MULEMBE VIBES

It may finally happen. After years of debates about the contribution of social science and humanities, to the understanding of the human condition, we may finally see the likes of history, linguistics, sociology, geography anthropology and philosophy either deliberately underfunded into extinction or actually banished from our education syllabus. The reason, as Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto recently put it eloquently, these are not the kind of disciplines required by our growing (or is it stagnant-albeit declining?) economy. Curiously, economics and law were spared the onslaught, probably because graduates of these disciplines do not roast maize on the roadsides like anthropologists and historians. This is not new talk. These debates have always been around us as long as universities have existed. What is telling is that much more advanced economies such as North America and Western Europe have been there and done that. What have the debates achieved? The j...

MULEMBE VIBES: HOMEPAGE

The rush to cash in on forests will choke us with thirst Environmental degradation in Africa is often linked to management failure and political decline. The unending Mau Forest saga is a good example. Those who support the eviction of the settlers believe their continued presence destroys the forest and the water catchment area to which the forest is the tower. While those opposed to eviction contend that the squatters have valid allotment and purchase documents to showcase ownership. So, who is right? Even more astounding was a declaration by a prominent leader that he will not give up an inch of what he owns. The big picture But Mau is just but a small piece of the bigger picture we are not ready to confront. Indeed, reports are already filtering in that loggers, who are not residents in the forest, are taking advantage of the confusion to fell trees at night. This is disturbing news for those who care about the future of Kenya. At the same time, more forest land is being...

The bombing in London has again added embers to the incessant discourse on the causes and consequences of terrorism in the global arena. What many of us fail to ask ourselves is; who is a terrorist? Who is most likely to be the target of terrorist attack? Who responds to terrorism? Who decides what qualifies as a terrorist attack? Mostly, the answer to all these questions is: men. Just as men have the most to gain by using terror for the acquisition of political power and control, it is men who define terrorism. Yet most important, why are most terrorists men? Have we ever thought through the image of the terrorist portrayed in the media? Terrorist manifestos, media representations of terrorists and current policy debates over the causes and consequences of terrorism all typically de-gender terrorism. So nearly exclusive is the connection between gender and terrorism that it goes unmentioned except when terrorists are women, who are then explicitly named, as in ‘female suicide bombe...