From The Brooklyn Rail, Nicholas Jahr on the strange case of Charles Taylor. “I only want a little authenticity!”: A lost classic of African literature — chaotic, dreamlike, and funny — finally gets its due. Secessionist winds blow on Kenya's coast: Regional outfit gains popularity as it fights to carve out a new state along Africa's resource-rich coast. From LRB, what went wrong in Mali? Bruce Whitehouse wants to know (and more). The Nigerian Connection: Inke Arns on NSK passports as escape and entry vehicles. Lions on the Move: Susan Lund and Arend van Wamelen on 10 things you don't know about Africa's booming economy. Ian Birrell on how our image of Africa is hopelessly obsolete. He’s now an evangelical minister, but in his former life Liberia’s Joshua Blahyi was a warlord and cannibal who went by the name General Butt Naked — and he has a story to tell. Gertrude Chelagat Chelimo on international dimensions in the Western Sahara conflict (and more on Africa’s last colony). Hipstamatic Revolution: Avoiding the simplistic narratives of Afro-pessimism and Afro-optimism, photographers use photo-apps to represent everyday Africa.
