On 18 April, the Rift Valley Institute’s Nairobi Forum, in partnership with Kwani Trust, hosted an evening with renowned Somali author Nuruddin Farah. Nuruddin is winner of the Neustadt International Prize for literature and the Lettre Ulysses Award, and has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times. His body of work includes two trilogies, Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship (1980) and Blood in the Sun (1986). His most recent novel, Crossbones, was published in 2011. Nuruddin was in conversation with Binyavanga Wainaina, the founder of Kwani Trust and author of the acclaimed memoir One Day I Will Write About This Place.

Enhancing the Role of Borderland Communities in Ethiopia’s Foreign Policy
Ethiopia’s borderland communities (BLCs) have historically influenced the country’s relations with its neighbours. These peripheral regions often serve as hubs for cross-border trade, repositories of
