Over two millennia, Swahili has built bridges among people across Africa and into the diaspora.
Patrice Lumumba, left, first Prime Minister of independent Congo in 1960. The CIA celebrated his death.
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Peter Kimani, Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications (GSMC)
Tanzania might be in the news for producing East Africa’s first Nobel laureate for literature, but there are other compelling authors that also merit attention.
Wole Soyinka in 2017.
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The new novel by Nigerian icon Wole Soyinka is at once satire, political thriller and tragedy. It is the work of a great writer that marks the destruction of postcolonial reason.
Tragedy in literature has come a long way since its Greek origins.
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The truth remains that no artist through Nigeria’s postcolonial years has contributed close to what Fela did – and continues to do - for human rights and social justice.
Biafran refugees flee federal Nigerian troops on a road near Ogbaku, Nigeria in this 1968 photo. Between one and three million people are estimated to have died.
(AP Photo/Kurt Strumpf)
Fela Kuti’s critically engaging lyrics, and his intense and methodical delivery, provide an important window to exposing students to critical understanding of the global system.
Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates is famous for having been called wise in part because he wouldn’t label himself wise.
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Escalating clashes between herders and farmers in Nigeria threaten the country’s national and food security. A response based on innovation, sustainability and political will is urgently needed.
Wole Soyinka should rather galvanise like-minded Nigerians and demand that Nigeria’s looted treasury be returned.
Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye
Nigeria’s economy is indeed under severe strain but sub-Saharn Africa’s most populus nation won’t solve its economic problems via an emergency national confab.