Burundi rebels’ unintentional allies
The peace is shaky again in Burundi, where the government is accusing the FNL rebels of plotting further attacks, and the FNL are saying–as…
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Too much Times on her hands
What in the name of all things holy and profane is going on in that most precious of printed real estate, Maureen Dowd’s column…
Read MoreA New York post
This has nothing to do with Africa, but my mom sent me a link to this illustrated story in the Times—it’s kind of like…
Read More“It is finished in my heart,” or, how to forgive the man who cut off your arm
I don’t have any idea. But here’s what Temba Kekura told me (this is the last part of my Sierra Leone series; if you…
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A Former Rebel Faces the Farmer He Mained
GPAINGBANKORDU, SIERRA LEONE — Before the war, when his village and his family and his body were whole, Temba Kekura was a farmer. He…
Read MoreReally, I went to Sierra Leone; or, A look at reconciliation, village by village
Way back in March, the Christian Science Monitor sent me to Sierra Leone to report a series on ‘grassroots reconciliation,’ for lack of a…
Read MoreApologies–mine, and otherwise
Oh, so many apologies. * First, to my few but devoted commenters–commentors? how is it spelled? this new internet age!–whose wonderful thoughts I’ve let…
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Sierra Leonans Look to Truth-Telling for Post-War Peace
BOMARU, SIERRA LEONE — Little but its history distinguishes Bomaru from other villages scattered across Sierra Leone’s countryside. A quiet place with mud houses…
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Sierra Leone’s “Family Talk” Heals Scars of war
KAILAHUN DISTRICT, SIERRA LEONE — John Caulker might know the rough, red-rock roads of rural Sierra Leone better than he knows the hallways of…
Read MoreA note on Zimbabwean notes
Saw this on the BBC headlined, “No paper for Zimbabwean money.” It’s wrong, I know, but that’s kind of funny: The Germans supply the…
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