return of the....blogger

a delighted hello to those who ardently follow this space (a dependable minority one might say). This post has little to do with major ranting (although there is much to rant about) or much musing either (despite the surfeit there is to muse upon). Rather, it has to do with re-igniting a capacity for reflection, shameless self-advertising as well as providing a conduit for the words and ideas that have welled up within me over time. Some of this is borne from a recent reading binge, in particular I have renewed curiosity regarding the well-chronicled history of ethnicity and conflict in africa: I recently read through Michella Wrong's pretty excellent (rightfully so haha) account of John Githongo's remarkable stand against a corrupt Kibaki government. In it she discusses the deep-seated issues of ethnicity and tribalism in Kenyan politics. The widespread agony this has wrought across the continent is patently clear to any observer. What is not so clear is the extent to which other non-proximate factors (i.e factors other than hate-ridden rhetoric resulting from colonial divide-and-rule practices) underlie these conflicts: for instance Jared Diamond observed in his insightful account of how human societies rise and fall ( Collapse) that the Rwandan genocide occured at a time when it had the highest population density in the world and land disputes were at a maximum. Of course such deterministic accounts must not obscure the cheap politicking and sinister demagoguery that has been rightly condemned worldwide. Yet to ignore the underlying factors that well up in racial hatred is in itself a vehicle for future strife...