As it appeared in the BusinessDay of August 25, 2009 Sometime last year Chris Carrol, a National Geographic writer, wrote a report about what he saw while researching what happens to e-waste from the developed world. It goes roughly like this: A random recycler in the United States of America sells used computers to brokers who have connections in developing [...]

As it appeared in the BusinessDay of August 18, 2009 Anthropologist Nancy Sheper-Hughes is well-known around the world for her research into the illegal trafficking of human organs. You probably know of cases of wealthy Americans who travel to India and China for medical procedures, as part of what is now referred to as medical tourism; update that knowledge to [...]

United States’ Secretary of States Hillary Clinton flew into Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, last Tuesday night, August 11th, to spend nearly three days in her 11-day, seven-country tour of the African continent. As might be expected, the Nigerian blogosphere was quite active with commentary regarding the details and implications of Clinton’s visit. While Nigerian journalists and bloggers have disagreed [...]

As it appeared in the BusinessDay of August 11, 2009 Hernando de Soto’s major contribution to development studies and practice is the idea that there is so much capital locked away in the backyard of developing countries, and that only a few things need to be done to unlock the capital and make it work. His book, The Mystery of [...]

As it appeared in the BusinessDay of August 4, 2009 In Lagos sometime last year, I was introduced to someone as an anthropologist, and he said – I suppose as a compliment – that he was happy that there are people willing to help preserve our culture. To his credit, he knew about anthropology – in the most general sense, [...]

Uduak, of the Nollyarts blog and co-producer of the child witches’ documentary – Edikan – shares her thoughts on the coverage of the Akwa Ibom Child witch phenomenon in the Nigerian blogosphere. Say you’re one of them is a collection of short stories written by Father Uwem Akpan It won this year’s commonwealth writer’s prize. When I first saw the [...]

As it appeared in the BusinessDay of July 28, 2009 Sometime last year, at the urging of a friend, I downloaded and listened to a podcast from the American libertarian Cato institute. The Cato Institute invited a panel of speakers to discuss the state in Africa. I was almost screaming as I listened to the suggestion of one of the [...]