| Intro | Writer from Kenya |
| A.K.A. | H. Nanjala Nyabola |
| Is |
Writer Political scientist Activist Feminist |
| From | Kenya |
| Type |
Activism Literature Politics |
| Gender | female |
H. Nanjala Nyabola is a writer, political analyst, and activist based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Nyabola writes extensively about African society and politics, technology, international law, and feminism for academic and non-academic publications. Her first book Digital Democracy, Analogy Politics (Zed Books, 2018) was described as “a must read for all researchers and journalists writing about Kenya today”.
Nyabola held a Rhodes Scholarship at the University of Oxford in 2009, was part of the 2017 inaugural cohort of Foreign Policy Interrupted Fellows, and was a 2017 Logan Nonfiction Program Fellow at the Carey Institute for Global Good.
Nyabola sits on the board of Amnesty International Kenya.
Education
Nyabola holds multiple degrees in politics and law:
- BA African Studies and Political Science, University of Birmingham
- MSc Forced Migration, University of Oxford
- MSc African Studies, University of Oxford
- J.D. from Harvard Law School
Journalism
Nyabola writes extensively about African society and politics, in particular Kenya, alongside discussions of technology, international law, and feminism. Her work has featured in publications including African Arguments, Al Jazeera, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy (magazine), The Guardian, New African, The New Humanitarian, The New Inquiry, New Internationalist, OkayAfrica and World Policy Journal.
Her 2014 Al Jazeera opinion piece ‘Why do Western media get Africa wrong?’ generated much discussion, including on the BBC World Service and in a 2014 McGill University course syllabus on Western representations of Africa in media and pop culture.
Her 2010 The Guardian opinion piece ‘Why, as an African, I took a Rhodes scholarship’ was chosen as one of the 5 Best Wednesday Columns in The Atlantic.
Public speaking
Nyabola is a frequent contributor to the BBC World Service, particularly on issues around Kenyan politics and technology.
Nyabola is a prolific speaker at universities including discussions of African politics, specifically Kenya, migration, feminism, and the digital at the University of Edinburgh, SOAS, Stanford University.
Nyabola has been an invited speaker at numerous international conferences on the politics of the digital, including re:publica 2018 and 2019, the 2018 Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa, and the 2019 RightsCon in Tunis.
Works
Books
Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics: How the Internet Era is Transforming Politics in Kenya
Published in 2018 by Zed Books to positive reviews from LSE Review of Books, Duncan Green (aid expert), Business Daily Africa, between the lines podcast from the Institute of Development Studies and the Africa Oxford Initiative podcast at the University of Oxford. She has given book talks at numerous universities including the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, the University of the Witwatersrand, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, Stanford University Cener on Philanthropy and Civil Society and the University of Cambridge. The book is cited in a Financial Times article on the fight to control Africa’s digital revolution.
Where Women Are: Gender & The 2017 Kenyan Elections
Published in 2018 by Heinrich-Boell-Stiftung and Twaweza Communications Ltd. and co-edited with Marie-Emmanuelle Pommerolle.
Book Chapters
Surviving the Slaughter: The Ordeal of a Rwandan Refugee in Zaire
- Co-written with Emilie Diouf and Moussa Issifou in African Women Under Fire: Literary Discourses in War and Conflict, published in 2017 by Rowman & Littlefield.
Media Perspectives: Social Media and New Narratives: Kenyans Tweet Back
- Chapter in Africa’s Media Image in the 21st Century: From the ‘Heart of Darkness’ to ‘Africa Rising’, published in 2016 by routledge