Myfanwy James

In memoriam

It is with great sadness that the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa must announce the passing of our inaugural director, Professor Tim Allen.

You can read more about Tim’s life and legacy, and leave a message of condolence, on our website
www.lse.ac.uk/africa/about...

The politics of local humanitarian recruitment in DRC - LSE International Development There have been growing calls over the last decade for humanitarian agencies to ‘localise’— to address unjust and unequal power relations in the contemporary system by transferring power to local pers...

Humanitarian agencies have been urged to ‘localise’, shifting power to local actors and addressing North/South imbalances. But what does local really mean? Dr Myfanwy James explores this question for the LSE ID Blog
blogs.lse.ac.uk/internationa...

Hope and resistance: Slam poets capture the weight of war in DR Congo These powerful new poems examine the escalating crisis in the east.

The New Humanitarian has partnered with five slam poets from eastern DRC, commissioning original works that confront the reality of war and the resilience of Congolese communities facing a brutal insurgency by the M23 rebel group.

While the perpetrators of Gaza’s genocide pose as its saviours, survivors return home – to a wasteland | Nesrine Malik Western leaders attending the Sharm el-Sheikh summit have enabled and sponsored this slaughter. They are in no position to build a Palestinian future, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik

While the perpetrators of Gaza’s genocide pose as its saviours, survivors return home – to a wasteland | Nesrine Malik

Inspired by the fabulous work of @gillianmathys.bsky.social @kasperhoffmann.bsky.social @denistull.bsky.social @judithverweijen.bsky.social @rogermacginty.bsky.social and many others not on here

New article 'Looking for the local: The Politics of Humanitarian Recruitment in DRC' reveals how aid agencies can fuel social tensions when the 'local' aid category interacts with existing discourses around belonging, authority, and territory muse.jhu.edu/pub/35/artic...

‘I’m from where you learn to run before you can walk’: the comic strip artist telling the story of DRC’s conflict Edizon Musavuli uses his art to depict the daily struggles and constant insecurity of living in the rebel-occupied city of Goma

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

We asked Sudanese people to explain what the war is about. What emerges is clear: there is no such thing as a war about nothing. continent.substack.com/p/is-the-sud...

IPC ALERT: Worst-case scenario of Famine unfolding in the Gaza Strip The worst-case scenario of Famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip. Conflict and displacement have intensified, and access to food and other essential items and services has plummeted to unp...

www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-webs...

Medical Anthropology Quarterly | AAA Journal | Wiley Online Library The position of pregnant women in clinical research remains a topic of international ethical debate. Yet, the reflections of actual and potential trial participants, including pregnant women themselv...

Latest publication from Dr Myfanwy James which explores how the inclusion of pregnant women in an Ebola vaccine trial in Goma, DRC, sparked local rumors that reflected broader ethical concerns and historical anxieties
anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New article on Ebola in DRC, 'Rumor as ethical vernacular'. I argue that the womb became a site to discuss broader biopolitical anxieties about collective survival, but that rumors also became a vehicle for ethical debate amid uncertainty. anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/...

Kevin Okoth · The Pessimist’s Optimist: Beyond the Postcolony Achille Mbembe is the pessimist’s optimist: he delivers a devastating analysis of the contemporary moment while never...

‘Achille Mbembe warns us that the condition of the colonies is rapidly becoming the condition of all of subaltern humanity.’

Kevin Okoth:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...