Literary Conversation with Ben Rawlence, Author – City of Thorns, Sept. 8 2016 @ Alliance Française

‘City of Thorns’ by Ben Rawlence in a literary conversation with John Sibi-Okumu

Date: September 8, 2016
Venue: Alliance Française terrace
Time: 6.30 pm
Free Entry

About
On 6 May 2016 the Kenya Government announced that it will shut down the Dadaab Refugee Camp by November 2016 and subsequently disbanded the Department of Refugee Affairs (DRA), all in effort to forcefully return Somali refugees back to Somalia. The Kenyan authorities claim that Dadaab has lost its humanitarian character and that it is used as a training ground for terrorist.

Amnesty International and the Rift Valley Institute have invited the British writer and former researcher for Human Rights Watch in the Horn of Africa, Ben Rawlence (author of River Congo and City of Thorns), to participate in a discussion on the closure of the Daadab Camp.

On this occasion, the Kenyan writer, actor and journalist, John Sibi-Okumu, will host Ben Rawlence in a literary conversation on his book ‘City of Thorns’ which interweaves the stories of nine individuals to show what life is like in the world’s largest refugee camp and sketches the wider political forces that keep the refugees trapped there.