Richard Oduor Oduku – Sisi Afrika Magazine

Richard Oduor Oduku is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief at Sisi Afrika Magazine. He is also a Founding Member of Jalada Africa Trust – a Pan-African collective.

He has been published widely in spaces within and outside the continent. He has been published by Jalada Africa, Saraba Africa, Panorama – The Journal of Intelligent Travel, This is Africa (TIA), Brittle Paper, and The Elephant, and Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, among others.

He was shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Awards (2015), the Brunel International African Poetry Prize (2017), Brittle Paper Award for Essays/Think Pieces (2017) and Brittle Paper Anniversary Award (2018), for the Nonfiction piece “An African in London and Other Reflections on African Literatures’.

Art & Culture

Khaligraph Jones Hip Hop Cyphers: Khali Cartel 5 Drops

Khaligraph Jones dropped the Khali Cartel 5, a few days ago, and it has shooketh the internets, trending at No.1 on Youtube in Kenya. Let us go back in time and look at the journey, the growth, and the promise.

Science & Health

Neglected Tropical Diseases in Africa: A Persistent Public Health Challenge

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) represent a group of communicable diseases that disproportionately affect impoverished populations in tropical and subtropical regions. These diseases lead to...

Art & Culture Book Reviews & Literary Criticism

In Praise of Death: An Existentialist Reading of “Smithereens of Death”

In Smithereens of Death, you will meet the illogical and absurd, and the mysterious and incomprehensible, all weaved into a functional mat by humour, and laughter – but it is the laughter of a mad man laughing at his nakedness.

Science & Health

Optima Clinical Launches to Transform Data Management and Biostatistics in Clinical Trials

Founded by renowned and experienced African biostatisticians, Optima Clinical aims to revolutionize data management and biostatistics globally, focusing on clinical trials in low resource settings.

African Cultural Knowledge

“Nyasaye” – God for the Luo People

The Luo did not have a conception of a single supreme being, and that conceptions of God, were in essence, an acknowledgment of the existence spirits with various capacities.

African Cultural Knowledge

Nyadhi” – A Luo Philosophy of Self-love, Self-virtue, Achievement and Honour

When we approach nyadhi philosophically, we find that it relates more to self-love and self-virtue. It is akin to what Aristotle called Philautia (in Nicomachean Ethics and Eudemian Ethics) – “to love yourself” or “regard for one’s own happiness or advantage”. Philautia, understood as self-love, can be positive or negative/ healthy or unhealthy.

Fiction & Poetry

“Nairobi on a Silky Night” by Richard Oduor Oduku

"Wisdom is chilled out and gentle as fuck, cracking new intelligent jokes, not the old ones he rehashes when they are smoking trees. Amanda is laughing, a unique kind of laughter. It is restrained when it starts – a chuckle – then explodes with fullness and freedom, fragrance and youthfulness."

African Cultural Knowledge

What Queen Elizabeth II’s Funeral Can Teach Us About the Value of Cultural Continuity

African people should, always, and as a principle, push back against all forms of cultural erasure by imperialist forces, and invest in strengthening institutions charged with the responsibility of preserving cultural heritage, not only for today, but also for future generations.

Politics & Economy

Debt Cancellation Can Alleviate the Unending Cycle of Debt Distress and Crises in Sub-Saharan Africa

The inability to make timely debt service repayments, due a myriad of internal and external factors, including COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine crisis, have increased concerns about an impending debt crisis in Africa. Debt suspension and debt relief are laudable initiatives, but a radical step towards debt cancellation can free the world’s poorest countries from the unending cycle of unsustainable debt-service payments, abject poverty, and underdevelopment.

Elections LONGREADS

High Cost of Elections is a Threat to Democracy in Africa

African countries cannot sustain the high cost of elections in the face of competing public spending priorities. The dependence on donor support to bridge election budget deficits erode national sovereignties and expose countries to foreign manipulation. With Sub-Saharan African countries holding the most expensive elections in the world, there is an urgent need to rethink the entire democratic process.