The danger of becoming a ‘professional survivor’
Though extraordinarily lucky to have escaped massacre in Rwanda in 1994, all Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse now seems to focus on is finding photographic evidence of her rescue
The psychological toll of being constantly tracked and harassed
With smartphones providing hitherto undreamt of opportunities for spying, human rights workers and investigative journalists are left struggling for breath
Never underestimate the complexities of African history
Too many commentators, Luke Pepera included, extrapolate from one region they know well to a continent boasting a multitude of religions, languages and ethnic roots
The truth about the Rwandan genocide
Today a solemn ceremony takes place in Rwanda’s capital. President Paul Kagame, flanked by international dignitaries – including our own…
The fresh, forceful voice of Frantz Fanon
The Marxist from Martinique became a rallying figure for anti-colonial movements across the world. But might he have revised his violent message had he lived longer?
Expelled from Africa’s Eden
Lucy Fulford never fully explains how this community was so easily scapegoated, nor why Idi Amin’s decree caused such jubilation across East Africa at the time
Global bullying
Is anywhere safe for Kagame’s critics?
Hotel Rwanda
Why is Paul Kagame agreeing to accommodate Britain’s asylum seekers?
Our man in Rwanda
When will Britain wake up to the horror of Paul Kagame’s rule?
A century of Ethiopia’s turbulent history, seen through the life of one woman
Yetemegn was barely eight years old when her parents married her off to a man in his thirties. Before she…
Rwanda’s new tragedy
The ultimate ‘donor darling’ is becoming a dictatorship whose critics live in fear
King of Kings: The Triumph and Tragedy of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia
Great men rarely come smaller than Haile Selassie. In photographs, the golden crowns, pith helmets and grey felt homburgs he…
Our man in Africa
This novel comes with two mysteries attached, one substantial, the other superficial. The big mystery is the author’s identity. Gender-neutral,…
A good man in Africa
I would love to sit in on a Jonny Steinberg interview. Over the years this South African writer has perfected…
Paving the road to hell
When presented with a 639-page doorstopper which includes 82 pages of closely-written sources, notes and index, most of us feel…
A place of rough justice
There are writers whose prose style is so fluid, so easy, the reader feels as though he has been taken…
Letter from Somaliland
Ayan Mahamoud, one of the organisers of Hargeysa’s International Book Fair, has all the girly vulnerability of a factory-tested steel…
