Africa Is a Country

Making sense of the terror attacks in Kenya

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Making sense of the terror attacks in Kenya

By
Africa Is a Country

Follow these sources (a mix from the blogosphere, Twitter and Facebook, including from some mainstream media sources that aren't that bad) to process the Nairobi mall terror attack.

Image: EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid via Flickr CC.

If you, like us, are disturbed by US congressman Peter King’s suggestions to monitor Somali-Americans, the decision by the world’s most visited news site, the Daily Mail, to focus only the fate of North Americans and British victims of the terror attack on a mall in Nairobi, CNN quoting fake Al Shabaab Twitter accounts, or waiting for the inevitable Heart of Darkness-themed piece by some Western journalist or other (though they may surprise us yet), it may be better to follow these sources (a mix from the blogosphere, Twitter and Facebook, including from some mainstream media sources that aren’t that bad):

Blogs

 

Twitter

  • Robert Alai, controversial Kenyan blogger and social media strategist.
  • The BBC’s Southern African correspondent Karen Allen.
  • Charles Onyango-Obbo, Nation Media Group’s digital editor. On Twitter.
  • Oliver Mathenge, a political writer of the Star newspaper in Nairobi.
  • The South African journalist Robyn Kriel, the East African Bureau Chief for a South African 24-hour news channel.
  • Kenyan journalist and news anchor, Larry Madowo.
  • Erik Hersman, co-founder of Ushahidi, who goes by White African.
  • Al Jazeera journalist Hamza Mohamed.
  • Photojournalist and columnist Jonathan Kalan.
  • Abdi Ayente, director of Somali’s first ever think and a former Al Jazeera and BBC journalist.
  • Somali-Kenyan journalist  Abdi Latif Dahir.
  • Tom Odula of the AP’s East Africa Bureau; and
  • Ory Okollah, going by KenyanPundit and co-founder of Ushahidi,

Add your suggestions (and comments) in the comments below. Ht @KenyanPundit, @Jepchumba, @Samar42

Further Reading

Energy for whom?

Behind the fanfare of the Africa Climate Summit, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline shows how neocolonial extraction still drives Africa’s energy future.

The sound of revolt

On his third album, Afro-Portuguese artist Scúru Fitchádu fuses ancestral wisdom with urban revolt, turning memory and militancy into a soundtrack for resistance.

O som da revolta

No seu terceiro álbum, o artista afro-português Scúru Fitchádu funde a sabedoria ancestral com a revolta urbana, transformando memória e militância em uma trilha sonora para a resistência.

Biya forever

As Cameroon nears its presidential elections, a disintegrated opposition paves the way for the world’s oldest leader to claim a fresh mandate.

From Cornell to conscience

Hounded out of the United States for his pro-Palestine activism, Momodou Taal insists that the struggle is global, drawing strength from Malcolm X, faith, and solidarity across borders.

After the uprising

Following two years of mass protest, Kenya stands at a crossroads. A new generation of organizers is confronting an old question: how do you turn revolt into lasting change? Sungu Oyoo joins the AIAC podcast to discuss the vision of Kenya’s radical left.

Redrawing liberation

From Gaza to Africa, colonial cartography has turned land into property and people into populations to be managed. True liberation means dismantling this order, not redrawing its lines.

Who deserves the city?

Colonial urbanism cast African neighborhoods as chaotic, unplanned, and undesirable. In postcolonial Dar es Salaam, that legacy still shapes who builds, who belongs, and what the middle class fears the city becoming.