The 29th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union (AU) held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in July 2017, elected Rwanda to lead the Union for a period of one year, in 2018. The 30th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Heads of State and Government, that convenes in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from January 28 to 29, will therefore be chaired by President Paul Kagame in his capacity as Chairman of the Union. He takes over from his…
An opinion piece published in The East African on Tuesday 12th September has brought that paper to a new low: according to Christopher Kayumba “Kagame faces two critical challenges in the next seven years” I am used to reading this type of output in western publications, but when African outlets regurgitate the same stale slop it hurts. Let’s go over these opinions, piece by piece. Right off the bat, the title already disqualifies the post. When you read “Kagame faces…
This year, 2017, has been a very special one for me, so far. So many wonderful things have happened. I got married! I’m expecting a baby! I voted for the first time in my life! And today, 18th August, I attended the Presidential Inauguration of my greatest hero: His Excellency President Paul Kagame! I arrived at Amahoro Stadium at 8:30AM. The crowd was hype, the excitement was electric! The stadium was packed! Music was playing from a stage below, people…
The implicitly racist language with which western media and “NGOs” spread their anti-Rwanda hate, the closer Rwanda gets to the 2017 presidential elections is deeply disturbing. There is a lie that is being pushed in western media, one of an alleged “climate of fear” in Rwanda. As I have said before on Twitter, there’s definitely a climate of fear. But it’s not in Rwanda. There’s a climate of fear about Rwanda. The fear that Rwanda will continue to rise. Nobody’s…
In 2015 I wrote a short story called “Mother’s Love“, which was longlisted for the Short Story Day Africa Prize. Tomorrow, Friday 21st July 2017, Mother’s Love will appear as a reprint in issue 18 of the Manchester Review, a special issue titled 21 Today: African Speculative Fiction. This special issue is edited by none other than Geoff Ryman, and it brings some much deserved attention to the rise of African Speculative Fiction over the recent years. Feast your eyes…
There’s a picture I saw today of former astronaut Anna Lee Fisher, and also a picture of a Surma man. Suddenly, I got the idea to fire up The Gimp to replace Fisher’s face with that of a Surma girl and have the new Surma astronaut overlook the Horsehead Nebula. Here are the results: Save Save Save
Yesterday, Tuesday 25th October, Rwandans on Twitter (#RwOT) were up in arms about statements attributed to the Minister of Labour. This led to a wider discussion about unemployment statistics and the perceived failings of the Ministry of Labour. This morning I read a blog post about these topics (Rwanda needs work), which bolsters my suspicion that there seem to be certain misconceptions we have in this country about the roles of government ministries, specifically the role of the Labour Ministry….
Why would a dragon let you ride it, though? I mean, it’s a DRAGON! We don’t ride crocodiles, either. What if we discover one day, that it was dragons who wiped out the dinosaurs, and not an asteroid? Dragons from outter space, on an intra-galactic journey, making a pit stop on Earth. And every sun is actually nothing more than a resource-rich world of raging dragons, who have to migrate across the galaxy occasionally, due to overpopulation. Or migrate en masse when they…
The writing prompt for this piece of flash fiction came from an amazing art work by Patrick Brannvoll I found on Instagram. Poor kids have the decency to either go to prison or go offworld on an asteroid miner. It’s these self-important, entitled middle-class kids. Can’t find work, their families fallen on hard times, and the next thing you know? Student loan default. Too scared to do 10 years in a Corrections Colony, and still you think you’re too good for…
My story “Omoshango” (appeared in the anthology Lightspeed People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction! Special Issue in June) has been receiving some reviews lately. It is my favourite story I have ever written (although I do say this each time I write a new one), and it’s great to see people enjoy reading it. Check out the reviews below, and if you want to review Omoshango, too, I would really appreciate it. You can get the People of Colo(u)r Destroy…