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COMMENT | IAN BURUMA |  Compared to other Western democracies, the United States is still a profoundly religious country. Around 24% of Americans identify as evangelical Christians. Five US Supreme Court justices are conservative Catholics (the only other conservative on the bench, Neil Gorsuch, was raised and educated as a Catholic but is …

COMMENT | Gertrude Kamya Othieno |  Following the release of the Amanya Mushega-led Education Policy Review Commission (EPRC) Report in February 2025, Uganda’s Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Museveni, hailed the recommendations as “game-changing”. The report, commissioned in 2021, proposes key reforms in education governance, language policy, vocational training, and assessment …

  How Donald Trump and Elon Musk are tearing America’s most insidious instrument of domination THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | The “reforms” to government spending by President Donald Trump and his newfound friend, Elon Musk, are the logical conclusion of the way “democracy” in America has evolved. America has, anyway, …

What happens when a continent is torn apart by a hundred years of war, while another flourishes with trade, innovation, and unity? COMMENT | Gertrude Kamya Othieno | The medieval era offers a stark contrast between Europe, struggling with feudal conflicts and the devastating Hundred Years’ War, and Africa, where empires like …

After watching business take over the US government, the only alternative is to abandon any pretense of democracy COMMENT | KATHRINA PISTOR | For decades, we have been told that government-operated businesses are bad for the economy. A staple of the “Washington Consensus” that emerged in the 1980s was that “private …

COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama |Dear reader, as we say in Ugandan speak, let us be guided. Today’s class will revisit the use of UPPER CASE (or CAPITAL LETTERS as my teachers taught) in online communication. The great internet code deems typing in CAPITAL LETTERS offensive, equivalent to YELLING. Typography and …

  COMMENT | ANGELA HUYUE ZHANG |  In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite into orbit, sparking fears in the United States that, unless it took radical action to accelerate innovation, its Cold War adversary would leave it in the technological dust. Now, the Chinese startup …

This war is not just a humanitarian catastrophe; it is a direct challenge to Africa’s ability to control its own destiny COMMENT | MIKE OMUODO | A phone vibration drew my attention to an incoming message – a friend had sent a message with an attachment and a note reading, “This …

  COMMENT | Dean Hack &  Chetan Jeeva |The world is rewriting its rulebook. It’s no longer just about what you produce but how you produce it. For resource-rich regions like Africa, the implications are profound: the value of its vast reserves of critical minerals is now tied not only …

Ancient philosopher Plato may have an answer to why only those skilled in statecraft should rule the unskilled COMMENT | MATTHEW DUNCOMBE | The Republic, the best-known work of ancient Greek philosopher Plato, authored around 375BC, has shaped western political thought. Greece is now known as the “cradle of democracy”. Not …