Aw, Michelle, that’s really sweet. And I completely understand both perspectives — I can’t imagine how hard it is to navigate the world as the mother of a girl. She’s lucky to have a wonderful advocate like you in her corner. <3

Yes! I love that she’s able to tease out deeper meanings even in very silly things.

YAYYYYY oh Kim you have come to the right place. Please allow me to assist you in this matter, with the caveat that Africa in general and modern Africa in particular is parlously understudied. You’ll have a country the size of Mauritania with virtually nothing published in English about its post-independence history. SOB.

Mauritania: Peter Ruf has a book (from 1999, so a bit older) about slavery in Mauritania that I understand relies heavily on interviews with slaves and former slaves. So that would probably be relevant to what Okeowo is writing about. There’s also a 2009 book called “Movers and Shakers: Social Movements in Africa” with an article about political movements against slavery in the twentieth century.

Uganda: Aili Mari Tripp has a 2010 book called Museveni’s Uganda that deals with the current regime and its strengths and weaknesses.Tim Allen and Koen Vlassenroot have an edited collection called The Lord’s Resistance Army: Myth and Reality, and Sverker Finnstrom has a book called Living with Bad Surroundings.

Nigeria: Since Boko Haram is relatively new, a lot of what’s been published on it has been articles, and it’s hard to know as well what bits will stand the test of time. BUT: The US Institute of Peace has an overview, https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/SR308.pdf, ditto the Intl Crisis Group, https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/west-africa/nigeria/curbing-violence-nigeria-ii-boko-haram-insurgency, and there’s a book called Boko Haram: Islamism, Politics, Security, and the State in Nigeria.

Somalia: Understanding the Somali Conflagration, by Afyare Abdi Elmi, and Al-Shabaab in Somalia by Stig Jarle Hansen.

All of this is brought to you by Oxford Bibliographies, where I get all my academic nonfiction recs. :p

Hahaha, are they? I never, ever read the comments, unless someone says “there’s a really good comment in there that you should read” which I gather is not the case here. :p

The dress code article was interesting. I used to put Holly on a separate dress code because she has a difficult time understanding that dance clothes are not necessarily street clothes. I was always worried that others would think that her outfits give others permission to ogle her body. A few months ago, I realized that I too was forcing her to change her behavior because of other people. So no more. She can wear what she feels comfortable wearing, and if the school should ever call her out or shame her for wearing something Mama Bear is coming for them. It’s time to take back the streets for our girls and stand up to other’s bad behavior.