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.
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 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.
Episode 99: ‘Slaves for Peanuts’ reveals the dirty history behind one of the world’s most delicious snacks
We speak with Jori Lewis about her new book, Slaves for Peanuts, a story about the role the crop played in slavery and colonization of Africa. Lewis is an award–winning African American journalist who writes about agriculture and the environment. Her reports have appeared on PRI’s The World and in Discover Magazine, Pacific Standard, and the Virginia Quarterly Review. She is also a contributing editor of Adi, a literary magazine about global politics. In 2018, Lewis received the prestigious Whiting Grant for Creative Nonfiction. She splits her time between Illinois and Senegal, where she joined us from for this episode.
Episode 97: Can journalism change Africa?
Journalists in many parts of the world have changed policies and countries. Is it possible to have the same in Africa?
Episode 96: ‘Same forest, different monkeys’ in 2022 Kenyan elections
Kenyan lawyer, Cindano wa Gakuru, talks about the “different monkeys” fighting it out in the “same forest” that is the Kenyan elections, which are scheduled for August 9. Wa Gakuru is an attorney who specializes in various areas of law, including land, the environment, intellectual property, and natural resource management. He is involved in a number of initiatives in science and technology, and national agricultural policies.
Africa Straight Talk 
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