The funniest part when someone is being cooked here (when it's not you) is when your enemies revive old tweets to make connections to the current situation

As someone who gets pleasure from cooking, meeting someone who enjoys doing the dishes feels like heaven

East Africa's most notorious slaver, Tippu Tip hated being told he looked more African than Arab. He believed Africans were sub human and he duly overcompensated. An 1887 report in The Times described him as contemptuous of Black Africans and said he referred to white men as his “European brothers.” Tip was actually a product of the Arab slave trade, as he a mixed Arab person in Zanzibar. Both his paternal and maternal grandmother's were enslaved African women from the interior who had been used as sex slaves. He was born in Zanzibar as Hamad ibn Muhammad. Some say he earned the nickname Tippu Tip, because that’s how the guns that he used sounded, while others believe it’s because of the prominent, involuntary nervous twitch in his eyes. While he was born at the peak of the the East African slave trade run by Omani Arabs, he took slave raiding and trading to a whole new level. He led caravans all the way to what is now DRC because by the 1860s, the Tanzanian coast was already depleted of people to enslave. One of his methods would be to burn down entire villages then kidnap women and children and use the captives to make the men lose the will to fight. He was a crafty man. When the European colonialist came, he adapted. In 1887, through Henry Morton Stanley, Tippu Tip became governor of the Stanley Falls district in King Leopold II’s Congo Free State. A major slave trader was given an official position in a colonial administration that claimed to oppose slavery. So when the British abolished slavery in their territories, he went on to supply King Leopold of Belgium with 'labour' for his mines and plantations. Tip knew the interior if Africa so well, He apparently helped European explorers like David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley to map out the interior of Africa. This was consequential during the Scramble for Africa, because then they had a map of Africa to use during the divison

For most of modern history, men at war or in far off lands always carried a picture of their beloved

“The defendant did not attend the hearing nor call evidence in support of their case.”⁠ Interesting...

Sifuna and Kang'ata on paper seem like such a dream pairing. Ideologically, though, they are quite different. If they ever became president and deputy, they would need a concrete priority plan on nation building. If you read Kangata's articles, there is an emphasis on capital accumulation, productivity, manufacturing and building large Kenyan corporations capable of competing globally. Very Kibaki-esque. He also has rather socially conservative views. Sifuna, on the other hand, emphasis is on constitutionalism, the rule of law, accountability, reducing government wastage and relieving the economic burden on ordinary citizens. If you listen closely, infrastructure and economic development mean little if citizens cannot enjoy their constitutional rights, afford basic necessities or access functioning public services. Like a young James Orengo. Kang’ata seems to be more interested in how the country creates wealth. Sifuna is more interested in how the state wields its power, manages public resources and serves its citizens. I think both men mean well for the country, but those differences become important when you move from political philosophy to actual governance. They have a priority problem. A nation needs both the capacity to create wealth and institutions that prevent that wealth from being captured by a few. Agreeing on what kind of Kenya you want is the easy part. The kizungumkuti is agreeing on what must be sacrificed, funded or postponed to build it.

There are people with half your skill but 10 times your confidence somehow bullshitting through life succesfully

I love that they turned their anger to actual political nous and organisation

Boundaries are the quiet refusal to let empathy turn into erasure. You can understand a person and still protect your life