link]

“The sinking of SS Khedive Ismail suffers from the same historicity issues that World War II, in general, suffers from in former colonies. It was a war (mainly) away from home, driven by issues that most of the one million Africans who enlisted had little or nothing to do with, at least at a socio-cultural level.“

I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO: The Cultural Problem in China’s Engagement with Africa [Link].

“The Middle Kingdom is failing to acknowledge the cultural and racial distance it still has to close with the continent. “

To Make Our Roads Safer, We Need to Make Them Feel Less Safe [Link]

“In some of his real-life experiments, Monderman stripped roads of non-essential safety signs and at times even traffic lights. On one road he put a sign saying: “There are no more traffic signs beyond.” It may seem permissive, but it is also a warning.” 

The Schools of Fire and Blood [Link]

“Every generation is expected to have a sense of history, but high school students are still adults in the making. Which is why we place them in the care of fully-formed adults who, we expect in theory at least, have a sense of history embedded in their moral and professional code. But if the havoc of school strikes hasn’t changed much in the last 40 years, and students only stay in schools for four years, then who isn’t learning from experience?“

LOST AND NOT FOUND: What happens when people go missing in Kenya [Link]

“For some those answers never come. As days become months, and then years, and memories fade, the lingering need to find those we love doesn’t dissipate. The worst, Sharon wrote, is in the not knowing.“

SMACK TRACKS IN THE SANDS OF TIME: How Kenya Became a Major Narcotics Transit Route [Link]

“In September 2015, a ship called the Hoegh Transporter called at the port of Mombasa. Kenyan police promptly detained the Norwegian-flagged ship and arrested its Filipino crew. Investigators then started a systematic search for drugs in the vessel.“

THE BATTLE FOR KENYA’S SOUL: Will history absolve them? [Link]

“Publicly, and in such personal records as memoirs, this elite class continuously pretends it worked for the good of the country. But it turns out that our definition of country differs. For them it was a running plantation that requires little or no input, where a slave working class is either a vote, a weapon, a taxpayer, or all three.“

Owaahh
One story is good,
till Another is told.