Friends of African Village Libraries (I post regularly here)- Sortie d’animation avec la Bibliothèque Mobile Pénélope à l’école B de Houndé
- Ghana librarians do a group reading session
- Organisation d’une séance de mots croisés et d’une séance de dessin à la bibliothèque de Karaba
- Appréciations des livres CMH par professeurs du CEG de Maro
- Animation d’une séance de lecture guidée à la bibliothèque de Karaba
- Animation de l’animateur de ABVBF à la bibliothèque de Béréba, Burkina Faso
- Encouragement des élèves de l’école Sainte Thérèse de Houndé à la lecture
- Organisation d’une séance de lecture à voix haute à la bibliothèque de Koho
- Visite du coordonnateur et de l’animateur de ABVBF à la bibliothèque Lumière pour enfants à Houndé
- Une sortie d’animation de la BMP à l’école E de Houndé
Author Archives: mkevane
Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad”
Whitehead’s novel is good. The central device of the “real” underground railroad is imaginative and deftly deployed. The horrors of slavery, the perversity of “benign” slavery, the tenuous freedoms of Indiana, and the interior life of the main character, Cora, … Continue reading
Posted in Book and film reviews
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Salient stories like these from the University of Oregon are worrisome to all faculty, whose job is “speech”
As a university professor, I know that much of my job involves engaging in speech. I do that “live” in front of students, I do it on Youtube recordings, I do it on a blog, I do it in academic … Continue reading
Posted in Being a teacher, Santa Clara University, United States
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Ha Jin’s Waiting
At a colleague’s Christmas party I had met the Stanford University economic historian Avner Grief, and he chatted with me for a long time about the role of clans in China and how that kin culture led to different institutional … Continue reading
Posted in Book and film reviews
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Books read in 2016, ranked by “Ones I would encourage you to read first”
Looks like I read 20 novels in 2016 (though I will probably read a couple more over break). Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend Michael Faber’s The Book of Strange New Things Stephen Jarvis’s Death and Mr. Pickwick Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The … Continue reading
Posted in Burkina Faso
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Every person claiming to be an American should know the basics of My Lai
Audaciously and on his own initiative, the pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson Jr., swooped down and landed the copter. “Mr. Thompson was just beside himself,” Mr. Colburn recalled in an interview in 2010 for the PBS program “The American … Continue reading
Posted in United States
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Profile of Preet Bharara should give Democrats some pause
I just don’t follow U.S. politics close enough to be reasonably sure about many things. Last night I was reading this profile of Preet Bharara, from the May 2016 The New Yorker. The piece was presumably in part anticipating that … Continue reading
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From Air France music, Postaal
The sample is from “Golden” by Jill Scott.
Posted in Music
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Non-citizens voting? Wonderful straightforward analysis from Ansolabehere, Luks, and Schaffner
Stepping back from the immediate question of whether the CCES in fact shows a low rate of voting among non-citizens, our analysis carries a much broader lesson and caution about the analysis of big databases to study low frequency characteristics … Continue reading
Posted in R statistics
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Le Burkina post-transition from Africa Research Institute
Good short analysis of the political and economic situation in Burkina Faso. I disagree with the last point made though, that economic policy success depends on “finding the resources.” I think that an engaged president could do much more to … Continue reading
Posted in Burkina Faso
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How did I come to read about Argalus and Parthenia?
Because I am reading Baroque Times in Old Mexico, and Argalus and Parthenia is one of those poems that people read back in the 1600s! And I wondered what it was about. And then I learn that Francis Quarles is … Continue reading
Posted in Being a teacher, Book and film reviews
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Worrisome perspective on security situation in Mali
The overall objective sought by the terrorists is to provoke the withdrawal of the operation Barkhane troupes. Indeed, for the main cities of northern Mali, these troupes constitute the only credible protection. The end of Barkhane would cause a collapse … Continue reading
Posted in Burkina Faso
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Arrival, Three Body Problem and Dark Forest
The refuge from a depressing present (Roch Marc Christian Kaboré since winning the election last year has done almost nothing, and Burkina Faso’s prospects for a vibrant economy and polity seem to fade with each passing week ) is in … Continue reading
Posted in Book and film reviews
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Learn rhumba guitar and lingala at the same time!
Posted in Burkina Faso, Music
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Ricci Shryock with daily glimpses of life, and death, in West Africa
Posted in Development thinking
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Oliver Mutukudzi’s song Todii
Oliver Mutukudzi’s song Todii is one of the saddest but most beautiful songs to emerge out of the Southern African music scene. Worth a listen; here he is at Tiny Desk concert at NPR performing a quiet acoustic version. When … Continue reading
Posted in Development thinking, Music
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Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga remains a great novel!
I have read Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga three times now, and on each reading the novel seems to get better! The writing is really very good, and every few pages the narrator, Tambudzai, offers some clear and sharp insight … Continue reading
Posted in Book and film reviews
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Thoughtful interview on Fed policy
Our whole conference has been about anomalies. Some of those anomalies are pretty fundamental. Why has G.D.P. growth been slow? Why has the labor force participation rate come down so much? Why haven’t we hit 2 percent inflation more quickly? … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching macroeconomics
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Recent leisure reading: Marlon James A Brief History of Seven Killings
Marlon James A Brief History of Seven Killings I finally got around to reading this and am almost over. It is a hard book to read. Multiple narration, Jamaican patois (with a lot of vocabulary that has to be inferred … Continue reading
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Land tenure security and investment in African agriculture: Thoughts on Fenske
I assigned James Fenske’s excellent survey, meta-analysis, and re-analysis for my African Economic Development class. In some ways, the lesson to draw is how little can be generalized. There are many reasons for why few studies find a strong positive … Continue reading
Posted in Development thinking
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The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens
My Dad gave this to me to read after he had finished. A good, serviceable, honest thriller. Very earnest in some ways, but what can you expect from the snowy plains of Minnesota. I enjoyed it, even as I longed … Continue reading
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Michael Kevane 