By Greg Moore, The Kansas City Star
NAIROBI, Kenya | The long rains failed again in East Africa this year. And thanks to El Nino the short rains are heavier than normal.
You might think this would even out, but instead it’s exacerbating a crisis. And staring squarely into the face of calamity are the Maasai people, perhaps the most famous ethnic group in the region.
By Greg Moore, The Kansas City Star
Imagine the vast open plains of Africa.
Picture a pride of lions resting in the shade of an acacia tree.
See in your mind a herd of gazelle hopping, more than running toward the horizon.
And finally the setting sun, casting a beautiful, hazy glow over it all.
By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel
Habte Mesfin, the owner of Revocup in Overland Park, cannot remember when he discovered his passion for coffee but it probably started on the day he was born. In his house in Ethiopia, on the day he arrived, his family made coffee. Friends gathered to celebrate.
By Greg Moore, The Kansas City Star
There’s a friendly-looking guy sitting behind me, and I need to know something.
So, I figure, I’ll turn around and politely ask him my question. Easy, right?
Wrong. (C’mon, if it had been that simple would I be writing about it?)
Greg MooreBy Greg Moore, The Kansas City Star
All I could think was, “God, I wonder whether they can tell how nervous I am?”
Because I was. In fact, I was sweating. Forehead, hands, feet, armpits. All that.
By Greg Moore, The Kansas City Star
Greg MooreMy family and friends back home in the U.S. want to know my first impressions of Kenya. And my East African friends are eager to learn the same thing.
My answer is this: The differences are striking ... but, the similarities have come as far more of a shock.
By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel
Periodically, the Pope reminds us that he is a head of state. In His Holiness’ recent address to the African bishops visiting the Vatican, he warned that a new kind of colonialism threatens Africa.
By Rodney Muhumuza, Special to The Kansas City Star
After a study showed that circumcision reduces the incidence of HIV infection in men, circumcision providers in Uganda have been enjoying brisk business.
By The Kansas City Star Editorial Board
It took just a moment for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to successfully grab the attention of Africans, speaking in a voice that many could find respectful and galvanizing even as she broached old complaints about corruption, bad governance and human rights violations.
By The Kansas City Star Editorial Board
It took just a moment for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to successfully grab the attention of Africans, speaking in a voice that many could find respectful and galvanizing even as she broached old complaints about corruption, bad governance and human rights violations.
By Matt Schofield, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had obviously heard enough last week about her husband's success in North Korea.
So, during a stop in Kinshasa, Congo, when a student asked her what her husband thought about a controversial $9 billion deal between Congo and China, she snapped, a bit.
By Judy Hellman, Special to The Kansas City Star
On Thursday, I will join concerned people from across the country in a fast of solidarity with the people of Darfur. The Jewish Community Relations Bureau/American Jewish Committee invites the community to participate.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
South Africa was a forgotten country during the Bush administration. On Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to defrost the relationship with Africa's most important country.
By Peter Makori, Special to The Kansas City Star
The Kenyan government is staring at international sanctions after the country’s political elite rejected the formation of a special local tribunal to prosecute warlords responsible for post-election violence.
By Miriam Pepper, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
NAIROBI, KENYA | Before entering one of the world’s largest slums, a dozen American journalists are directed toward a row of knee-high rubber boots. The instruction is to swap your shoes for boots and keep your pants tucked inside the boot tops.
Denzyl Janneker, Kansas City Star Midwest Voices columnist
Following my recent post regarding the generosity of Americans towards victims of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, comes a newly released report of foreign companies profiting from violence in the region.
By The Kansas City Star Editorial Board
In Ghana tonight, the streets are lined with flashy new billboards of their new president and of ours. It’s part of the hoopla and glory that has the West African nation standing tall as the first sub-Saharan nation to host President Barack Obama.
By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist
On the list of atrocities that take place every day on this planet of ours, the wanton murders of three aid workers who were kidnapped while picnicking in Yemen seem especially horrifying.
By Miriam Pepper, Kansas City Star editorial page editor
Miriam Pepper is in Kenya on a two-week fellowship with the International Reporting Project of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She posts today from the family home of Barack Obama's father. View a slide of photos here.
By Miriam Pepper
Kansas City Star Editorial Page Editor
NAIROBI: The world's largest slum is here, Kibera, home to 1.2 million mostly young Kenyans, about one third of Nairobi's population.
By Denzyl Janneker, Kansas City Star Midwest Voices panelist 2009
A Jacob Zuma presidency? For some, it just doesn’t wash.
South Africa inaugurates its fourth post-apartheid president today, a man whom I’ve met and have come to admire for his contribution to the liberation struggle.
George Harris KC Star Reader Advisory Panel 2008
It’s great that Captain Richard Phillips is safe, and the Navy Seals performed impressively with coordinated sniper fire that ended the hostage’s nightmare by killing his pirate captors.
By Denzyl Janneker, Kansas City Star Midwest Voices panelist 2009
As Christians in much of the world this week marked the start of the season of Lent — a 40-day period of almsgiving, prayer and fasting — one of their faithful must have misread the church’s teachings.
With a cholera epidemic raging in his hungry nation, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is planning a champagne and caviar extravaganza in honor of his 85th birthday.
The dictator is soliciting contributions to the occasion, and his list of suggestions — lobsters, chocolates, duck and more — is one more reason to despair for the African nation.
By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist
While the world is riveted on the body count in the latest outbreak of Middle East warfare -- it had topped 350 as of this morning -- the killing in Africa goes on nearly unnoticed.
By Peter Makori, The Kansas City Star
The resignation of South African President Thabo Mbeki last week heralds a new era in Africa, a continent dominated by political demigods and kleptomaniacs who do not respect constitutional authority.
By Peter Makori, Kansas City Star Contributing Writer
The International Criminal Court’s indictment last week of Sudanese strongman Omar al-Bashir was long overdue.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo, ICC chief prosecutor, presented indictment charges before the court in The Hague, Netherlands.
By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist
Lots of tributes today in honor of Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday.
Mandela has lived long enough to have seen his life thoroughly examined by biographers, friendly and otherwise.
A recent airspace agreement signed by the United States and Kenya marks a big step toward opening up business partnerships between the nations.
The pact, signed by Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga and senior U.S. officials in Washington, enables airlines to fly directly between the two nations.
People inside and outside of Zimbabwe must reject Robert Mugabe’s attempt to declare himself the nation’s legitimate ruler after a sham run-off election scheduled for Friday.
Challenger Morgan Tsvangirai, of the Movement for Democratic Change, withdrew from the race because of murders and the intimidation of his supporters by militia allied with Mugabe.
