Africa Is a Country

A Rwandan Storify

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

A Rwandan Storify

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Africa Is a Country

The sensational tale of Rwanda’s gospel-singer-terrorist, Kizito Mihigo.

Rwanda, 2005. Image credit Jon Evans via Flickr CC BY 2.0.

Stories shift quickly in our 24-hour news cycle. The sensational tale of Rwanda’s gospel-singer-terrorist is no exception. Authorities have attempted to shape the narrative and control the headlines. For better or worse, Rwanda’s embrace of social media allows us to see how a most clickable story unfolds, and changes, over a few weeks.

Kizito Mihigo has long been a face of popular reconciliation in Rwanda. But after he wrote a song that offended the wrong people–and after he allegedly connected with some shifty people–Kizito found himself in a world of trouble.

American journalist Steve Terrill is known for keeping a watchful eye on Rwanda’s opaque twitterati. He put this Storify together and shared it with Africa is a Country. Steve says he’ll be updating the Storify as new elements emerge. He invites you to send him suggestions and feedback. Just click through:

View “undefined” on Storify

Further Reading

Leapfrogging literacy?

In outsourcing the act of writing to machines trained on Western language and thought, we risk reinforcing the very hierarchies that decolonization sought to undo.

Repoliticizing a generation

Thirty-eight years after Thomas Sankara’s assassination, the struggle for justice and self-determination endures—from stalled archives and unfulfilled verdicts to new calls for pan-African renewal and a 21st-century anti-imperialist front.

Drip is temporary

The apparel brand Drip was meant to prove that South Africa’s townships could inspire global style. Instead, it revealed how easily black success stories are consumed and undone by the contradictions of neoliberal aspiration.

Energy for whom?

Behind the fanfare of the Africa Climate Summit, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline shows how neocolonial extraction still drives Africa’s energy future.