Why is the Horn such a distinctive part of Africa? This book, by one of the foremost scholars of the region, traces this question through its exceptional history and also probes the wildly divergent fates of the Horn’s contemporary nation-states, despite the striking regional particularity inherited from the colonial past.

It might be shorter to list those who were not critical of international election observers in Kenya.  Following the historic decision of Kenya’s Supreme Court to nullify the August 8 presidential elections, international election observation missions (EOMs) have been pummelled. Leading human rights activist Maina Kiai said: ‘There is something…

The Rift Valley Institute is one of twelve non-profit organisations to be awarded an Open Society Foundation New Executive Fund grant in 2017. The grant, which is intended to assist newly appointed leaders to implement their vision for change, has been awarded to RVI’s Executive Director, Mark Bradbury, who has been in post since January 2017.…

Aweil is lush and green with rains at the moment. Fields that I had last seen hard and crisp with dried seedlings, back in June 2015, are now months away from yielding. Aweil town continues to bustle, with football tournaments every evening at Independence Square, and donkey carts careering past pedestrians hopping puddles. It is often said…

There are precious few history books about South Sudan that look beyond its recent origins. South Sudan: a new history for a new nation is an excellent example of just such a work. Douglas H. Johnson is one of the world’s most eminently qualified authors for such an undertaking, having spent many years chronicling the history of the region more…

Academics, artists, authors, musicians, poets and lovers of their work gathered in Somaliland’s vibrant capital, Hargeysa, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Hargeysa International Book Fair (HIBF) from 22 to 27 July 2017. Among hundreds of the festival’s attendees was a delegation of renowned literary figures from across Africa,…

On Thursday 3 August, the full eighteen member Dutch Embassy national and international staff team in South Sudan visited the National Archives as part of their annual team outing. Staff from the Dutch Embassy were interested to learn about the presence of documents across a variety of fields of interest including rule of law and traditional…

In July Durham played host to a meeting of curators and researchers concerned with the heritage of material culture taken from the lands now comprising South Sudan. These include items of jewellery, clothing, furniture, weaponry and sculpture bought, bartered or stolen sometime in the nineteenth or early twentieth centuries. Some of these…

Last month in Yirol I bought a heifer—a brindled two-year old, not yet in calf. In the Dinka cattle-naming system a cow like this is called nyang, the crocodile, a reference to the colour-pattern of her hide. I bought my nyang at the livestock auction on the edge of Yirol town, the administrative centre of Eastern Lakes state…

For six years rebel forces in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile states (the Two Areas) have been battling the Sudanese government. Round after round of negotiations mediated by the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa have failed to bring an end to what is a continuation of the second Sudanese civil war (1983-2005) fought by the Sudan People’s…