Mere hours away from this killer Wired deadline that’s been vexing me since last week, so please endure one last day of meh-ish posting. There’s only so much mental bandwidth to spare, alas, and most of what I’ve got is currently dedicated to figuring out a way to end this piece. (I’m playing with several […]
A treasured Friend o’ Microkhan recently directed us toward this insightful yet depressing Foreign Policy piece, about the seemingly endless nature of Africa’s various armed conflicts. The author makes a convincing case that we do ourselves a disservice by trying to understand these ultra-violent clashes as wars, since one side usually has no interest in […]
Tags:Africa·British Empire·crime·Foreign Policy·India·thuggee
A secret major project beckons, so we’re off to deal for a spell. To fill the void, please enjoy this sequel of sorts to that excellent “SAS in Malaya” video that we posted a few days back. The scene this time is strife-torn Angola, but the same jaunty atmosphere remains. And if this is your […]
Our second installment of the Bulletproof Project takes us to the eastern Congo, where Mai Mai militiamen have been wreaking awful havoc for years now. These soldiers are known not only for their brutality, but also their unwavering faith in dawa, or sinister magic. This belief became apparent to Western observers during the violent upheaval […]
Tags:Africa·Che Guevara·Congo·insurgencies·Mai Mai·The Bulletproof Project
While perusing this AFP piece about a poaching bust in the Central African Republic, we stopped and mumbled “hmmmmm” upon reading this hard-to-swallow stat: Experts say some 38,000 African elephants are killed each year for their tusks. Really? That seems like such a ridiculously high figure; at that clip, wouldn’t the species (or, to be […]
Tags:Africa·animals·Central African Republic·crime·elephants·ivory·wildlife management
After an interminable 27-plus hours in transit from Nairobi, punctuated by some dire experiences aboard Swiss Air, we finally made it back to Microkhan HQs late yesterday. Great to be back in sunny Atlah, though an enjoyable and productive time was had by all in Kenya. We’ll be posting plenty of East Africa-related material in […]
Tags:Africa·baboons·corruption·drought·Kenya·Mwai Kibaki·primates·traffic
If all goes precisely according to plan, this post will publish at the exact moment our flight departs Zurich for Nairobi. But we scheduled some goodies to keep you tantalized in our absence. And we’ll also try to post an update or two from the road, assuming something noteworthy happens as we journey west from […]
Though we recently vowed to avoid apologizing for light posting, we can’t help ourselves today. Sorry, just swamped with prepping for our East Africa trip—gotta pick up our doxycycline, along with a host of other odds and ends. For the moment, though, we’ll leave you with sonic stylings of the late Joe Higgs. And we’ll […]
On a crushing Wired deadline right now, made all the worse by the fact we’re still trying to figure out our Africa logistics. (Anyone know the intercity bus situation in southern Kenya?) But no reason you should have to feel our stress—sit back and enjoy the classic cut above (which we’re pretty sure features a […]
Tags:Africa·hip-hop·housekeeping·music·Remo Fernandes·Tha Alkaholiks·travel
As previously noted, we’re about to jet for East Africa for a spell. The trip will doubtless entails many hours of waiting around—the flights alone will keep us either aloft or in airports for a grand total of 44 hours. A dreary prospect, perhaps, but at least we’ll have the chance to catch up on […]
Tags:Africa·books·housekeeping
Trust us when we say that Voodoo Funk pretty much defines the phrase “Internet essential.” If you have even a cursory interest in vintage African sounds of the ’70 and ’80s, or even just plain ol’ vinyl collecting, you owe this site many hours of your time. It’s recently introduced us to a bevy of […]
Tags:Africa·music·Voodoo Funk
We’re currently prepping for a work-related trip to East Africa, which means we now get to spend lots of time being freaked out by ominous Centers for Disease Control warnings. (According to the CDC’s literature, setting foot in half the countries on the planet appears to be a recipe for gory death.) It also means […]
We admittedly do too many posts on ’80s nostalgia, especially now that Microkhan Jr.’s existence has us thinking a lot more ’bout our own formative years. But our worldview back during the Reagan Era was pretty American-centric, so we missed out on plenty of great, junky pop culture from more distant corners of the globe. […]
To the untrained eye, Migingo Island appears to be no great shakes. It covers just a half-acre’s worth of Lake Victoria, and it’s covered with the tin shacks of fishermen. Yet Kenya and Uganda both covet the ramshackle rock, leading to a border row that threatens to lead to outright war. Ugandan marines overtook the […]
Tags:Africa·British Empire·Kenya·Migingo Island·politics·Uganda
With DJ-turned-politician Andry Ralijaona finally seizing the mantle of power in Madagascar, after weeks of bloody turmoil, it’s worth linking back to this post from last month. It helps explain why Ralijaona felt his time was now—and what the whole situation has to do with South Korea’s brutal business culture.
In light of today’s stunning assassination news out of Guinea-Bissau, it’s worth revisiting this fine Washington Post investigation from last August. The West African nation has apparently become a key transshipment point for Colombian cocaine traffickers, en route to major European markets: [Guinea-Bissau] is best known for its cashews and mangoes, but its main attractions […]
