The role(s) of evidence

The encounter with two of the people behind Tamkeen last week has stayed with me and reverberated. It has stimulated further thoughts, for example on the role(s) of evidence. It has gotten me to a point where I’m holding two seemingly contradictory truths around evidence. There is the view that evidence is needed for us […]

Reflections on a conversation

This week I had the privilege to co-host a conversation among a group of people who are all passionate about what one would colloquially call ‘systems work’ (I know, what does that even mean? But that is another reflection). They have all spent most of their careers thinking about and exploring different ways to act […]

The 7 Lost Secrets of African Philanthropy

“How can a million-dollar ideas that helps Africa confront terrible crises be forgotten?” By Elizaphan Ogechi, Executive Director, Nguzo Africa Community Foundation Crises and other pressing human challenges are great teachers. Get into humanitarian and development sector and try to solve some of Africa’s pressing challenges in governance, human rights, insecurity, education, health, food insecurity, […]

From Makan Makeen to Makan Makeen

I came from Makan Makin to another Makan Makin .    Makan Makin is in my heart    So I came from my heart to my heart    The heart is me    So i came from me to me    I came from my community to my community    I came from me to […]

Evergreen

Please forgive me for sharing my sobbing heart, Bleeding tears witnessing the suffering in the body and soul of our humanity. Infants, children, elders, women and men are dying, Revenge and hate screaming their pain are unleashed and our suffocated humanity is gasping to breathe. Have we forgotten that injustice anywhere is a threat to […]

If i was to say

If I was to say how I embody what I do, I would say, I am “the gardener and the garden” realising the beauty there is.   If I was to say, the life-flow of what I do, I would say I co-facilitate with my friends and understand facilitation from the arabic root verb of […]

The Word

The word when written bears the responsibility of compassion.  I read it with a thousand eyes…  The word when spoken between souls is a manifestation of a cocreation.  It bears the responsibility of its humility and the wonder of its discovery.  I ponder it with a thousand questions…  The word when spoken to a camera […]

Poeisis

  Poiesis,    The seed germinates by finding its way out of itself, from itself, into itself.   The iceberg moves by melting itself forwards, from itself into itself.    And the human being?    We word the lyrics of the melody that makes life arisej from life into life,    Humanity realises itself by […]

Silent Melody

I hear love even if I can’t see it, I hear love even if I still can’t feel it, It is a melody you can’t unhear even in its silence, We are breathing breaths, Opening and closing hands, Seeking for what is seeking us, In the universal humm

AA Questions

As I grow older,  my small questions grow with me,  becoming deeper than I thought.  Whenever I find an answer,  I find myself dancing with life and wandering in my dreams with my questions.  Then, my certainty comes to tell me,  “You are both the question and the answer.”  So, live with the question and […]