Date and Time: Friday 27 February 2015 from 2pm to 4pm
Venue: Rift Valley Institute Office, Seminar Room
Location: Laikipia Road, Kileleshwa
Entrance is by prior registration only.
Register here.
South Sudan: Peace Beyond the Ceasefire
After fifteen months of civil war in South Sudan, regional and international mediators continue to broker talks for a permanent ceasefire and power-sharing arrangement acceptable to both sides. But such a settlement will be just the beginning of a process towards lasting stability in a country where the potential for conflict is rooted in a host of difficult and deep-seated problems. These range from poverty and insecurity, weak national and local political structures, entrenched conflict economies, and inter-ethnic rivalries, to the competing interventions of neighbouring countries.
On 27 February 2015, the Rift Valley Institute Nairobi Forum will host a panel discussion to launch the new book South Sudan: A Slow Liberation, by Eddie Thomas. The event will examine the limitations of the anticipated settlement and discuss opportunities for regional governments and the international community to work together – and with the South Sudanese – for a more enduring peace.
Moderator: Don Bosco Malish, Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa
Panellists: Eddie Thomas, Author; Peter Biar Ajak, Center for Strategic Analyses and Research; Casie Copeland, International Crisis Group
About
We Love Vinyl meet is a growing monthly get together of vinyl record enthusiast in Nairobi. What we do on theses meet ups is spread our vinyl all over the place and ogle it while we listen to great music. We have turntables to play those timeless classics and rediscover great albums and singles and just do what vinyl junkies do…meet share and recognize our passion for music.
The event is held monthly at Soiree Gardens on Kindaruma Rd.
Jeevanjee Gardens | Via Naipolitans
Date: Friday, February 27, 2015
Venue: Jeevanjee Gardens
Time: 6.00 p.m. – 7.30 p.m.
About
Donated to the residents of Nairobi in 1906 by Alibhai Mullah Jeevanjee, this 5 acre recreational park is one of few green spaces gracing Nairobi City. The park has on more than one occasion been faced with extinction when the then Nairobi City Council in collaboration with development partners planned in 1991, and later in 2007, to develop it by constructing in its place a multi- storey parking lot, bus terminus, markets, theatres and shopping malls (Zarina Patel,”revitalising” Jeevanjee’s Gardens). These plans were shelved each time following objections raised by Zarina Patel (Jeevanjee’s grand-daughter), the late Prof. Wangari Maathai’s and the Green Belt Movement, and other activists.
The park features beautiful gardens and trees providing a welcome shade from the tropical sun. It is dotted with artistic benches, and sculptures that add to its appeal. Its location makes it an ideal picnic site for the city residents. On a typical weekday, you will find many people relaxing on the benches or lawns, or just walking around the park.
Come and learn more about the plans that the Nairobi County has for Jeevanjee Gardens, interact with park users and meet some of those who have actively been involved in saving the park.
Date: Sunday, 22 February 2015
Venue: Nairobi National Museum’s Louis Leaky Auditorium
Time: from 4:45 to 7:00 pm.
The Humboldt Forum will be dedicated to the dialogue of the world’s cultures.
The discussion is organised within the framework of an official visit of the German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Frank Walter Steinmeier, who will participate, as well as Professor Dr Hermann Parzinger, the President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, and Professor Dr Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, the President of the Goethe-Institut.
A wider delegation with representatives of the German business and cultural spheres will also be present.
Kenya Museum Society and National Museums of Kenya Present an evening talk by Daniel Chai Chivatsi, BVM, MSc.
Senior Veterinary Pathologist / Researcher and Acting Head, Animal Sciences Institute of Primate Research, Karen
Date and Time: Saturday 28 February 2015, 4 pm
Venue: Nairobi National Museum, Louis Leakey Auditorium
About
The Institute of Primate Research (IPR) is the largest in Africa in terms of capacity to hold and maintain non-human primates used for research. The discovery of basic human reproductive health solutions from cervical cancer to endometriosis can arise from IPR’s research on baboons.
Other highlights of the presentation include the specific contributions of IPR, the importance of bio-medical research in Kenya and IPR’s commitment to animal welfare in research.
Donation:
Ksh 200 Citizen or Student
Ksh 400 KMS member
Ksh 500 Guest
MPESA no: 400800 Account no: 6571570019
Refreshments for sale from 3:15pm; Presentation at 4:00pm
Tickets: 0724 255299, 2339158 or info@kenyamuseumsociety.org
Date: Friday, 13 February 2015
Venue: British Institute in Eastern Africa, Laikipia Road, Kileleshwa
Time: 3.00 pm- 5.00 pm
Entry: by RSVP – seminars@biea.ac.uk
Panelists: Dr. Firoze Manji (Pan-African Baraza), Dr. Christine Sagini (Parliamentary Health Committee)
Moderator: Wangui Kimari (York University)
About
From the Live Aid concerts of the 1980s, and again last December, to Kony2012, large-scale aid media events and philanthropic practices and discourses have proved remarkably persistent features of global North-South relations, despite being subjected to repeated critiques from both ends of the political spectrum. For example, Bob Geldof and his colleagues, unrelenting in their production of “quick fix” mechanisms for Africa, have faced considerable criticism for the recent “Band Aid 30” song recorded and sold to raise money for international efforts to contain the recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa, echoing resounding criticisms of previous, similar initiatives more than two decades ago. His two word “fuck-off” message to recent criticisms illustrate the contradictions and conceit that lie behind these charities, which hark back to their genesis in the philanthropy of industrial, class and merchant Capital during the Victorian era, and appear in some respects to have endured largely unreformed since. Moreover, these aid-as-spectacle events occur concurrently and conflictingly within and alongside the effects of continuing and expanding structural inequalities and neoliberal policies, such as the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) of the 1990s, exploitative trade agreements and mineral extraction, and the militarization of the continent under the imprint of ‘security’ agendas, which emerge from the same global North-South dynamics as the new celebrity endorsed philanthropy. Enter Ebola. The recent announcement—met with relatively little fanfare on the continent—that the US would send troops to help stem the spread of Ebola, was also couched in terms of historical philanthropic practices and discourses that purport to bring “Christmas” goodwill to those in need, but in ways that arguably benefit the donor most, particularly long ailing rock stars, all the while reifying longstanding images of a savage and pathetic Africa.
Engaging with these events, our forum seeks to attend to the following questions: What imperial effects, international capital processes, stereotypes and local agency on the ground do such aid endeavours presuppose, entail, reveal, and disguise? How, and by which measure, ought we to evaluate the effectiveness, “good” or desirability of aid, particularly “celebrity aid”, this new philanthropy, as a mode of international engagement in Africa and beyond? What political opportunities for both would-be donors and recipients does this aid model, or even AID in general, open and foreclose, and at which scales, within which temporal horizons? What, then, is the way forward for “aid” on local, regional and international fronts?
