Kayum Ahmed

In politics, like property, location is everything. And while Djibouti doesn’t have much in the way of natural resources or arable land, its place near the tip of the Horn of Africa makes it the sentinel of the Red Sea passage, and therefore a vital geostrategic ally. America already has a military base there, as do France and Japan, so it’s no wonder that China is sniffing around too. By SIMON ALLISON.

In a country and an industry desperate for new, young and talented voices, the prolific and provocative playwright Louis Viljoen is being hailed as theatre’s new ‘it guy’; well, at least in Cape Town. The Fugard Theatre has snapped up his latest literary offering, ‘The Pervert Laura’, billed as “a dark psychological drama”. By MARIANNE THAMM. Look, there’s nothing like a good wank on stage to get the theatre-going middle classes really excited.

Somaliland should not exist. It’s anomalous in every respect: An island of stability in a sea of chaos; a democracy surrounded by authoritarian regimes; a real nation forged in spite of civil war, clan divisions, and religious tensions – all the usual rocks upon which developmental states wreck. So what makes it work? And why will no one give it the recognition it craves?