perspectives

Britain is facing its biggest tea-related crisis since the 1773 Boston tea party fiasco. Kenya is Britain’s biggest supplier of tea yet the fertile soils in and around Kericho which allows for this supply of tea is under threat. The problem? A Kenyan governor, Paul Chepkwony, is demanding reparations for the land that was ‘stolen’ during the 1930’s, alongside the threat that he will seize up to two-thirds of the farmland which...

The Nobel Peace Prize has always been shrouded in irony. Alfred Nobel, the inventor of Dynamite, used the prize as an attempt to give his name nonviolent connotations after his invention had become such a booming success. It was the equivalent of an arsonist giving out a prize for architecture. 

The recipients of awards have been no less paradoxical. Henry Kissinger won the prize for ‘Ending the War and restoring peace in Vietn...

It’s been 25 years since South Africa’s first democratic elections of the 27th of April 1994. These elections ushered in a wave of euphoria and sanguine that South Africa could finally step out of the shadows of Apartheid, and into a brighter future. Since 1994, there have been five national elections, in which the African National Congress (ANC) have dominated. Subsequently, in these 25 years, South Africa has delivered five...

On April 11 Sudanese protesters took to the streets in the capital city of Khartoum to celebrate the stepping down of long-standing former president Omar al-Bashir. Hopes of democracy and civilian rule flooded the crowd. However, the removal of one man from power proved not enough to dismantle the deeply entrenched military structure of the Sudanese government.

The country’s hopes of democracy were shattered on June 3 when peac...

Nigeria’s presidential election, initially planned for 16 February 2019, was dramatically delayed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman Mahmood Yakubu five hours prior to polls opening. On February 23, 2019, after the most expensive Nigerian presidential campaigns ever, elections were actually held and incumbent Nigerian President and All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate Muhammadu Buhari won. Def...

In a country that blocked Twitter and Facebook on the day of its 2016 general elections, a new tax on social media becomes another stage of President Museveni’s increasingly controlling policy in his attempts to cling onto power. The tax was introduced in July 2018 and charges Ugandans the equivalent of $0.05 per day, a total of $18.25 per year, for the use of any one of 60 social media apps including Facebook, Twitter, Instag...