From a small bag, he brought out a scroll. It was written in Chinese but had a Yoruba translation beneath. It told of a tea merchant who had once traded in Nigeria and whose spirit had never left the land. The post The Silk Drum first appeared on The Elephant.

What I found truly impressive is the fact that even though Ogot was politically conservative and aligned with the state, he protected and mentored young, anti-establishment, “radical” academics and student leaders. The post The Historiographical Legacy of B.A. Ogot and His Generation first appeared ...

From a labour law battle involving Meta’s outsourcing contractor to Microsoft’s role in agriculture and Amazon’s expansion into public infrastructure, Kenya is drawing global technology companies deeper into the machinery of the state. An investigation by The Continent found at least 12 publicly doc...

From Kariakoo to Kawe, in markets, ports, and quiet flats above hardware shops, the mosaic of Dar es Salaam comes to life stitched together with the scent of sesame oil and the clang of Swahili and Mandarin echoing through the heat. These stories of unlikely neighbors, borrowed languages, and shared...

From a rebel attack in North Kivu in his childhood to a salon chair in Nairobi, Emmanuel’s journey traces decades of conflict – and the growing Congolese presence in Kenya. The post Congo in Kenya: Why Xenophobia is a Racist Ideal first appeared on The Elephant.

There are the maps we inherit, the worlds we learn to live inside. The post The World Was Never Mapped Innocently first appeared on The Elephant.

The challenge is not to abandon history. It is to stop forcing history to perform political errands. We can study Aksum without turning it into a contemporary territorial claim. We can acknowledge that Europeans defined the territorial unit called Eritrea without pretending this makes Eritrean sover...

Wang Lin walked over with a bottle of red wine and followed her gaze to the snowy mountain everyone loved. To her, it was just a mountain. What's so special? The post The Reserve first appeared on The Elephant.

In the ongoing struggle for supremacy in Nyanza politics, James Orengo, it seems, harbours a patriarchal fear of losing to a formidable woman leader from Homa Bay - Governor Gladys Wanga. The post Homa Bay: The Road to Afgoonistan and the Van-goons of Democracy first appeared on The Elephant.

Kenya does not have to choose between ancestral rights and equal citizenship. The harder task is to build a political relationship in which history creates obligations without manufacturing permanent strangers. The post The New Native Needs a Theory of Obligation, Not a Blood Test first appeared on ...

History is replete with examples of medical workers failing to protect, defend, and advocate for their patients, primarily because of “security interests”. In the case of Uganda, the state has expected medical workers to put security concerns above medical priorities. The post Medical Ethics and the...

Despite the change to a curriculum that ostensibly focuses on talent, the arts continue to be treated as an option reserved for those pupils and students who do not perform well in academics or the sciences. The post The Fallacy that is the CBE Arts Pathway first appeared on The Elephant.