We begin the 2022 World Cup with a unique analysis of the tournament organized by FIFA, the only corrupt institution the world loves.
Author: Edwin Okong'o
Edwin Okong’o is not your typical, stereotypical African. He is a storyteller by any medium necessary™. Okong'o is an award-winning journalist, humorist, satirist and memoirist. He received his master’s degree from the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied radio, newspaper, magazine, and online multimedia storytelling and editing. Okong’o’s journalistic work, provocative commentaries, and stand-up comedy performances have appeared in numerous media across the world. He is the winner of several honors, including a Webby Award for his short documentary, "Kenya: Sweet Home, Obama", which he made for the PBS program, Frontline.
Episode 108: Why some Africans are so excited about U.K. PM Rishi Sunak
When it emerged that Rishi Sunak, the first non-white Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, traces part of his ancestry to East Africa, some people in the region became very excited. The excitement wasn’t quite to the level it was when Barack Obama became President of the United States, but people were equally proud. Why?
Episode 107: How to circumvent Uganda’s draconian social media law
President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled Uganda since 1986, probably thinks banning free speech will allow him to stay in power for another 40 years. We think Ugandans should just send their seditious thoughts to their allies outside the country and we’ll share them on social media.
And speaking of Twitter, it looks like even Museveni’s son, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, is tired of waiting for his father to relinquish power. Now, the bored prince recently got in trouble for sending a tweet threatening an unprovoked attack on Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. His father punished him with a promotion.
Episode 106: Could prayers and homophobia be the key to ending poverty in Africa?
We don’t think so, but across Africa, leaders who are short of ideas are preying on the gullibility of the continent’s staunchly religious people. From prayer breakfasts to government bans of anything that even remotely resembles homosexuality in the media, religious myths have taken precedence over common sense.
Episode 105: Queen Elizabeth’s empire did what?
Hana Njau-Okolo, a Kenyan-Tanzanian writer and poet based in Atlanta, Georgia, talks about how a simple conversation with a friend converted her from being an admirer of Queen Elizabeth II to asking tough questions about the departed monarch’s legacy.
Njau-Okolo’s work has been published in the African Roar, an anthology series out of South Africa. Her poem, Kilimanjaro, appeared in Silver Birch Press, a publisher based in California, and she is working on her memoir. She works as a legal assistant with a top law firm in Atlanta, where she is responsible for coordinating the firm’s community service programs.
Njau-Okolo graduated from City University of New York with a BA in Communications and a minor in French. From 1976 to 1981, she attended Kenya High School, a prestigious institution that was at one time known as European Girls Secondary School, or as her father used to call it, the Queen Elizabeth School for Girls.
Episode 104: Sleepless in Ghana
Kwesi Wilson returns to the show to talk about the proliferation of evangelical churches in his country of birth, Ghana, and how their around-the-clock “speaking in tongues” ruined what was supposed to be his summer of recuperation and rejuvenation. Kwesi is a social commentator, news junkie, and professor of communication, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Most recently, he launched a podcast called Telling Tall Stories.
Episode 103: Which of the two goons will be Kenya’s president?
On Aug. 9, two of the wealthy goons suspected of colluding to perpetrate the worst post-election violence Kenya has ever seen went against each other for the right to continue the economic molestation of the country. Which one will prevail?
Episode 102: Are Africans too soft when denouncing racism against us?
Aurelio De Lourentiis, the president of Napoli, said recently that the Italian football club will no longer hire Africans who won’t agree not to play in the African Cup of Nations. Although, prominent Africans have spoken against the Italian, none has responded with the anger this blatant racism warrants. Are we being too soft?
Episode 101: Does an African need a university degree to be a good leader?
Kenya goes to the polls on Tuesday Aug. 9. From the presidential contenders all the way down, the pool (or cesspool) of candidates is filled with people with questionable morals. One of them, a Nairobi gubernatorial candidate named Johnson Sakaja, has been under fire for failing to prove that he has a university degree, as required by law. Does an African really need a university degree in western education to be a good leader?
Episode 100: Reflections on a century of Africa Straight Talk episodes
When we started this podcast, it was difficult to imagine us coming this far–from 40 downloads of our first episode, to thousands. That’s all thanks to our loyal listeners, who have shown that there is a need for African stories and perspectives in this podcasting space. Episode 100 is a look back the motivation behind the founding of Africa Straight Talk, our present challenges, and what we think the future holds.
Africa Straight Talk 
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