I have never been one for the “save the rhino” campaign. Not that I have anything against the beasts, they are majestic and an integral part of wildlife across the continent. I will just not donate much money or any time to the cause. Does that make me a bad person. To some, yes. But […]
Tiffany Kagure Mugo
Tiffany Kagure Mugo is the host of the Basically Life podcast and author of Touch: Sex, Sexuality and Sensuality and Quirky Quick Guide to Having Great Sex
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
#FeesMustFall: You cannot ask women to be vocal in public and silent in private
There are many reactions to what is happening right now. There are feelings of annoyance, anger, feelings of injustice and indifference. The selection is an emotional buffet. But one thing no one can deny is that this is the stuff of legends. Many will remember, or make up, where they were during the epic #FeesMustFall […]
Posted inGender violence
#ZumaPainting – rape in art is getting old, fast
I love art. Although I cannot say I am the greatest connoisseur in the world, I do love standing in an art gallery, wine in hand mumbling something about this being reminiscent of an early Rembrandt. I enjoy going to a photo exhibition and speaking in a roundabout way about the use of light or […]
Posted inGender violence
Talk dirty to me, talk about consent
“Please can I take this off you …?” Things get hot and heavy and you whisper this in a manner so low it is barely audible. The night just gets better from there. That was an instant of asking for consent. There are so many ways of asking for consent. I have friends who go […]
Posted inGender violence, Media
Stick to just selling the shoes, Marie Claire
Men in heels illicit two emotions, either absolute jealousy at how amazing their legs look or comic relief. Very rarely will men in a pair of patents ever make you stop and think, “You know what, gender-based violence is the worst.” Not often will it make someone think, “As a man, do I engage in […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
#RachelDolezal, I cannot escape being black
We live in a world where we are told we can be whatever we want — a doctor, lawyer, astronaut. And black? Recently the Washington branch president of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People was “outed” as being white after posing as black for more than a decade. Black twitter was on […]
Posted inEquality
Save Africa from your ‘humanity’
The world is a mess. From the Accra floods to Ebola. From the missing planes to #Ferguson. From terrorism to reverse terrorism (aka counter-terrorism). To the fact that none of us can trust Fifa anymore. Despite the fact that the world has its own problems the focus is always here. Granted we have more than […]
Posted inLifestyle
Give your mom a call…
Dear Mom, This little note of thanks is long overdue. There have been many moments to write it. I probably should have written it on January 25 1988 after deciding the only way to enter this world was through you, not around you. Without even a courteous “excuse me” or a civil “I am terribly […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
‘Africa not ready for gay rights’
“Homosexuals are a virus.” Bar this being poor work etiquette this inflammatory language used by an African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHR) member speaks to how we sometimes engage with certain rights at international level — namely we do not. On April 25 this year the Coalition of African Lesbians was granted observer […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Afrophobia, a case of self-mutilation
“I sang struggle songs with the South Africans when they were in Kenya hiding from the government.” Granted my uncle later admitted that it was after a few rounds at a local watering hole and he might not have gotten all the words correct but the sentiment was there. This is a fuzzy snapshot of […]
Posted inEquality, Lifestyle
Nice to meet you, I’m on my period
There are many things that will make you stop and rethink who you follow on Twitter. Ignorance, bigotry, pictures of food for no particular reason, retweets of cats wearing hats or Vines of horses dancing to Kiswahili Christian music. Another thing is a soiled sanitary pad. One recently popped up on my timeline and my […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Memory and moving forward: #RhodesMustFall is not a shitty argument
If you do not like something, throw poop at it. This was the thinking of some protestors who called for the removal of the Rhodes statue from the University of Cape Town campus citing that the continued presence of the statue was an ode to the white dominance of the past. The calls for the […]