Rob Crilly - African Safari: July 2009 Archives

NAIROBI LETTER: THE POLICEMAN tucked his AK-47 under his arm and swaggered out of the dark towards the door of my car. As he reached my open window though, it became clear that his lurching walk was not so much......more

Well that's blown it. There'll only be one book on Africa that anyone buys this year, Jane Bussmann's comedy romp through Uganda in pursuit of the Lord's Resistance Army and John Prendergast. Now I'm all for irreverent humour and bad......more

As I pack up ready to leave Nairobi, these are the things I'll remember fondly"How are you?" - it only takes a few seconds, but how much nicer to preface each encounter with a friend or stranger with a short......more

So the second draft is done. There is more editing ahead, and the afterword will probably be redone to take account of ongoing developments in Darfur. But the back is broken, the end is in sight etc.My publisher has read......more

Al Shabaab is a nasty, thuggish organisation that started as a protection unit for visiting al Qaeda operatives and has today morphed into a network of clan-based Islamist militias, which controls a good chunk of southern, central Somalia. It has......more

  Can't believe no-one brought this little fundraising gimmick to my attention earlier. The manufacturers have the following helpful tip for getting your message across with this tasteful thongPanty-minimalists love our casual thong that covers sweet spots without covering your assets;......more

I have a Moleskine notebook. I know this because I found it in my notebook drawer as I cleared it out the other day. It was lying next to all my other notebooks. Unlike my other notebooks - filled with......more

Well this is awkward, isn't it? You may remember that last year Somali pirates captured a ship loaded with 33 T-72 tanks, which the Kenyan government went to great lengths to deny were destined for its friends in south Sudan......more

Been busy with other things so have missed a few gems over the past few weeks, so I'll be catching up on a few oldies starting with this in the Sudan Tribune... The chairman of Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur dismissed......more

Over at The Promise of Engagement my good friend Bec Hamilton, who is researching a book on Darfur, kicks off a debate on the future of advocacy...Alex de Waal and Nick Kristof come from relatively different ends of the Darfur......more

So you may remember that a few weeks ago I wondered what had prompted three NGOs - smeared, criminalised, intimidated  - expelled from Darfur to consider returning. With no guarantees that the same thing wouldn't happen all over again once......more

I'm generally in favour of celebrities getting involved in awareness raising campaigns for Africa's miserable assortment of wars. And, while destroying children's toys for Darfur appeared to show a slight misunderstanding of the nature of kids' playthings in this part......more

 It's almost five years since I arrived to live and work in Kenya. Gradually the feelings of excitement and adventure have given way to a sense of deja vu as the same stories come around again and again. Every year......more