It is almost a year since the ‘Arab Spring’ began and started off a chain of events leading to cataclysmic changes in the North African States of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and continues to have…

Pity our waheshimiwa,haggling over corpseslike a parody, a farcical enactmentof great Brutus and Mark Antony.Pity them, the pinstripe dogswho chew upon the bodies of the dead.It’s such a growling wayto offer your condolencesto family and friends.Is it their pay that makes them rabid?Come, let’s pity them.For, see, they cannot grieve,not…

There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep, and still be counted as warriors. I think you thought there was no such place for you, and perhaps there was none then, and perhaps there is none now; but we will have to make it, we who…

"‘Probably 'Psychology’ is not the appropriate word, but I do believe that there is a distinctly African was of looking at things, of problem solving and indeed of thinking - we have our own logic-system which makes sense to us, however confusing it might be to the Westerner. If we…

Gong of deathThe gong of deathIs going to silenceThe life bellsAnd snatch my soulTake it into deep wellsDark and unknownIn resounding decibelsThis gong shall causeA mass celebration in demiseRecounting a life lived in torrentsA torment,It shall cause heartbreakLeave less a mark to walkThe talkIt shall provokeSorrow!Grandmaster Masese

In Memoriam :Prof. Wangari Maathai, Ph.D. 1940-2011Environmentalist and human rights campaigner Wangari Maathai in Kiriti, Kenya, in 2004. Photograph: Micheline Pelletier/CorbisA mighty tree has been felled,not by fiercely wielded bladesof vilifying and vindictive axes of power politics,but by the relentlessly ravaging storms of a treacherous, deadly illness.A tiny seed from…

Prof. Wangari Maathai was a woman of many firsts. A patriot, a feminist, an environmentalist, an academic and a humanist par excellence – she worked tirelessly towards ensuring a viable future for Kenya, Africa and…

Wambui Otieno Mbugua has been described by Ann Njogu as ‘heroine, feminist, Mau Mau veteran and nationalist’. It is not possible, in a short obituary, to capture the bravery, courage and commitment of this most…

Amarjit Chandan writes:Sheila Didi, who has died aged 83 in Chandigarh, was one of the most prominent women political activists of the post-1947 East Punjab in India.She was born in Nairobi on August 5, 1928,…

Seraphino Antao, nicknamed the ‘gazelle’ because of his speed, remains to date the only Kenyan to have ever won a gold in the short sprints at any world level; and the first Kenyan to win a medal for the country. He started Kenya’s ‘gold rush’ and was the first Kenyan…