Richard Oduor Oduku

Richard Oduor Oduku

Richard Oduor Oduku is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief at Sisi Afrika Magazine. He is also a Founding Member of Jalada Africa Trust – a Pan-African collective.

He has been published widely in spaces within and outside the continent. He has been published by Jalada Africa, Saraba Africa, Panorama – The Journal of Intelligent Travel, This is Africa (TIA), Brittle Paper, and The Elephant, and Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, among others.

He was shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Awards (2015), the Brunel International African Poetry Prize (2017), Brittle Paper Award for Essays/Think Pieces (2017) and Brittle Paper Anniversary Award (2018), for the Nonfiction piece “An African in London and Other Reflections on African Literatures’.

Fiction & Poetry

“Nairobi on a Silky Night” by Richard Oduor Oduku

"Wisdom is chilled out and gentle as fuck, cracking new intelligent jokes, not the old ones he rehashes when they are smoking trees. Amanda is laughing, a unique kind of laughter. It is restrained when it starts – a chuckle – then explodes with fullness and freedom, fragrance and youthfulness."

Politics & Economy

Debt Cancellation Can Alleviate the Unending Cycle of Debt Distress and Crises in Sub-Saharan Africa

The inability to make timely debt service repayments, due a myriad of internal and external factors, including COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine crisis, have increased concerns about an impending debt crisis in Africa. Debt suspension and debt relief are laudable initiatives, but a radical step towards debt cancellation can free the world’s poorest countries from the unending cycle of unsustainable debt-service payments, abject poverty, and underdevelopment.

Elections LONGREADS

High Cost of Elections is a Threat to Democracy in Africa

African countries cannot sustain the high cost of elections in the face of competing public spending priorities. The dependence on donor support to bridge election budget deficits erode national sovereignties and expose countries to foreign manipulation. With Sub-Saharan African countries holding the most expensive elections in the world, there is an urgent need to rethink the entire democratic process.

Diseases & Conditions

Culturally Sanctioned Silence on Male Infertility

Even though males are solely responsible for 20-30 percent of all infertility cases and contribute to 50 percent of cases overall, infertility is still viewed as a woman’s burden, while male infertility remains invisible, enjoying socially sanctioned silence to avoid upsetting hegemonic masculinity.

Fashion & Beauty

“Dead White Man’s Clothes”: The Language of Second-hand Clothes in Africa

Second-hand clothes carry both the individual and collective identity of their origin, that is, the fashion, style, and aesthetics. As discarded and unwanted items, second-hand clothes mediate notions of dignity and well-being. As imported commodities, second-hand clothes reference the nature of trade relations between Africa and the West, and how such relations influence local production.