I have a friend who loves museums (hi Betsy!). She says that it’s interesting to see what a city or nation chooses to remember and how they do it. Of all the places I have been to I would choose Cape Town as a city of museums. While I was there I visited the slave history museum, the Slave Lodge, one of more than 20 museums in that city. 20!…
can we end hunger by 2030? will we?
A panel discussion at the 2016 Wellesley College Impact Albright Symposium that I attended focused on the 2nd Sustainable Development Goal, namely, ‘End Hunger by 2030’. Weighing in on the panel titled, ‘Can We End Hunger by 2030? Will We?’, were former UN World Food Programme Executive Director, Catherine Bertini; chief of staff of the International Food and Policy Research Institute, Rajul Pandya-Lorch; former IFPRI director general and professor at…
improving neighbourhoods in mexico city
I did an interview with a good friend I met through my host, Fernando Díaz Enciso in Mexico City, Manuel Luis Labra that was featured on the blog Polis. Manuel was directly involved in the design and implementation of a city-wide neighbourhood improvement initiative known as Programa Comunitario Mejoramiento Barrial – Community Neighbourhood Improvement Programme. It’s an excellent programme, model, and has already had great impact in the 9 years…
decolonising in practice- post on brainstorm
This experiment to me represents knowledge revival in two senses. Reviving my grandmother’s knowledge: she herself couldn’t tell me how she processed maize in this way, being bodily gone from this world; but at least I know that she did. In a second sense, this is knowledge rebirth – using beneficial indigenous knowledge from a different place (Mexico) where I am (Kenya). This is the kind of knowledge rebirth or…
where are those songs?
‘Where are those songs’ is a poem by Micere Githae Mugo (1972) that I like and find inspirational especially in light of a quest for memory and recovery of once remembered things. It starts off a bit despondent, the narrator is seeking songs and memories only to find them lost- unremembered. But it ends on an inspirational note, that one must begin singing and fashioning songs of life in the…
kwani? literary festival – gems
I attended some events of the Kwani? Literary Festival that was held 2 weeks ago in various locations around Nairobi. The festival brought together authors from countries including South Africa, Somalia, D.R.C., Senegal, U.S.A., Ghana, Tanzania, Italy and our very own Kenya to consider questions of language in new ways. If you are familiar with African writing, then you know that the question of what language to write in, and…