What We Are Reading Today: Burkina Faso

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Updated 17 January 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: Burkina Faso

  • The citizens’ struggle in this regard stands as one of the few instances of a popular democratic uprising succeeding in sub-Saharan Africa

Author: Ernest Harsch

In 2014, huge protests across Burkina Faso succeeded in overthrowing the long-entrenched regime of their authoritarian ruler, Blaise Compaore. Defying all expectations, this popular movement defeated an attempted coup by the old regime.

The citizens’ struggle in this regard stands as one of the few instances of a popular democratic uprising succeeding in sub-Saharan Africa.

In this book, Ernest Harsch provides a compelling history of this little-understood country, according to a review on goodreads.com.

 


What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Disease of Boredom’ by Josefa Ros Velasco

Updated 01 February 2026
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Disease of Boredom’ by Josefa Ros Velasco

Boredom visits all of us at some point. Sometimes it is fleeting. Other times it is deep, lasting, or profound. We even experience it in groups.

Boredom can be so intolerable that some are willing to do almost anything just to escape it. In this provocative and eloquently argued book, Josefa Ros Velasco invites us to listen to the voice of boredom, explore the reasons behind it, and allow it to guide our actions and return us to a place of satisfaction.

She shows how boredom is a phenomenon that torments us when reality does not meet our expectations.