I don’t know how I got there—on the street, with the protesters, and their songs and chants of “ENDSARS!”—but I feel like I was exactly where I was meant to be. When we were younger, we were taught to sing: “we are the leaders of tomorrow.” But what happens when the leaders of tomorrow emerge, and the leaders of today …
The Importance of The Golden Stool to the Ashanti People
Last year, I visited my homeland, Ghana, for the first time in my life. I did not know how much I would need that trip, and how the lessons I learnt would free me from myself. Being born and raised in Canada, it’s very easy to feel detached. Yet when I had the opportunity to visit Ghana and learn about …
Heart Attack
Everything you plant in Kinshasa grows. A seed towers into a mountain, a molecule of salt into a diamond, a quarrel between brothers boils into civil war. Maybe this is why Congo is the most resource-rich nation on earth. Maybe this is why the plunder still rages. The Beauty of the Congo is not just in its earth, but also …
From a kingdom to a nation: A Shona awakening
Usually, when people ask me where I am from or what my background is and I mention Zimbabwe, they pause for a bit and either ask “where is that?” or “you’re the first person I’ve met from Zimbabwe.” The continuous response that always strikes me the most, however, is “MUGABE? that’s the country with Robert Mugabe right?” After years of …
From Press Secretary to Poet
Words are powerful instruments that some are expertly trained to play. In West Africa, the talent of wordplay belongs to the Griots. These prolific wordsmiths form a caste of skilled storytellers, but the tales they regale are not fictional, they are rich oral accounts of West African history and philosophical thought. In Medieval Mali, Griots of the Malian Empire served …
When settlers drew maps of the Katanga region, the Luba were speaking in tongues.
My grandmother likes to begin a story by looking into herself. She sips from her tea which is sometimes chai, other times orange pekoe, decaf – seeing as she drinks multiple cups a day and we realized how much caffeine that was – laced with honey, just a touch of it to sweeten her words. She closes her eyes. She …
The Myth of the Founding Fathers
If there were founding fathers, then surely, there must have been founding mothers. The birth of a nation, I am certain, is not without the influence of those most vital to its continued lineage. Those who were critical in shaping the destiny of our nations, birthing constitutions, and willing governance to existence are, at worse, erased from its history and, …
What Happens After a Revolution:
Stories From Egypt
It was the summer of 2017 and I had just graduated from my MA in Globalization. It had been 6 years since the Arab Revolutions, and 7 years since my last visit to Egypt. By then I had developed a hobby out of documentary photography and was yearning for a good adventure. I was torn between capturing the aesthetics of …
Traditional Authority: Its Limits and Powers
Winston Churchill is quoted as saying “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried.” It’s hard to disagree. When I compare democracy to other forms of government that I understand, this sentiment rings true to me. Worldwide, non-democratic governments are revered as illegitimate and primordial, while Democratic pursuits are funded by …
