TROUBLEMAKERS

Human rights defender, activist, and presidential candidate for the Republic of Kenya, Boniface Mwangi joins Smoke Signals for a direct, unfiltered conversation on what it will actually take for Kenya's Gen Z movement to convert street energy into political power by 2027. This is not a motivational talk. It is a strategic briefing. What We Cover From occupation to ballot revolution. Boniface break...

A spoken word piece by Frank Amani on the cycles we inherit and refuse to break. Same Stupidity confronts the ways human beings repeat patterns across generations, dressing up the same vicious circle in new clothes, chasing happiness while performing it, and calling it progress. The poem moves through denial, social conformity, collective forgetting, inequality, and the quiet violence of indiffere...

Guest: Wilson (Willynkya), film & TV producer, content creator, and influencer based in Tanzania Rodgers sits down with Willynkya to unpack "Put Your Target in a Decision Dilemma" (Andrew Boyd & Joshua Kahn Russell) through the lens of content creation and film and what it means for activists and organisers trying to move audiences toward action. About Willynkya Five years in film and TV b...

In this powerful spoken-word piece, poet Opolot Emmanuel Solomon paints a vision of an Africa that has moved beyond division, dependency, conflict, and limitation. Through repetition, imagination, and conviction, he challenges listeners to picture a continent where dreams become reality, borders no longer divide people, and Africans take ownership of their shared future. Meet the Poet Opolot Emman...

What does “development” really mean—and who is forced to pay for it? Meet the Guest Ziada is a climate and gender justice advocate working at the frontlines of renewable energy and community resistance. Trained in medicine, her activism was shaped by real encounters with inequality, environmental breakdown, and lives lost to preventable conditions. What We Unpack in This Episode What is EACOP, rea...

What happens when poetry becomes testimony? What happens when a voice carries the grief, rage, memory, and survival of an entire people? In this deeply emotional and politically charged episode of Troublemakers, we journey through “Vous allez où?”, a haunting spoken-word piece that confronts war, displacement, colonial violence, exile, and the persistence of hope in places the world often chooses...

How do we move from gathering stories to creating impact? How can we be more strategic about story gathering? And who truly owns the narrative - organisations or the communities themselves? In this episode of Troublemakers, we explore the role of storytelling in activism and development, featuring insights from practitioners working across Brazil and Nepal within ActionAid. This conversation unpac...

How do we defend rights in a world full of misinformation? In this episode, guest host Jesué Mutanava speaks with Steward Muhindo, a human rights activist from the Democratic Republic of Congo and member of Lutte pour le Changement (LUCHA). They explore how social media shapes activism, the dangers of disinformation, and how young people can push for change through peaceful action. Steward also sh...

In Super Hero, Phindu Banda honors the quiet courage of everyday people who rise, endure, and keep going. From childhood dreams to life’s hardest moments, this piece reminds us that survival, resilience, and showing up are acts of heroism. You didn’t wait to be saved. You became the hero. About the Poet Phindu Banda is a Malawian poet, performer, and activist whose work explores identity, feminism...

Why do movements that aim to transform the world so often fall apart from within? And what happens when the gap between our values and our actions becomes too wide to ignore?   In this episode of Trouble Makers, we sit down with Dale McKinley, a veteran activist with over 35 years of experience across South Africa’s most influential social movements. From the Communist Party to the Anti-Privatisat...

“The secret is numbers.” What happens when ordinary citizens decide to take democracy into their own hands? In this episode of the Trouble Makers Podcast, host Tatiana Gicheru sits down with Kenyan journalist and civic mobilizer Ademba Alanns, the mind behind the fast-growing Tukokadi movement, an initiative pushing millions of young Kenyans to register as voters ahead of the 2027 general election...

How does misinformation spread in conflict zones, and what are the consequences for communities and human rights defenders? In this episode, journalist Josué Mutanava speaks with Espoir Hamoni, a human rights defender based in Uvira, South Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. They discuss how disinformation, rumors, and fake news in eastern DRC can fuel hate speech, community tension...

What makes a workplace meaningful? Is it the salary? The office setup? The title on the door? Or is it something quieter? Something human? In this episode of Troublemakers: Smoke Signals, we step into the everyday spaces where we spend so much of our lives. From the vibrant grounds of MS TCDC, home to the Samora Machel Studio where The Troublemakers is produced, to offices, clinics and creative co...

How do movements shift people from neutrality or even opposition into active allies for justice struggles? In this episode of the Troublemakers podcast, Monica hosts Sungu Oyoo, a writer, educator, activist, and Pan-Africanist. Sungu works with MWAMKO (Pan-African Popular Pedagogy Collective) as Director of Special Programs and Organisational Development and is also part of Kongamano Lamapinduzi,...

What does it really mean to “build the nation,” and who pays the price for that work? In this Smoke Signals episode, Monica Kamandau reads Building the Nation by Ugandan poet Henry Barlow, a biting and darkly humorous poem that exposes the everyday hypocrisies of power, privilege, and sacrifice in postcolonial African states. This reading lands powerfully in our current moment, where ordinary peop...

What does it mean to fail forward in organising, and how do movements survive across generations? In this episode, recorded at Mashujaa Heritage Archives in Kibichuku, Monica Kamandau sits down with veteran Kenyan organiser and scholar Njuki Githethwa. With nearly three decades in resistance and movement building, Dr. Njuki reflects on the evolution of Kenya’s struggles, from the Mau Mau movement...

Ep42: Civil Disobedience with Faith Kasina When does breaking the law become the only way to survive? In this episode, we sit down at the Kayole Social Justice Centre with organizer Faith Kasina and members of the Centre to explore civil disobedience in moments when the state fails its people. Faith walks us through protest organizing during COVID, the realities of living under Article 43 violatio...

What is the true story behind America’s gun culture beyond Hollywood’s dramatised scenes? In this Smoke Signal, we unpack the myths, realities, and politics behind gun violence in the United States through lived experience, global perception, and the unchecked power of the gun industry. Growing up outside the U.S., many of us see America through movies: chaotic streets, armed civilians, danger at...

What happens when a movement falls in love with one tactic? In this episode, we visit Githurai Social Justice Centre to explore how Kenyan organisers can move beyond protest fatigue and rethink the power of people-centred strategies. Njoki Gachanja is a community organizer, political and social justice activist, and community lawyer. She coordinates the Githurai Social Justice Centre, where she wo...

How do millennials and Gen Z work together in social movements when their values, experiences, and approaches often clash? In this episode of Troublemakers (TM) Smoke Signals, we explore intergenerational dynamics in activism, examining the tensions and opportunities that arise when younger and older generations collaborate or collide.   Key Ideas and Highlights: Different Values, Shared Goals: Mi...

Why Are We Obsessed with Being the Hero? In this episode, Dr Mette Fog Olwig, a geographer, author, and storyteller, examines how “hero narratives” shape global climate, sustainability and development responses. Her new book, A Bit Too Simple: Narratives of Development, Sustainability and Climate Change (Cambridge University Press, 2025, open access), looks at the origin and current iteration of t...

How do we unlearn the colonial logic of “good development”?   In this episode, Ugandan filmmaker and theatremaker Patience Nitumwesiga reflects on Paulo Freire’s and Augusto Boal’s ideas, exploring how art, story, and imagination can awaken critical consciousness and challenge imposed notions of progress.   Key Ideas   Unlearning the “banking model” — Knowledge already lives within communities; tr...

What does it mean to seek justice in a system that thrives on injustice? In this powerful reading, Sungu Oyoo, a Kenyan writer, activist, and pan-Africanist affiliated with Kongamano La Mapinduzi and Mwamko, revisits the words of Sam Mugumya, author of We Refuse to Be Victims. Key Ideas and Highlights Injustice as Everyday Life Sungu’s reading reminds us how injustice is normalised, becoming the a...

In this Smoke Signal, Njuki Githethwa reads from the newly published collection ‘We Refuse to Be Victims' by Ugandan activist and poet Sam Mugumya. His words remind us that courage, dignity, and resistance are possible even under the harshest conditions. Sam visited Nairobi in August 2025, where he met with grassroots collectives from informal settlements, inspiring hope and solidarity. Days later...

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will,” Frederick Douglass What does it mean to choose your battles wisely? In this episode, host Phil Wilmot sits down with Zambian activist Villy Nawa to unpack the strategy of isolating targets and forcing institutions to account for their failures. From his first protest as a boarding school student demanding decent food to sp...