“… The Kibera slum in Nairobi is home to between 500,000 and 800,000, living in cramped conditions of almost 3,000 per hectare. In September 2009 the UN-supported relocation of its first inhabitants finally got going – several years late. At this rate the programme (projected cost $1.2bn) will take 1,170 years to complete.”

Jean-Christophe Servant writing about slums in Africa in the April issue of Le Monde diplomatique.

Sean Jacobs

Further Reading

Kwame Nkrumah today

New documents looking at British and American involvement in overthrowing Kwame Nkrumah give us pause to reflect on his legacy, and its resonances today.

Goodbye, Piassa

The demolition of an historic district in Addis Ababa shows a central contradiction of modernization: the desire to improve the country while devaluing its people and culture.