Impressions Aboard the Train from Abidjan to Ouagadougou
October 1, 2015 Three hours before the train to Ouagadougou was scheduled to leave, the station in Treichville, in southern Abidjan, the economic capital of Côte d’Ivoire, hummed with more activity than it had seen in days. Across from the crowd control barriers, ticket-holders sipped Nescafé on a concrete ledge, shielding their faces from the
The Sinister Effects of Warmer Water
“At night, it looked like another city,” Isabel tells me as she gestures out her office window toward the sea. “There were hundreds of lights. But now, what do you see?” she asks me. “Nada,” I reply. Isabel Soto Gonzalez runs the daily operations at the marina in Santa Rosalía. She tells me that the
Speech Bubble: A Comic Festival in Algiers
12 Nov 2015 Le Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Alger is held on hallowed ground. Between the massive Martyrs Monument and the Army Museum, the white tent city of booksellers, exhibitions, plenaries and workshops sits above the hills, upon a multi-floor shopping center of the Esplanade de Riadh El Feth. The Martyrs Monument’s distinctive
Muscat to Mji Mkongwe
Unguja ni njema atakaye aje — Zanzibar is good to those who will come, Swahili proverb I approached the passenger side door with my bag slung over my shoulder, dripping with sweat as I waited for the taxi driver to unlock the car. As I stood there, wondering what might be taking so long, I
Coffee, Tea, and the Cultural Sieve
One of the first things I found myself needing after arriving in Muscat was a strong cup of coffee. Fortunately, coffee is somewhat of an Omani national pastime. Drinking coffee together is an integral part of local culture, so much so that the traditional coffee pot, or dallah, has become an unofficial symbol of the
Nothing to Lose: Côte d’Ivoire’s Troubled Campus Politics
As campus events go, it is difficult to imagine anything less controversial than the “Peace Fair” held at Côte d’Ivoire’s largest university one Friday morning last July. Part of a U.S. State Department-backed program intended to temper a politically volatile campus climate, the fair featured Ivoirian artists and singers, a blood-donation stand and booths where
Egypt’s Intellectual Situation
September 17, 2015 Painter Adel El-Siwi leads me through his workspace on the fourth floor of a downtown Cairo apartment building. His hands, cargo shorts, pink T-shirt, and Crocs are splattered with paint. Shelves of art, literature, and philosophy books reach the high ceiling. Across the corridor, massive canvases face the wall like unopened presents. Tubes of
It’s a Small Sea After All: La Paz to Puerto Escondido
No paved roads, no power lines, no fresh water. As we set the main sail and aim north, we travel into one of the most remote areas in North America. From above, this coast looks void of human influence. A typical US coastal square kilometer contains 200 people. On average, only two souls inhabit each
Crime And Climate Change
Until the summer of 2014, La Paz had lived up to its name, which means ‘the peace.’ The coastal city on the Baja peninsula seemed immune from the drug trafficking violence of the mainland, which is estimated to have claimed 120,000 lives since 2006. But on July 31st, that bloodless exemption vanished. On the side
From Beirut: The Origin Story of Arab Comix
August 30, 2015 Under the banner “Picture stories from here and there,” the Beirut collective Samandal publishes local and international comix. For the uninitiated, comix imply countercultural, illustrated tales for adult audiences. Personal, quirky, and rebellious, comix have no boundaries. The underground art spans from word-heavy narratives in ink to wordless sequential illustrations, reminiscent of