Dear Dr. Schwab, Queen of Jordan
By Binyavanga Wainaina Professor Klaus Schwab Founder & Executive Chairman World Economic Forum & Queen Rania of Jordan Chair of the Selection Committee Young Global Leaders 2007 Dear Mr. Schwab, Queen Jordan, I received your nomination letter over a week ago, and have been, until today, at a loss as to what to do […]
Folk Dancing for Beginners
By Karen Press (He sets the tone) In my country the president rises from a bed of red carnations and then the children sit down each with a goldfish on their desk. Their task is to teach it to swim better than it does already. At the end of the year […]
Dansons Donc le Zouglou
By Henri-Michel Yere Déscolarisé In 1980s Côte d’Ivoire, exclusion from the schooling system became a possibility that many high school graduates had to face. An economic crisis had set in; the prices of the country’s main produce – cocoa and coffee – had undergone a sharp decrease in the late 1970s. Le succès de ce […]
Sermon on the Train
By Isabel Hofmeyer 11.45 am on a Tuesday morning in October and the train from Park Station to Phomolong, Soweto It’s is tolerably full. I am wedged against a train-pole in the compartment, a microphone in one hand, a sheaf of papers in the other. Aboard a moving train, I am lecturing to commuters and […]
Lagos, Lagos
By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Chidera’s taxi crawled over Third Mainland Bridge, towards Lagos Island. The morning traffic was thick with cars, with hawkers selling newspapers and CDs and gala sausage rolls, with motorcycles snaking past. She wiped the sweat on her nose with the back of her hand, carefully, so as not to ruin her […]