Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o—East Africa's Leading Novelist and Social Critic, Dies at 87
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o returned from an elite boarding school in the 1950s to find his home had been burned to the ground by the British during Kenya's fight for independence.
Ngũgĩ (pronounced Ingoo-ghee) went on to become a prizewinning author, who, rejecting the colonial mindset, dropped his English name, James, and resolved to write only in the language of the Kikuyu people, his mother tongue.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Washington Post
Divided UN extends arms embargo on South Sudan as fears of renewed civil war grow
UNITED NATIONS — A divided U.N. Security Council voted Friday to extend an arms embargo on South Sudan, where escalating political tensions have led the U.N. to warn that the country could again plunge into civil war. A U.S.-sponsored resolution to extend the embargo and other sanctions was approved by the narrowest margin — the minimum nine 'yes' votes required. Six countries abstained – Russia, China, Algeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Pakistan.
Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
Divided UN extends arms embargo on South Sudan as fears of renewed civil war grow
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A divided U.N. Security Council voted Friday to extend an arms embargo on South Sudan, where escalating political tensions have led the U.N. to warn that the country could again plunge into civil war. A U.S.-sponsored resolution to extend the embargo and other sanctions was approved by the narrowest margin — the minimum nine 'yes' votes required. Six countries abstained – Russia, China, Algeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Pakistan. The arms embargo, and travel bans and asset freezes on South Sudanese on the U.N. sanctions blacklist, were extended for a year until May 31, 2026. There were high hopes for peace and stability after oil-rich South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011, becoming the world's newest nation. But the country slid into civil war in December 2013 when forces loyal to President Salva Kiir, who is from the largest ethnic group in the country, the Dinka, started battling those loyal to Riek Machar, who is from the second-largest ethnic group, the Nuer. A 2018 peace deal that brought Machar into the government as first vice-president has been fragile, and implementation has been slow. A presidential election has been postponed until 2026. Last month, the U.N. envoy to South Sudan, Nicholas Haysom, warned that the escalating rivalry between Kiir and Machar had degenerated into direct military confrontation between their parties and led to Machar's arrest. A campaign of misinformation, disinformation and hate speech is 'fueling political and ethnic tensions — particularly on social media,' he warned. And 'these conditions are darkly reminiscent of the 2013 and 2016 conflicts, which took over 400,000 lives.' U.S. Minister Counselor John Kelley thanked the council after the vote, saying the arms embargo 'remains necessary to stem the unfettered flow of weapons into a region that remains awash with guns.' 'Escalating violence in recent months has brought South Sudan to the brink of civil war,' he said, urging the country's leaders to restore peace. Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador Anna Evstigneeva countered by saying the easing of Security Council sanctions on South Sudan is long overdue. She said the arms embargo and other sanctions are restricting implementation of the 2018 peace agreement. She accused the resolution's supporters of 'putting a brake on a successful political process unfolding in Sudan, as well as complicating the deployment and proper equipping of the national armed forces.' South Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Cecilia Adeng, expressed 'deep disappointment' at the extension of the arms embargo and other sanctions. 'The lifting of the sanctions and the arms embargo is not only a matter of national security or sovereignty, but also a matter of economic opportunity and dignity,' she said. 'These measures create barriers to growth, delay development, discourage foreign investment, and leave the state vulnerable to non-state actors and outlaws.'
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
12-Year-Old Tennessee Boy Arrested for Instagram Post Says He Was Trying To Warn Students of a School Shooting
After posting a screenshot of two people planning to "shoot up" a Nashville school, a 12-year-old DuPont Tyler Middle School student was arrested and charged with threats of mass violence. Although his charges were later dismissed, school officials opted to expel the boy without properly assessing whether the threat was valid or whether he had authored the messages himself. Directly following a school shooting at Antioch High School earlier this year, which resulted in the death of two students and injury to a third, Nashville School District officials were on high alert for other potential threats. The day after the shooting, James, a seventh grade student, was flagged by the FBI for a concerning Instagram post. According to ProPublica, the post depicted a text conversation between two individuals: One said they would "shoot up" a Nashville school if the second would attack another. "Yea," the second replied, "I got some other people for other schools." When asked about the post, James told school officials he had reposted a screenshot from a Spanish-language news site. He was subsequently arrested and charged with making threats of mass violence. Under Tennessee law, when a student is suspected of threatening mass violence, a threat assessment is required "to determine whether the threat of mass violence made by the student was a valid threat." If the director of schools determines the threat is not valid, the school is not allowed to expel the student. However, records obtained by ProPublica show that school officials failed to conduct a proper threat assessment and missed crucial steps. Melissa Nelson, a national school safety consultant who trains schools on managing threats, told ProPublica that James' assessment was "gross mismanagement of a case." Rather than seek out information to help confirm whether the threat was valid—like notifying and interviewing James' parents—or pursue options provided by the threat assessment tool to deescalate potential future violence, school officials jumped straight to expulsion after he was arrested. "Even if a child is expelled, what I always train is: Out of sight, out of mind doesn't help," she said. "Expelling a child doesn't de-escalate the situation or move them off the pathway of violence. A lot of times, it makes it worse." John Van Dreal, a former school administrator who helped the Nashville School District set up its current threat assessment process, agreed. Choosing to skip directly to expulsion is "actually about the most dangerous thing you can do for the student," Van Dreal said, "and honestly for the community." During an appeal hearing, James maintained that he was not the original author of the texts. When asked if he understood that the screenshot in question appeared to be a conversation he, himself, was having, he replied, "I just wanted to let people know, feel heroic. I didn't want more people to get hurt." When pressed during that same hearing on why the school chose to expel James without additional investigation, Assistant Principal Angela Post said that it was up to law enforcement, not the school, to investigate the threat. She also admitted that the assessment did not make a determination whether James was the original author of the text, and she couldn't recall whether school staff investigated the origin of the original threat. By her logic, James' arrest was evidence enough that the threat was valid, and therefore, expulsion was necessary. But since James' arrest, law enforcement hasn't treated him like a violent threat. After serving a night in a juvenile detention facility, James agreed to six months of pretrial diversion and court supervision. His supervision was lifted earlier than expected after he completed his pretrial diversion terms, and his case has been dismissed. However, following his appeal with the Nashville School District, officials found that the decision to immediately expel James "was not a due process violation." The post 12-Year-Old Tennessee Boy Arrested for Instagram Post Says He Was Trying To Warn Students of a School Shooting appeared first on
