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.

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.…

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…

Founded in 2007, the Hargeysa International Book Fair will mark it’s tenth anniversary this year. The book fair provides a platform for discussion on social and political reconstruction through arts, literature and culture. The festival is a space for young and aspiring artists to interact, share knowledge and learn from celebrated figures in…

This June, RVI hosted the Institute’s fourteenth Annual Field Courses in Entebbe, Uganda, covering Sudan and South Sudan, the Great Lakes and the Horn of Africa. The innovative, dawn-to-dusk programme of seminars, lectures, group discussions and special events covered a variety of social, political and economic issues in the region, including…

The third phase of RVI’s South Sudan Customary Authorities Project, funded by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), is now underway. The project aims to deepen understanding of customary authorities’ role within, and with, their communities, and to amplify their voices. The work builds on previous phases of the project,…

The prospect of devolved county government has been met with particular enthusiasm in Kenya’s former Coast province since the passage of the new constitution in 2010. Many see devolution as offering a panacea for decades of the Coast’s perceived marginalization and underdevelopment by the central state. The Coast’s communities welcomed the…

The Rift Valley Institute, together with the South Sudan Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, and UNESCO, with funding from Norway, are pleased to announce the first 'Tarikh Tana (Our History)' Radio Show, which will air on Wednesday 1 November 2017 at 16:00 EAT on Eye Radio (98.6FM). The 'Tarikh Tana (Our History)' radio shows are taking…

The RVI Board of Trustees announced today that the Executive Director of the Rift Valley Institute, John Ryle, will step down at the end of 2016 after fifteen years as head of the organisation. The trustees have appointed Mark Bradbury—currently RVI Horn of Africa and East Africa Regional Director—as Executive Director from 1 January 2017. Mark…