Famine used to kill ten million people every decade but by the early 2000s it had all but disappeared. Today, famine is resurgent, driven by wars, food blockades, hostility to humanitarian principles and a volatile global economy. On 3 July, the Rift Valley Forum hosted the launch of Mass Starvation followed by a panel discussion on famine and humanitarian response in the Horn of…
On 6 December 2012, the RVI's Nairobi Forum hosted a seminar on ‘Rethinking state-building in Somalia: Negotiated statehood and hybrid governance’. The first discussion was led by Dr Marleen Renders, author of Consider Somaliland: State-Building with Traditional Leaders and Institutions, who said: ‘There can be no equitable or sustainable state-building in the region until policy-makers accept…
On 21 June 2013, the Nairobi Forum and the Kwani Trust hosted Nadifa Mohamed, the Somali-British author, in conversation with Ellah Allfrey, Deputy Editor of Granta, which listed Nadifa among the best young British novelists. Born in Hargeisa and raised in South London, Nadifa’s first novel, Black Mamba Boy (2010), was inspired by the life of her father, who was forced to leave Somalia and set…
On 21 February 2013, the RVI’s Nairobi Forum hosted a panel discussion on the regional implications of the death of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, in August 2012. The event, entitled ‘Ethiopia after Meles: National and regional implications’, was chaired by RVI Fellow Tobias Hagmann of Roskilde University in Denmark. Political scientist Asnake Kefale, from Addis Ababa University,…
Videos of Nuruddin Farah in conversation with Binyavanga Wainaina at the Nairobi Forum and tributes by the two writers to Chinua Achebe, are now on YouTube. An interview by Tom Odhiambo with Nuruddin Farah is also available.
The Nairobi Forum and the British Institute in Eastern Africa co-hosted the launch of a special Somalia edition of the Journal of Eastern African Studies on 19 April. The meeting, entitled ‘Continuities and change: Social, political and economic dynamics in Somalia since 1991’, examined the strengths and weaknesses of hybrid political structures, the roles of local authorities, and the…
On 29 April 2013, the Hon. Mohamed Elmi (MP, Tarbaj) presented a paper at the Nairobi Forum on Lessons from the Ministry of Northern Kenya, reflecting on the work of his former ministry in supporting pastoralism and development in Kenya’s arid and semi arid lands. The former minister was one of several speakers at a seminar hosted by the Forum in collaboration with the Future Agricultures…
On 29 and 30 April the Nairobi Forum hosted a workshop to discuss the impact of war, prolonged conflict, displacement and exile on Somali men and youth. The workshop, convened by Judith Gardner (co-author of The Untold Story: The War Through the Eyes of Somali Women) and Rakiya Omaar (African Rights), initiated the first stage of a long term study on the enduring consequences of conflict on…
There could hardly be a more poignant or devastating reminder of divisive instability that has spread throughout the Horn of Africa. On Monday, I moderated a discussion panel on how arts and literature can help rebuild society in the Horn of Africa. But I shouldn’t have been there at all. Yusuf Hassan, the intended moderator and a Kenyan MP of Somali descent, was absent because of a stark…
In June the Nairobi Forum hosted a consultation on the future of humanitarian action in the Horn of Africa and East Africa with the Feinstein International Centre at Tufts University and InterAction. The Forum also held a book launch for The Golden Fleece: Manipulation and Independence in Humanitarian Action (Kumarian 2012) edited by Antonio Donini (Feinstein International Centre).
