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Papers by John Njenga Karugia

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Apr 25, 2023

The complex algebra of the emergence and evolution of Early Warning and early response systems in... more The complex algebra of the emergence and evolution of Early Warning and early response systems in Africa is analysed through studying closely the actions of ECOWAS, IGAD and SADC. We examine their analytical capacity, their dependence on aid, their standby capacity, the degree of and quality of Early Warning Systems institutionalisation, the dominance of certain countries and the internal organisational dynamics of these regional organisations. We conduct diagnostics to understand their current and future usefulness and effectiveness.We analyse the diffusion and institutional isomorphism of culturally-specific models of Early Warning Systems in Africa. Ideas and behaviours of individuals are emphasized as we attempt to demonstrate how they affect politics and political institutions, hence affecting processes that shape conflicts in Africa. We demonstrate the role of political will and a strong analytical capacity in shaping preparedness for violent conflicts in Africa.

Memory Studies, Jul 1, 2018

This article focuses on memories of South Asian Kenyans and their claims to full citizenship as K... more This article focuses on memories of South Asian Kenyans and their claims to full citizenship as Kenyans through acknowledgment of their role in Kenya's past. By focusing on memory claims and memory practices of the South Asian diaspora, it unravels complexities and tensions of scale (local, national, transregional, transnational). It adds new insights into complexities of national "belonging" in an entangled world by demonstrating how people operate as citizens within states and how memory politics are played out at nation-state level and how, simultaneously, the lived experience, affiliations, and shared memories of particular groups transcend the national scale or operate at a scale below it. This article's seven sections focus on connected histories (a brief history of the Indian Ocean), connective memory research (explicating multi-sited methodology and using brief examples of Cape Malays and Siddis), and connective memory practice addressing memory practices in the South Asian diaspora in Kenya that consciously engage with entangled histories.

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Apr 25, 2023

The complex algebra of the emergence and evolution of Early Warning and early response systems in... more The complex algebra of the emergence and evolution of Early Warning and early response systems in Africa is analysed through studying closely the actions of ECOWAS, IGAD and SADC. We examine their analytical capacity, their dependence on aid, their standby capacity, the degree of and quality of Early Warning Systems institutionalisation, the dominance of certain countries and the internal organisational dynamics of these regional organisations. We conduct diagnostics to understand their current and future usefulness and effectiveness.We analyse the diffusion and institutional isomorphism of culturally-specific models of Early Warning Systems in Africa. Ideas and behaviours of individuals are emphasized as we attempt to demonstrate how they affect politics and political institutions, hence affecting processes that shape conflicts in Africa. We demonstrate the role of political will and a strong analytical capacity in shaping preparedness for violent conflicts in Africa.

Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 2018

This conversation with the renowned critic and theorist Homi K. Bhabha took place in Frankfurt/Ma... more This conversation with the renowned critic and theorist Homi K. Bhabha took place in Frankfurt/Main on November 2, 2016, on the occasion of the Third Annual Conference of the Africa's Asian Options (AFRASO) project at Goethe University titled "Afrasian Transformations: Beyond Grand Narratives", where Homi Bhabha delivered a keynote lecture, "Intimations of the Afterlife: On Migration, Memory and the Dialectics of Translation". Here, he elaborates on the themes of that keynote, which had drawn on the work of Walter Benjamin, V.S. Naipaul and Hannah Arendt to capture the migratory affects of the Syrian refugee crisis. He discusses the enabling impact of anxiety, the dialectics of its translation, and the polarity of the contemporary migrant condition best described in the Benjaminian language of history as montage, or, in Bhabha's own coinage, as a "camera mortis". He refers throughout to key concepts in his recent thinking, such as "scales of affect", "natality/fatality" and "camera mortis".

Matatu, 2021

This conversation with the author Neera Kapur-Dromson took place in Nairobi, Kenya, on 9th March ... more This conversation with the author Neera Kapur-Dromson took place in Nairobi, Kenya, on 9th March 2018 during filming of the documentary film ‘Afrasian Memories in East Africa’ in which Neera Kapur-Dromson features. Neera Kapur-Dromson lives in France and Kenya. She is the author of the book ‘From Jhelum to Tana’. Here, Neera-Kapur Dromson reflects upon transregional interactions across the Indian Ocean as a memory space through life histories of various generations of her ancestors, various actors within the cosmopolitanisms of the Indian Ocean and her own experiences. She discusses how specific Indian Ocean societies experienced, were shaped by and negotiated multiple transformations related but not limited to nation-state politics, transoceanic trade, citizenship politics, colonial railway projects, identity politics, religion and transculturality as migrations, colonialism, and resultant interactions occurred across time and space. Her discussion visualises and demystifies the em...

Researching South–South Development Cooperation, 2019

Handbuch Postkolonialismus und Literatur

Die Welt des Indischen Ozeans ist eine durch Migration und Handel gepragte Grosregion. Dieser tra... more Die Welt des Indischen Ozeans ist eine durch Migration und Handel gepragte Grosregion. Dieser transregionale, sich palimpsestartig aus vielen historischen Schichten zusammensetzende Raum ist durch unzahlige Wechselbeziehungen und vielfaltige miteinander konkurrierende Universalismen gepragt (Bose 2006, 282; Pearson 2003).

Memory Studies

This article focuses on memories of South Asian Kenyans and their claims to full citizenship as K... more This article focuses on memories of South Asian Kenyans and their claims to full citizenship as Kenyans through acknowledgment of their role in Kenya’s past. By focusing on memory claims and memory practices of the South Asian diaspora, it unravels complexities and tensions of scale (local, national, transregional, transnational). It adds new insights into complexities of national “belonging” in an entangled world by demonstrating how people operate as citizens within states and how memory politics are played out at nation-state level and how, simultaneously, the lived experience, affiliations, and shared memories of particular groups transcend the national scale or operate at a scale below it. This article’s seven sections focus on connected histories (a brief history of the Indian Ocean), connective memory research (explicating multi-sited methodology and using brief examples of Cape Malays and Siddis), and connective memory practice addressing memory practices in the South Asian ...

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Apr 25, 2023

The complex algebra of the emergence and evolution of Early Warning and early response systems in... more The complex algebra of the emergence and evolution of Early Warning and early response systems in Africa is analysed through studying closely the actions of ECOWAS, IGAD and SADC. We examine their analytical capacity, their dependence on aid, their standby capacity, the degree of and quality of Early Warning Systems institutionalisation, the dominance of certain countries and the internal organisational dynamics of these regional organisations. We conduct diagnostics to understand their current and future usefulness and effectiveness.We analyse the diffusion and institutional isomorphism of culturally-specific models of Early Warning Systems in Africa. Ideas and behaviours of individuals are emphasized as we attempt to demonstrate how they affect politics and political institutions, hence affecting processes that shape conflicts in Africa. We demonstrate the role of political will and a strong analytical capacity in shaping preparedness for violent conflicts in Africa.

Memory Studies, Jul 1, 2018

This article focuses on memories of South Asian Kenyans and their claims to full citizenship as K... more This article focuses on memories of South Asian Kenyans and their claims to full citizenship as Kenyans through acknowledgment of their role in Kenya's past. By focusing on memory claims and memory practices of the South Asian diaspora, it unravels complexities and tensions of scale (local, national, transregional, transnational). It adds new insights into complexities of national "belonging" in an entangled world by demonstrating how people operate as citizens within states and how memory politics are played out at nation-state level and how, simultaneously, the lived experience, affiliations, and shared memories of particular groups transcend the national scale or operate at a scale below it. This article's seven sections focus on connected histories (a brief history of the Indian Ocean), connective memory research (explicating multi-sited methodology and using brief examples of Cape Malays and Siddis), and connective memory practice addressing memory practices in the South Asian diaspora in Kenya that consciously engage with entangled histories.

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Apr 25, 2023

The complex algebra of the emergence and evolution of Early Warning and early response systems in... more The complex algebra of the emergence and evolution of Early Warning and early response systems in Africa is analysed through studying closely the actions of ECOWAS, IGAD and SADC. We examine their analytical capacity, their dependence on aid, their standby capacity, the degree of and quality of Early Warning Systems institutionalisation, the dominance of certain countries and the internal organisational dynamics of these regional organisations. We conduct diagnostics to understand their current and future usefulness and effectiveness.We analyse the diffusion and institutional isomorphism of culturally-specific models of Early Warning Systems in Africa. Ideas and behaviours of individuals are emphasized as we attempt to demonstrate how they affect politics and political institutions, hence affecting processes that shape conflicts in Africa. We demonstrate the role of political will and a strong analytical capacity in shaping preparedness for violent conflicts in Africa.

Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 2018

This conversation with the renowned critic and theorist Homi K. Bhabha took place in Frankfurt/Ma... more This conversation with the renowned critic and theorist Homi K. Bhabha took place in Frankfurt/Main on November 2, 2016, on the occasion of the Third Annual Conference of the Africa's Asian Options (AFRASO) project at Goethe University titled "Afrasian Transformations: Beyond Grand Narratives", where Homi Bhabha delivered a keynote lecture, "Intimations of the Afterlife: On Migration, Memory and the Dialectics of Translation". Here, he elaborates on the themes of that keynote, which had drawn on the work of Walter Benjamin, V.S. Naipaul and Hannah Arendt to capture the migratory affects of the Syrian refugee crisis. He discusses the enabling impact of anxiety, the dialectics of its translation, and the polarity of the contemporary migrant condition best described in the Benjaminian language of history as montage, or, in Bhabha's own coinage, as a "camera mortis". He refers throughout to key concepts in his recent thinking, such as "scales of affect", "natality/fatality" and "camera mortis".

Matatu, 2021

This conversation with the author Neera Kapur-Dromson took place in Nairobi, Kenya, on 9th March ... more This conversation with the author Neera Kapur-Dromson took place in Nairobi, Kenya, on 9th March 2018 during filming of the documentary film ‘Afrasian Memories in East Africa’ in which Neera Kapur-Dromson features. Neera Kapur-Dromson lives in France and Kenya. She is the author of the book ‘From Jhelum to Tana’. Here, Neera-Kapur Dromson reflects upon transregional interactions across the Indian Ocean as a memory space through life histories of various generations of her ancestors, various actors within the cosmopolitanisms of the Indian Ocean and her own experiences. She discusses how specific Indian Ocean societies experienced, were shaped by and negotiated multiple transformations related but not limited to nation-state politics, transoceanic trade, citizenship politics, colonial railway projects, identity politics, religion and transculturality as migrations, colonialism, and resultant interactions occurred across time and space. Her discussion visualises and demystifies the em...

Researching South–South Development Cooperation, 2019

Handbuch Postkolonialismus und Literatur

Die Welt des Indischen Ozeans ist eine durch Migration und Handel gepragte Grosregion. Dieser tra... more Die Welt des Indischen Ozeans ist eine durch Migration und Handel gepragte Grosregion. Dieser transregionale, sich palimpsestartig aus vielen historischen Schichten zusammensetzende Raum ist durch unzahlige Wechselbeziehungen und vielfaltige miteinander konkurrierende Universalismen gepragt (Bose 2006, 282; Pearson 2003).

Memory Studies

This article focuses on memories of South Asian Kenyans and their claims to full citizenship as K... more This article focuses on memories of South Asian Kenyans and their claims to full citizenship as Kenyans through acknowledgment of their role in Kenya’s past. By focusing on memory claims and memory practices of the South Asian diaspora, it unravels complexities and tensions of scale (local, national, transregional, transnational). It adds new insights into complexities of national “belonging” in an entangled world by demonstrating how people operate as citizens within states and how memory politics are played out at nation-state level and how, simultaneously, the lived experience, affiliations, and shared memories of particular groups transcend the national scale or operate at a scale below it. This article’s seven sections focus on connected histories (a brief history of the Indian Ocean), connective memory research (explicating multi-sited methodology and using brief examples of Cape Malays and Siddis), and connective memory practice addressing memory practices in the South Asian ...