Governance

When he officially opened Malawi’s newest teacher training college, Chiradzulu TTC, on 16 September, Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika said something that, if he does not follow up on it with action, might shadow his legacy in Malawian education.

Wangari Maathai was always there with us in our house in Kenya when I was growing up.

Word around town these days is that the International Criminal Court has been dealt a death-blow and recovery prospects are looking rather bleak.

Last weekend in New York heralded another of the annual UN heads-of-state summits at which inappropriate targets, processes and evaluation systems were reconfirmed.

I was having a nice lunch with a grand-daughter of mine at the 'Gold Coast' restaurant in South Norwood, London. I always find something to eat there that reminds me of Ghana, whose name before independence has been adopted by the restaurant.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has announced that it wants to launch news services to Ethiopia and Eritrea, most likely using these three indigenous languages: Amharic, Afaan Oromo and Tigrigna.

However the situation in Burkina Faso is resolved, it is unlikely that the logics of the nation-state that guide African political formations will be questioned.

"There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries."

INTRODUCTION

It is almost a quarter of a century since Somalia lost its statehood and status as a relevant member of the international community. Since then Somalia’s name has become synonymous with a failed state, and the word ‘Somalization’ the 21st century’s new term for ‘Balkanization’.