Africa
Mario Reading reviews four first-rate first novels
It has become something of a truism among writers’ groups and in articles offering advice on how best to secure…
A better way to be charitable: just give money
Seven years ago I wrote here about a site called Kiva.org. I had met the co-founder of this charity when…
Welcome to Italy: this is what a real immigration crisis looks like
More than 50,000 boat people have arrived already this year, with many more expected
The Shrewsbury School Hunt very nearly killed me
Laikipia, Kenya Out cross-country running on the farm in Kenya recently, I came face-to-face with a gang of bull…
Eritrean migrants face many dangers. Are we one of them?
A few weeks ago someone very dear to me passed on a question about The Spectator, asked them by a…
A review of three reassuringly unoriginal new travel programmes fronted by comedians
Who says British television lacks imagination? You might have thought, for example, that every possible combination of comedian and travel…
Things fall apart in Denis Johnson’s latest novel of madness and anarchy in Sierra Leone
‘I’ve come back because I love the mess. Anarchy. Madness. Things falling apart.’ The lines belong to Roland Nair, one…
Alexandra’s Fuller’s parents are the stars even when their daughter is divorcing, in this sequel to the bestselling Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight
‘Double ouzo, hold the Coke,’ Mum ordered at the Mkushi Country Club bar, during spanikopita night. ‘My daughter’s a lesbian.’…
Having oozed optimism for a decade, I am a bit down about the Hopeful Continent
Juba I discovered a 1954 Morris Minor parked outside the Catholic mission station in Mopoi, South Sudan. The car had…
Do I really care about Ebola? Do you? Does Oxfam?
It’s strange how quickly we all forgot about Ebola. Speak for yourself, you might say — and I will. Until…
It’s all kicking off in the Islamic world. Nothing at all to do with Islam, of course
They have been burning churches and murdering Christians again in Niger. You’d think that they’d have more immediately pressing concerns…
I want to do for field rations what Jamie Oliver did for school dinners
Hell’s Kitchen My ambition to open a fish and chip shop in Mogadishu has not happened yet, though I remain…
If you want a real safari, head to Botswana
As a boy camping with my father on safaris deep in the African bush, there were no tents involved; we…
I cannot imagine living in a world without lions
Laikipia We are privileged to live with lions on the farm. We hear them most nights. We encounter them frequently.…
Actually, Bob, they do know it’s Christmas (we checked)
Yeah, Bob, they know The answer to the rhetorical question posed by the Band Aid single, ‘Do they know it’s…
Panic about Ebola in Africa – not here
Got Ebola yet? Early symptoms are very difficult to distinguish from either winter flu or, indeed, a particularly bad hangover.…
The US military should be winning wars, not fighting Ebola
In the case of America, the answer is now practically everything – except perhaps winning wars
What are the Chinese up to in Africa?
Few subjects generate as much angst, or puzzlement, among Western policymakers in Africa as China’s presence on the continent. In…
How green policies hurt the poor
How green policies hit the poorest hardest
Before you talk about 'Lessons from Rwanda', read this
Twenty years ago, I was a witness to the Rwandan genocide. Those who speak of lessons from it are deluded
Why I won’t let my children learn French
Why I won’t let my children be taught French
A secret from my African childhood has become a deeper mystery
About 55 years ago, when I was about ten, my younger brother Roger and I discovered a slave pit in…
Britain has many major problems - racism isn't one of them
Britain has less prejudice than the countries where I’ve lived before – and more people taking offence
I don't love money, but I love the risks it makes me take
On the flight into Kinshasa, I sat next to an elderly Englishman who was pallid with fear. He revealed that…
There's a global morality gap — and it's getting wider
The world can now be divided between post- and pre-enlightened countries
