Journalist I Writer I Futurist I Curator THE WALL OF GREAT AFRICANS (WoGA) https://xitter.cf/t.co/yD7eQNybta •Podcaster at @Bad_Natives_Pod
Tororo & Nairobi
Joined May 2009
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This week I will be checking out the work of the wonderful Letaru Dralega, the Ugandan-Jamaican-British multidisciplinary artist, researcher, and social scientist based in Kampala. She is currently featured in the group exhibition “Resounding Rhizomes” at the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute (NCAI), Riviera Mall, in Rosslyn. 1/2
Charles Onyango-Obbo retweeted
Uganda is tapping its nearly $7 billion in reserves to lessen the blow of a plunging shilling, which is the world’s second-worst-performing currency this month after Iraq’s dinar. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Africa's borrowing costs nearly doubled between 2020 and 2024. Average interest rates rose 91%, from 2.7% to 5.1%, as global borrowing became more expensive.
data.one.org/analysis/priced…
Since 1900, the global MALARIA DEATH RATE HAS DECLINED BY 96%. If it were still as high as it was then, around 16 MILLION people would die from malaria every year instead of 610,000.
ourworldindata.org/data-insi…
Across East and Southern Africa, employee theft accounts for over 60% of small business losses. Internal staff acting like cartels collude directly with clients and suppliers to quietly siphon away funds. 1/2
bbc.com/news/articles/cmz98p…
Ranked: Countries With the Most Debt to China. Afrika ni 11 kati ya 19.
visualcapitalist.com/ranked-…
A friend in Gaborone just explained this to me: “President Boko declined the title His Excellency saying he’s the same ‘boy’ they’ve always known who continues to champion human rights - hence to remain with the title Advocate. So all the Presidential Portraits that are put in public places had to be reprinted to remove His Excellency and put Advocate.”
Then killed me with this; “Apparently he had also refused to exit the WhatsApp groups he was in [before he became president] but I think by now he’s been kicked out.”🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Was recently told (though I don’t necessarily agree) that; “Ugandans are hyperventilating about who President Yoweri Museveni, in power for nearly 41 years, prefers as his successor. A surer path is to focus on HOW Museveni thinks about his successor. He prefers someone who he’s confident will be worse than him. That way people will miss him, which is how he sees his legacy. Ugandans must not underestimate the size of Museveni’s narcissism.”
Charles Onyango-Obbo retweeted
The independent bookstore jump is the surprising part. Small shops won by selling something a warehouse cannot: a person who knows what you should read next. That is a lesson for any small retailer competing with a platform.
Good news: reading is up in America, and rising elsewhere too. U.S. print book sales rose nearly 25% over the past decade. Independent bookstores jumped 70% since 2020. 38% of adults read 1–5 books in 2025 and 14% read 20 or more. The global market is growing too about 5% a year, with university-age readers buying at a lifetime high. Barnes & Noble opened 60 new stores last year. E-books and audiobooks more than offset any print decline.
newyorker.com/magazine/2026/…
“We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.”
-Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (spoken at Okonkwo’s farewell feast for his kinsmen)
Pope Leo XIV has named Irish nun Sister Mary Teresa Barron to lead the Vatican’s network of missionary societies, the first time a woman has been appointed to the position.
newsnationnow.com/religion/p…
Barron’s appointment is the third time Pope Leo has nominated a woman to lead a major Vatican office. He previously appointed Maria Montserrat Alvarado to lead the Vatican’s communications department and Sister Alessandra Smerilli to head the Vatican’s social justice office.
This follows Pope Francis’ effort to add more women to leadership positions within the Vatican, as he was the first pope to nominate a woman to head a Vatican office.
Hmmh, why do the Batswana refer to “President Advocate Duma Boko”? If he was an architect he’d be “President Architect Duma Boko”?
Charles Onyango-Obbo retweeted
Shilling touches Shs4,500, weakest in 33 years.
The slide is being driven by panic buying, huge demand from the energy sector and offshore investors attempting to exit Uganda's bond market links.monitor.co.ug/ur0-bb #MonitorUpdates
Olympic and world marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir suspended in doping case. Kenya is two strikes away from having a “Russia problem” with doping. Sad. A great 60-year legacy is being flushed the washroom sink.
cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summe…
A Canadian research team could be on the brink of a giant leap forward for the treatment of HIV, which affects more than 40 million people globally – 65% of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa.
begiant.ca/stories/ideas/hiv…
