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Imagining Afghanistan
Quite a number of books have followed in the tradition of Edward Said, critiquing and contesting the manufacturing of narratives. Nivi Manchanda’s “Imagining Afghanistan” The History and Politics of Imperial Knowledge” (2020) provides a deep dive into those narratives of Afghanistan. Chapters of the book explore the use of “tribe” and “tribalism”, the colonial construction […]
Tags: #Afghanistan #Colonial #Colonialism #History #Manufactured consent
God’s Unruly Friends
I discovered “God’s Unruly Friends: Dervish Groups in the Islamic Middle Period 1200-1550” (2006) by Ahmet Karamustafa largely by accident (it was a footnote in another book I had read). The title got me, but it sat on the shelf for a while until I got to it. The book itself is quite short, the […]
Nasser: My Husband
The American University of Cairo published “Nasser: My Husband” (2013) by Tahia Gamal Abdul Nassar. The book was translated from an earlier Arabic version. For anyone interested in the personal life of Nasser, this provides some insight. It comparatively provides little on his political and military experiences – if one is after that information, better […]
Tags: #Egypt #Gamal Abdel Nasser #Nasser
The Silk Roads
In a random bookshop in Kathmandu I came across “The Silk Roads: A New History of the World” (2015) by Peter Frankopan. Having taught Global Political Economy in the past and gone through a number of textbooks (which are largely centered on the Euro-West and its perspectives on global matters) I was hoping this book […]
Tags: #History #Politics #Power #Silk Roads #Trade
Against Decolonization
In 2022, Olufemi Taiwo published “Against Decolonization: Taking African Agency Seriously” in the African Arguments series by Hurst. The book is provocative and makes some valuable contributions. I also find that the book has some faulty arguments of the straw man and red herring types. For example, in defining decolonization the way he does (see […]
Tags: #Against Decolonization #Agency #Colonization #decolonization #Olufemi Taiwo
King of the Castle
I picked up King of the Castle by Gai Eaton (1990) largely by accident. I saw someone reading the book on a flight; both the author and the book brief sounded unique, so I ordered a copy. A few quotes: “Since unbelief lies at the root of almost all that is said or thought or […]
About me
Logan Cochrane
Logan is a Professor at HBKU in the College of Public Policy. He is an Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and an Adjunct Professor at Hawassa University (Institute for Policy and Development Research). Over the last twenty years, he has worked in Afghanistan, Benin, Burundi, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Logan acts as a consultant for governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations, seeking to create bridges between research and practice.
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