Tales of African lionesses

Where does feminism fit in our narrative of African experience? What is the vision of Africa’s ‘lionesses’- feminist thinkers and doers? Jessica Horn reflects on the opening of the third African Feminist Forum

The exodus of British and American Somalis to fight in their home country

The BBC’s radio 4, recently aired testimonies of British Somali families missing their young Somali men who have allegedly gone to fight alongside with Al-Shabaab in the insurgency campaign that is getting fierce in Somalia.

But the billion dollar question for now is: are these British and American Somalis justified to fight back in Somalia at this time when innocent Somalis are fed up with the endless conflict.

Somalis do not need more bloodshed. The case of these young men is that of any port in a storm and their families are seemingly seething and sobbing in frustrations.

Somalia’s conflict resolutions have on previous occasions fallen by the wayside, and the introduction of Iraqi and Afghan-style insurgency will not do any good for this God-forsaken country.

These young men are going for the sake of their country, of course we want them to go and bring stability but they need to choose decisively the lesser of evils to avoid degenerating the conflict into a worsening trend.

Failing Eritrea

Horn of Africa analyst Hogendoorn describes Eritrea as a failing state, he says just a decade ago, Eritrea might reasonably have been described as challenged but stable. Today it is under severe stress, if not yet in full-blown crisis.