Eritrea has been in the spotlight in the past week after a UN monitoring group alleged in a report that the state planned to bomb the AU’s January Summit. The report follows on from the country being accused of having links to Islamist group al-Shabaab. Eritrea also features in one of Think Africa Press’ latest book reviews: Michela Wrong’s “I Didn’t Do It For You”. Also reviewed this week are Deborah Brautigam’s “The Dragon’s Gift”, which analyses China’s role in Africa, and “The Kaiser’s Holocaust”, which argues that the genocide of Namibia’s Herero by German colonisers was a precursor to Nazi racial policy.
As the drought in the Horn of Africa continues, the first batch of food aid has reached northern Kenya. Meanwhile Kenyan MPs, among the best paid lawmakers in the world, refused demands from the Kenya Revenue Authority to pay tax on their allowances. This week, Think Africa Press analyses Kenyan youth movement Kuweni Serious, who say the older generation has been allowed to “loot the country”, and the Kenyan government’s new data portal, designed to promote greater public access to information in a country where access to the internet is limited.
Think Africa Press also published a series of videos this week, including an interview with Prof Stephen Chan about his new book "Southern Africa: Old Treacheries and New Deceits" and Prof Horace Campbell’s keynote speech at the Pan-Africanism for a New Generation conference at Oxford University.
Below are a few highlights from the past week: