About RVI
Local roots, global reach The Rift Valley Institute (RVI) is an independent, non-profit organization, founded in Sudan in 2001, currently working in eastern and central Africa. The aim of the Institute is to advance useful knowledge of the region and its diverse communities, bringing a better understanding of local realities to bear on social and political action. The RVI works with institutions in the […]
Binyavanga Wainaina remembers Chinua Achebe
The life of the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) was celebrated on 6 May 2014 at Bard College, New York, where Achebe taught for many years. There were spoken tributes from Nigerian author and art historian Teju Cole, from historian Myra Armstead, and from anthropologists Yuka Suzuki and John Ryle. The Somali writer Nuruddin Farah […]
A Somali Spring?
Key points The so-called Arab Spring is not an appropriate analogy: there was no single authority to bring down and there was no popular uprising. The election of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as President of Somalia was the culmination of a Somali-owned process and showed that the people of Somalia were eager for change. Military success […]