How the governed can control the hooliganism of the state
The unfunny joke in many constitutions in Africa is the slogan, “power belongs to the people.” It never does.
What actually happens is that the...
Biden’s Kitchen Cabinet
President-elect Joe Biden has chosen high-profile Democrats such as John Kerry and Susan Rice to join his administration, but not via Cabinet appointments. Biden...
What COVID-19 could teach journalists about science
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the media with complicated health science issues, with challenges also relating to how journalists understand the statistics and mathematics...
Can we cure ourselves from the cancer of corruption?
Botswana - “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the...
This is what it is like to travel as a stateless...
In early April, organisers of a conference I was planning to attend in London emailed me to say the event had been cancelled due...
Why Ngugi wa Thiong’o should have rejected Catalonia prize
If I were Ngugi wa Thiong’o, I would have politely but categorically and unequivocally turned down the Catalonia International Literary Prize. The $10,000 that...
The US’s pursuit of Julian Assange threatens media freedom
The last time I saw Julian Assange he looked tired and wan.
Dressed neatly in casual business attire, the WikiLeaks founder was sitting in a...
Presidents are expected to set the national tone. What we got...
President of the United States is a special office. Unlike the constitutional monarchs or prime ministers of European and other systems, the president is...
African women face two pandemics
In the last few months, as the coronavirus has spread across the world, African countries have registered a surge in cases of domestic violence...
Trump’s ‘beautiful’ failures
Listening to US President Donald Trump tell Fox News on Sunday that "We won two world wars, beautiful world wars, that were vicious and...