And Wrote My Story Anyway: Black South African Women’s Novels as Feminism

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Kenyan and British social imaginaries on Julie Ward's death in Kenya

Abstract The study explores the narratives on the 1988 death of 28 year old British tourist, Julie Ann Ward in Kenya's Maasai Mara Game Reserve. Julie Ward's death in Kenya attracted widespread attention in Kenya and Britain culminating in at least three true crime books, significant media coverage and rumours in Kenya. The study reflects on the narratives on Julie Ward's death, with particular interest in the discourses that gained expression through, or were inscribed, on Julie Ward's death and the quest for her killers. The study is also interested in the ways in which the Julie Ward case and the discourses it inspired offer a critique of rationality, and the accompanying unity of the subject, expressed through a logocentric impulse as key tenets of a Western modernity that continues to mediate metropolitan readings of postcolonial Africa. The study reveals that Julie Ward's death traversed various discursive sites, which were laden with specific ideas on race, gender, the postcolonial African state, Western modernity, female sexuality and black male sexuality, among a host of other issues; all of which tinted British and Kenyan narratives on the circumstances surrounding the death. The study argues that the authors of the three books on the Ward tragedy rely on colonial archives on Africa, and actively mobilize notions such as the myth of the uncontrollable black male libido and its threat to the vulnerable white woman in understanding the Ward tragedy. While these writers cling to these notions of the black peril, the noble savages, Africa as the tourist's wildlife paradise, and the dysfunctional postcolonial state; Kenyan publics read the murder as another symptom of a criminal political elite's brutal deployment of violence to secure immunity for its criminal activities.However, the two sets of ideas are largely disarticulated, and as the study reveals, the British stakeholders in the case are blinded by a rigid polarization of Kenya and Britain, which presumes a superior British moral and technological integrity. These assumptions blind the Ward family to British complicity in the cover up of the truth in Julie Ward's murder; while at the same time, rendering them illiterate in the local textualities which remain inaccessible to the instruments of Western modernity that are privileged in the quest for truth and justice in the Julie Ward murder. Julie Ward’s presence in Kenya, her death and the subsequent quest for her killers is consistently haunted by neat dichotomies, derived from various masternarratives. The study traces these dichotomies, in a bid to outline their configurations and the outcomes of their deployment, while consistently keeping the grey areas of entanglements between these dichotomies in sight. It is in these grey areas that we see the contradictions, blindspots, critiques, complicities and forms of agency that were at play just under the radar of these neat polarities. From these grey terrains, we catch glimpses of the workings of these dichotomies as discursive masks which conceal the faultlines that rend the masternarratives. The study finds that in many ways, Julie Ward's death in Kenya may be positioned in a transitional space between colonial whiteness and an emergent postcolonial whiteness, which betrays heavy imprints of the grammars of colonial whiteness, including the messianic white male authority, wildlife tourism and conservation. To this end, the study suggests, one of the factors that hampers the quest for truth and justice in the Ward case is the failure to forge viable grammars of whiteness in the postcolonial context. Such viable grammars would be able to access local textualities and retain an awareness of the underlying complicities and faultlines that now rig colonial Manichean binaries, which are largely mediated by the interests of capital. The novel The Constant Gardener and the film Ivory Hunters (1989) - both of which make implicit allusions to the Julie Ward case – eloquently articulate these complicities and faultlines

In silico exploration of Lycoris alkaloids as potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro)

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic whose adverse effects have been felt all over the world. As of August 2022, reports indicated that over 500 million people in the world had been infected and the number of rising deaths from the disease were slightly above 6.4 million. New variants of the causative agent, SARS-CoV-2 are emanating now and then and some are more efficacious and harder to manage. SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) has essential functions in viral gene expression and replication through proteolytic cleavage of polyproteins. Search for SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitors is a vital step in the treatment and management of COVID-19. In this study, we investigated whether alkaloids with antiviral and myriad other bioactivities from the genus Lycoris can act as SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitors. We conducted a computer-aided drug design study through screening optimal ligands for SARS-CoV-2 Mpro from a list of over 150 Lycoris alkaloids created from online databases such as ChEMBL, PubChem, ChemSpider, and published journal papers. The In silico study involved molecular docking of Lycoris alkaloids to SARS-CoV-2 Mpro active site, absorption, distribution, metabolism, elimination and toxicity (ADMET) screening and finally molecular dynamic (MD) simulations of the most promising ligand-SARS-CoV-2 Mpro complexes. The study identified 3,11-dimethoxy-lycoramine, narwedine, O-demethyllycoramine and epilycoramine as drug-like and lead-like Lycoris alkaloids with favorable ADMET properties and are very likely to have an inhibition activity on SARS-CoV-2 Mpro and may become potential drug candidates. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.704180

Power and rights in the community: paralegals as leaders in women's legal empowerment in Tanzania

What can an analysis of power in local communities contribute to debates on women’s legal empowerment and the role of paralegals in Africa? Drawing upon theories of power and rights, and research on legal empowerment in African plural legal systems, this article explores the challenges for paralegals in facilitating women’s access to justice in Tanzania, which gave statutory recognition to paralegals in the Legal Aid Act 2017. Land conflicts represent the single-biggest source of local legal disputes in Tanzania and are often embedded in gendered land tenure relations. This article argues that paralegals can be effective actors in women’s legal empowerment where they are able to work as leaders, negotiating power relations and resisting the forms of violence that women encounter as obstacles to justice. Paralegals’ authority will be realised when their role is situated within community leadership structures, confirming their authority while preserving their independence

Effect of early tranexamic acid administration on mortality, hysterectomy, and other morbidities in women with post-partum haemorrhage (WOMAN): an international, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background Post-partum haemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal death worldwide. Early administration of tranexamic acid reduces deaths due to bleeding in trauma patients. We aimed to assess the effects of early administration of tranexamic acid on death, hysterectomy, and other relevant outcomes in women with post-partum haemorrhage. Methods In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, we recruited women aged 16 years and older with a clinical diagnosis of post-partum haemorrhage after a vaginal birth or caesarean section from 193 hospitals in 21 countries. We randomly assigned women to receive either 1 g intravenous tranexamic acid or matching placebo in addition to usual care. If bleeding continued after 30 min, or stopped and restarted within 24 h of the first dose, a second dose of 1 g of tranexamic acid or placebo could be given. Patients were assigned by selection of a numbered treatment pack from a box containing eight numbered packs that were identical apart from the pack number. Participants, care givers, and those assessing outcomes were masked to allocation. We originally planned to enrol 15 000 women with a composite primary endpoint of death from all-causes or hysterectomy within 42 days of giving birth. However, during the trial it became apparent that the decision to conduct a hysterectomy was often made at the same time as randomisation. Although tranexamic acid could influence the risk of death in these cases, it could not affect the risk of hysterectomy. We therefore increased the sample size from 15 000 to 20 000 women in order to estimate the effect of tranexamic acid on the risk of death from post-partum haemorrhage. All analyses were done on an intention-to-treat basis. This trial is registered with ISRCTN76912190 (Dec 8, 2008); ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00872469; and PACTR201007000192283. Findings Between March, 2010, and April, 2016, 20 060 women were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive tranexamic acid (n=10 051) or placebo (n=10 009), of whom 10 036 and 9985, respectively, were included in the analysis. Death due to bleeding was significantly reduced in women given tranexamic acid (155 [1·5%] of 10 036 patients vs 191 [1·9%] of 9985 in the placebo group, risk ratio [RR] 0·81, 95% CI 0·65–1·00; p=0·045), especially in women given treatment within 3 h of giving birth (89 [1·2%] in the tranexamic acid group vs 127 [1·7%] in the placebo group, RR 0·69, 95% CI 0·52–0·91; p=0·008). All other causes of death did not differ significantly by group. Hysterectomy was not reduced with tranexamic acid (358 [3·6%] patients in the tranexamic acid group vs 351 [3·5%] in the placebo group, RR 1·02, 95% CI 0·88–1·07; p=0·84). The composite primary endpoint of death from all causes or hysterectomy was not reduced with tranexamic acid (534 [5·3%] deaths or hysterectomies in the tranexamic acid group vs 546 [5·5%] in the placebo group, RR 0·97, 95% CI 0·87-1·09; p=0·65). Adverse events (including thromboembolic events) did not differ significantly in the tranexamic acid versus placebo group. Interpretation Tranexamic acid reduces death due to bleeding in women with post-partum haemorrhage with no adverse effects. When used as a treatment for postpartum haemorrhage, tranexamic acid should be given as soon as possible after bleeding onset. Funding London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Pfizer, UK Department of Health, Wellcome Trust, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Writing history’s silences: Interview with Parselelo Kantai

Parselelo Kantai is a Kenyan investigative journalist, academic and creative writer. A founding member of the East Africa literary magazine, Kwani?, Kantai has published several provocative short stories and novellas, among them ‘The Reddykulass Generation’, ‘The Cock Thief’, ‘The Story of Comrade Lemma and the Jerusalem Boys’ Band’, and. ‘You Wreck Her’. The last two were nominated for the prestigious Caine Prize for African writing in 2004 and 2009 respectively. Kantai is currently working on a novel based on the life story of iconic Kenyan trade unionist and politician Tom Joseph Mboya, who was assassinated in 1969 in Nairobi

Submerged fault lines: Interests and complicities in the Julie Ward case

Julie Ann Ward visited Kenya’s Maasai Mara Game Reserve in September 1988 to photograph the annual wildebeest migration from Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park into the Maasai Mara. On 6th September 1988 she was reported missing. Six days later, her partly burnt remains were found in the game reserve. Julie Ward’s death was a hotly contested matter with various theories about how she had died. Eventually, an inquest revealed that she had been murdered. This finding was followed by a protracted search for her killers, who, at the time of writing, are still at large. Ward’s death and the search for her killers is the subject of three books: her father John Ward’s The Animals Are Innocent: The Search for Julie’s Killers; Michael Hiltzik’s A Death in Kenya: The Murder of Julie Ward; and Jeremy Gavron’s Darkness in Eden: The Murder of Julie Ward