Starve Rwandan and Ugandan dictators of any aid, significantly beef up the UN peace-keepers in Goma, allow the “Arab Spring” to develop and let the chips fall where they may. That’s my solution for the Goma catastrophe. It surprised me that Goma has stayed in the news. I’m not sure why, as the current crisis…Continue reading
A large midweek wedding celebration dominated the eastern Congo town of Goma, this week, for the first time in decades. Is the war over, or just getting ready to start, again? We’ll have to go to our PlayStation3 to find out. I have a mixture of distant nostalgia and abject fear when I remember my…Continue reading
If you’ve never been to Stonehenge and Egypt, something’s missing in your understanding of either. Several thousand miles and two seas apart, both early societies moved 40-50 ton stones onto suspensions 4-5 meters high. Egypt is grander and at least a millennium earlier but Stonehenge existed multiple millennia before the Romans conquered southern England. So…Continue reading
Try to imagine how a soldier deals with fear. I’m no soldier but I think I felt soldier’s fear standing under the elevated gun of a tank at the Goma/Gisenyi border in 1994 as it kept us from crossing the border as planned. I think it’s similar to the adrenalin high that Kathleen and I…Continue reading
Truth is growing! Even in the covid-denial island known as Tanzania a courageous voice has sounded: “The chief medical officer and the rest of officialdom [in Tanzania] have been hiding Covid-19 related deaths, [but] now the funerals are exposing us.” Jenerali Ulimwengu has been a thorn in the side of established Tanzanian governments for years….Continue reading
Whether good friends or African newspapers I’m being asked, “How could this be America?” I can’t answer all individually. Below is one reply. Dear Brian, Yesterday was not surprising and I am concerned with your personal perception (and that of so many of my other friends) that this “is not the America I know.” It…Continue reading
Some tunnels of empathy lead to condescension. An event this week in South Africa triggered my epiphany that I’m among the guilty.
Who are your heroes? It’s an important question, particularly now when the world seems totally forsaken. Today starts the Mashujaa weekend in Kenya. The stem, shujaa, is a straightforward, heavy Swahili word for “hero.” Kenya has many ‘shujaa’s to celebrate this year, in sports, literature, politics and academics. And in Kenya — seemingly unable to…Continue reading
There are three countries in the world where you can sit down with a mountain gorilla (gorilla beringei beringei) for an hour of very unique animal viewing: Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC. This is because this gorilla’s single habitat area overlays the point where these countries border one another. But Rwanda is the only one…Continue reading
There are other reasons than “the threat of terror” that prompted America to close its embassy in the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) yesterday. I know really good, young people who have recently left the African service of the State Department as the Trump administration systematically hammers down our foreign service. There’s always been…Continue reading
A very dark cloud forms over Tanzania. The country is increasingly unsafe … for Tanzanians. Kidnappings, extra-judicial interrogations and intimidations against opponents of the regime increase day by day. Last week a popular Tanzanian rapper, Roma Mkatoliki, was kidnapped. Social media went bonkers. Fellow rappers produced a video that by this morning almost 100,000 people…Continue reading
South Africa’s long, mystic relationship with Israel is severely tested today as Israel decides what to do with the all-women crew its Defense Forces captured yesterday off a private South African yacht headed to Gaza. The South African/Israeli relationship is incredibly sensitive and complex, and I believe disturbing. It will be very interesting to see…Continue reading
Tanzania’s power cabal is pressing the lid tightly on a pot of boiling discontent, but young revolutionaries are up to bat. Game on. Three issues are exploding: fraudulent mining contracts, authorities complicit with smuggled ivory, and the ramming through of a bad new constitution. Tuesday, Dar police surprised the world much less Tanzanians by actually…Continue reading
Here’s something profoundly light and happy. Contradiction? Try it out for your Friday. This is what happens when a generation of war ends. With all the turmoil going on today in the Mideast to Iraq and Ukraine, it may be hard to fast forward your interest to when it’s all over. But I think that’s…Continue reading
Israel’s steamy response to Obama’s acceptance of the new Palestinian government reveals a massive hypocrisy in Israel’s dealings with Africa. Yesterday Palestine sort of came together, as Fatah (that recognizes Israel) formed a coalition with Hamas (that doesn’t). The attempted amalgam was further complicated by the fact that Fatah is considered a wholesome government by…Continue reading