Jayanoris

I have spent the better part of my adult life reading other people’s accounts of who we are and how we got here. Textbooks written in London lecture us about “civilising missions.” IMF reports dress up economic mugging as “structural adjustment.” And, closer to home, our own elites recycle the same tired platitudes about development while ferrying their loot to offshore banks faster than you can say Vision 2030.

Enough.

Today I am launching TrueAfricanHistory.com which is a home for the inconvenient, un-white-washed, occasionally uncomfortable truths about this continent we call ours. If that sounds dramatic, good. Africa has enjoyed four centuries of other people’s narratives; the least we can do is interrupt the broadcast.

Why bother? Because the dragon has three heads—and every head tells lies

If you’ve read my rants on this very blog—about the three-headed dragon of Kenyan corruption, the deep state, and the global empire—you already know my thesis: power protects itself by bending language. It edits archives, misquotes speeches, buries testimonies, and then slaps a respectable ISBN on the silence. The result? Textbook heroes who never bled, freedom fighters who somehow forgot to fight, and colonial officers recast as kindly old uncles who only wanted to teach us how to farm.

True African History is my counter-punch. It is an archive-in-progress, a digital trench where primary sources, forgotten memoirs, declassified cables, and oral testimonies sit cheek-by-jowl with fresh analysis. No gatekeepers. No polite detours. And certainly no obligatory chapter praising “Africa’s partnership with [insert latest geopolitical suitor].”

What you can expect (and what you definitely won’t)

• Long-form essays that read like the love-child of Chinua Achebe and John le Carré—rich, literary, but armed with footnotes sharp enough to draw blood.
• Scanned letters, diary entries, and official telegrams—because nothing kills propaganda faster than the perpetrator’s own handwriting.
• Interactive timelines and maps (eventually) charting how a treaty signed in Berlin in 1884 still decides whether your passport queues on the Other Nationals line in Paris.
• Audio conversations with archivists and elders (eventually) who refuse to die with their stories locked inside them.
• Zero ads, zero clickbait, and zero tolerance for the tired “Africa-is-rising” cheerleading that papers over structural plunder with glossy GDP charts.

You will not find lifestyle fluff, listicles on “Top Ten Safari Destinations,” or sponsored content about the latest pyramid scheme “saving the village.” There are other corners of the internet for that.

How this ties back to everything I’ve written here

If this site is the kitchen where I rant, experiment, burn a few ideas, and occasionally serve half-baked bread, True African History is the dining hall where the real feast happens—course after meticulously sourced course. The tone remains unapologetic: blunt, a little irreverent, always impatient with mediocrity. But the stakes are higher. We’re not just venting about local politics; we’re erecting a public memory vault sturdy enough to outlive us.

What I need from you (yes, you)

1. Read, then argue back. Bad history collapses under cross-examination; good history gets stronger. Leave comments, send corrections, challenge my sources. Iron sharpens iron.
2. Share the pieces that punch you in the gut. Algorithms suppress what does not flatter power. Word-of-mouth is our cavalry.
3. Send me leads. Do you have a great-grandfather’s field diary? A cassette tape of 1970s underground radio? An unpublished dissertation gathering dust because it refuses to toe the orthodox line? Bring it.

A final, uncomfortable question

What happens if we do nothing? If we leave the telling of African history to the same trans-Atlantic echo chamber that sold us empty modernity in exchange for rubber, gold, and souls? Spoiler: our children will inherit a continent rich in resources and poor in self-respect—forever stuck auditioning for a supporting role in someone else’s epic.

I refuse that future. True African History is my refusal in HTML form. Join me, or at least watch us make trouble.

See you on the other side.

The recent protests against the plans of the government of Kenya were a sight to behold. It seems that finally the youth of Kenya are becoming politically active in a way that is far greater than at the time of my youth. This is great to see.

We all know that the government of Kenya is corrupt and probably criminal and that knowingly or unknowingly it makes life in Kenya a constant struggle, but the spark for these protests and demonstrations was the Finance Bill 2024 that is being forced down the throats of Kenyans and which will bring further pain when it comes to effect. It was interesting and inspiring to see young people from everywhere burst onto the streets to demand better from their government. We never did that during my day, sigh.

Anyway, the thing that I want to talk about in this post is to point out that the dragon that we are fighting has at least three heads and may have more. When you fight a dragon that has more than one head, you must take care to vanquish all heads so that you can be assured of final success.

I want to point this out because it appears to me that a large part of the demonstrators want to fight the system using the system. For example, they are talking about going the legal route of recalling members of parliament so as to (legitimately) send a message to the leaders that they must act and be seen to act in the interests of Kenya and Kenyans. This is probably a good move. Kenyan MPs have never been held to account for any of the things that they have done to us over the years and decades.

However, Kenyan MPs are just part of a large system which has absolutely n intention of relenting in whatever it is that they are doing to us and for themselves. Kenyan MPs, representative of visible Kenyan political leaders and other authorities, are but one head of this dragon. This head must be devastated and defeated but only targetting it is a mistake.

One other head is the “system” wich some call the “deep state”. The plain truth is that the entire system in Kenya consipres against the average Kenyan. This is why there is no real opposition to the government from other leaders. This is why Kenyan politicians frequently “change sides” and this does not affect in any way the realities on the ground in Kenya. There is a system that exists and that benefits from the status quo. This is the second head.

The third head is the prevailing global system. I don’t know if you want to call it the global American empire or neocolonialism or something else, but there is a dark power that ensures that countries like Kenya never rise beyond a certain point. Ask yourself: why do people still die of hunger (HUNGER!) in Kenya every year despite billions in “aid” from global bodies and so-called developed nations? It doesn’t make sense. And this is just one example of how this third head manifests itself. You could very well argue that this third head might be the power that is at least partly behind the other two heads.

Perhaps this dragon has other heads? I do not know.

But as we fight (and we must fight), we need to be aware that all of the dragon’s known heads are aligned and actively work together. Any moves made against on of them will be countered by the others. I don’t know how to fight this dragon and win, but this must be taken into account.

Look at this tweet:

“Africa has failed. Should be fully recolonised and used as a giant Australia-style deportation destination.”

Has Africa failed?  Probably, yes.  Should it be recolonized and used as an Australian-style settler colony, or worse, dumping ground?  Eh?  Should it?

Consider this other tweet, speaking about one possible outcome of the trouble in Ethiopia:

“It would end up being divided between Turkey Israel and Iran with Israel moving into a syncretism with Islam that is natural to it (Islam is a variety of Judaism)….”

This tweet is part of a conversation that concludes “Africa is full of dumb people who like fighting”.  Imagine that!

The fact of the matter is that since the second world war, Africa has enjoyed a prolonged period of time in which it has been free of “direct” colonisation by anybody – probably because of the so-called Pax Americana.  There are many reasons to believe that this is coming to an end.  Soon, Africa might be facing way more than just indirect neo-colonialism.  If I may be so bold as to make a prediction: the old colonial powers, and maybe even some new ones will be back (to Africa) before the year 2050.  From the above tweets you can tell that some are already thinking along those lines.

And what is Africa doing about it?  You know what immediately popped into my mind when I typed that? “Don’t say Africa, name the country!”  There is, of course, nothing like a collective African will, it is every African country for itself.  And probably all are failed countries, in my view.  This is to mean that “Africa” is doing absolutely nothing about what’s coming.  Instead of lamenting our 400 years of humiliation (think Chinese century of humiliation), we are leaving the door open to more humiliation, shame, and slavery.

Worse, we are led by an elite that is blinded by greed and their proximity to power and who are knowingly or unknowingly doing the very things that make it easy for us to be taken advantage of again.  One might even say that our elites are facilitating and have always facilitated our recolonisation.

What can be done about this?