Political Settlements Research Programme Workshop
From 6 to 7 July 2015, the Rift Valley Forum hosted a two-day training workshop in Bukavu, in the eastern DRC, as part of the DFID-funded Political Settlements Research Programme (PSRP). The programme is implemented by a consortium led by Edinburgh University that includes the RVI. The workshop brought together ten researchers, eight of them […]
Closing Dadaab
Following the devastating al-Shabaab attack on Garissa University on 2 April 2015, the Kenyan government announced the imminent closure of the Dadaab refugee camps and the repatriation of their 340,000 or more Somali residents. This is not the first time the government has threatened to close the camps, but outrage over increasing brutal al-Shabaab attacks […]
Sacred Causes
On 19 May 2015, the Rift Valley Institute Nairobi Forum, in collaboration with the Institut français de recherches en Afrique, hosted a discussion to launch the French edition of Philip Winter’s A Sacred Cause: The Inter Congolese Dialogue 2000-2003. The Inter Congolese Dialogue was the process of negotiations between the government in Kinshasa, opposition members, […]
Burundi at the crossroads
A deep malaise grips Burundi in this electoral season. President Pierre Nkurunziza’s April decision to seek a third term in contravention of what many Burundians consider the intent of the Constitution threw the country into weeks of political and popular turmoil, leaving scores dead. Despite ardent domestic and international calls for a postponement of the […]
Nuruddin Farah Reflects on Somali Cultural Losses in the Civil War
On Saturday 9 May, the Nairobi Forum hosted an evening with renowned Somali author Nuruddin Farah at the offices of the Rift Valley Institute. Nuruddin spoke about Somali cultural losses in the civil war. Nuruddin is the winner of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the Lettre Ulysses Award, and has been nominated for the […]
Storymoja: How Books and Art Create and Propagate National Values
On Saturday 19 September, Jama Musse Jama, Director of the Hargeysa Cultural Centre, was in Nairobi to speak on a panel at the Storymoja festival ‘How Books and Art Create and Propagate National Values’. The Hargeysa Cultural Centre was founded in 2014 to support the revival of Somali culture and arts. The Cultural Centre provides a unique […]
Extractives Development and Violence in Eastern Africa
It is boom time in eastern Africa. In 2016, its economies will be the continent’s fastest growing, as investors pour money into burgeoning oil, gas and minerals industries. In response, regional governments are planning massive networks of roads, rails and pipelines that will span East Africa, the Horn, the Great Lakes, and South Sudan. These […]
Storymoja: Historical Research and Fiction Writing
The Nairobi Forum, in collaboration with Kwani? and Storymoja, brought Ugandan writer Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi—whose novel Kintu won the 2013 Kwani? Manuscript Prize—together with Zambian writer and 2015 Caine prize winner, Namwalli Serpell, and Nigerian author and editor, Emmanuel Iduma, for a discussion on historical research and the uses of history in fiction writing. Ngala […]
Three Decades in Ethiopia
Ethiopia has gone through profound and sweeping changes in three decades—from the fall of the Derg and the establishment of the Federal Democratic Republic, through war and famine, to the spectacular development and economic growth of the last ten years. Few countries have experience such dramatic changes in so short a time. Terrence Lyons and […]
“There Is No Time Left”: Climate Change, Environmental Threats and Human Rights in Turkana County, Kenya
In Kenya’s Turkana county, home to 1.2 million people, increased temperatures and changing rainfall are threatening the grazing lands that are the foundation of the region’s pastoral lifestyle and livelihoods. At the same time, large scale development in Ethiopia’s lower Omo river valley is likely to reduce water flowing into Lake Turkana—the world’s largest desert […]