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The global onset of the novel Coronavirus in December 2019, and rising infections early 2020 forced institutions of higher education to quickly shift to virtual learning. In Kenya, Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) - a real time interaction of humans through computer devices became a quick and necessary mode to facilitate continuous learning. CMC replaced face-to-face classroom interactions, exhibiting challenges and creative opportunities. Through qualitative research methods, I draw teaching and learning experiences of CMC from two private Kenyan Universities (Daystar and St. Paul's). This paper argues that the social identity model of de-individuation or SIDE mode (Spears and Reicher 1995), enhances effective computer mediated interactions. Findings show that in COVID-19 scenarios, tutors were forced to deal with an emotionally charged group of online students. Some students lacked stable Internet, or their parents were struggling financially and unable to sustain the technological needs. There were students who experienced stress related anxieties. These psycho-social contexts provide a plausible scenario to probe the social identity model of de-individuation effects (SIDE mode). The model is widely used in social-psychology to explain apparent breakdown of normative behavior among groups. In this case, the COVID-19 scenario pushed learners and tutors to adapt and deal with effects of CMC, at the same time manage learning anxieties. In this paper, I argue that in using CMC, tutors adapt less formal approaches that include adjusting to informal non-structured communication. KEYWORDS: Computer Mediated Communication, COVID-19 Learning Adaptations, SIDE Mode

April to June every year, Rwandans commemorate the 1994 genocide. Extensive oral historical narratives are brought to life. Under the Aegis Trust for the prevention of genocide and crimes against humanity, stories are re-enacted and shared. Narratives of memories are seen as instruments to heal historical trauma. Rwanda has since moved from ravages of the genocide to political and economic stability. Although, Rwanda records a history of ethnic killings and near genocide from 1950s, it is the 1994 genocide that rocked its fabric of peace. Des Forges (2007) argues the genocide was not an outburst of uncontrolled rage of ethnic hatred, but a discontent to historical grievances and widening economic disparities between the Hutu elites and Rwandan poor. To suppress dissent, state and militia extremists planned and orchestrated the genocide. After the genocide, an International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was set up to try suspects. It was supplemented with Gacaca courts - a modified traditional conflict resolution system. In this paper, I aim to analyse oral history as a qualitative methodology. The narratives archived on video recount how Rwandans heal the genocide trauma through remembering. According to Moyer (1993) oral history involves a systematic gathering of testimonies of people who have experienced a significant event. It is not based on non-factual information, rather on verifiable facts that can be analyzed and placed in accurate historical contexts. This paper will adapt an oral historical narrative analysis of video testimonies from the Aegis Trust. KEYWORDS: oral history, narrative analysis, Rwandan genocide memories, trauma healing&nbsp

“White Terror” (2013), a BBC documentary details colonial atrocities in Kenya and thereafter state of emergency. I argue, ghosts (memories) of the atrocities still haunt a few remaining colonial survivors. Socio-political colonial structures were inherited in post-independence Kenya. The documentary based on Harvard’s History Professor Caroline Elkins (2005) research was evidenced in a legal suit of five colonial survivors against the British government for torture. Post-2007 ethno-political conflicts in Kenya can be linked to misappropriations in the 1954 Swynerton land tenure reforms. British occupation of native land sparked an insurgency that resulted in a state emergency (1952-1960), and later turned into struggle for independence. To Kenyans, Mau Mau (largely Kikuyus) were freedom fighters, but inhuman savage terrorists to colonial agents. Geographical annexing of land placed the Kikuyu, a dominant ethnic group close to the colonial capital, while the rest of the tribes were disbursed in the peripheries. In postcolonial Kenya, political and economic disparities herald power struggles between dominant ethnicities, in the case of Kenya; Kikuyu, Luo and Kalenjin. Postcolonial theory was a result of colonial experience, “the testimonies of the third world countries and discourses of minorities within geographical and political divisions of “East and West”, “North and South” (Bhabha 1994). First generational Kenyans survived colonialism, but retain narratives of the struggle over colonial domination. Using a postcolonial and discourse theoretic qualitative methodology for documentary and interviews analysis, this paper traces narratives of postcolonial Kenya and impacts on present day social political challenges. KEYWORDS: postcolonialism, socio-political narratives, colonial imagery, post-independence Kenya