Category Archives: Kenyan Literature

by

Ndiritu Wahome and Ciku Kimeria for Goethe Nairobi

Kenyan writers Ndiritu Wahome and Ciku Kimeria will be the authors who will be discussing their books at the “Conversation with African writers” series at the Goethe Institut in Nairobi on Thursday March 19th. They will be facilitated by facilitated by Khainga O’ Okwemba.

I’ve talked about Ciku Kimeria on this blog before. She is the author who has been doing her darnedest to market her debut novel Of goats and poisoned oranges a tantalizing tale of betrayal, deceit, greed, corruption, love and revenge that will leave you reeling. Her efforts have seen her showing her work in Uganda and in West Africa, Ghana and Nigeria to be precise.

Then there is Ndiritu Wahome whose contribution to the African literature lexicon is “The sad artist and other fairy tales.” I interviewed him last year and he turned out to be quite the philosopher writer.

Then there is Khainga O’Okwemba. He is a Kenyan poet, journalist, writer of fiction, and critic – Khainga Okwemba. I have talked about his work here.

So these three folks will be talking books and you know you want in on the action. The best thing about is that the first 100 people to rsvp to the event starting at 6pm will be eligible for a KES 100 discount on the book price at the event.

 

by

A review of Jo Alkemade’s Belonging in Africa

Belonging In Africa

Book: Belonging in Africa

Author: Jo Alkemade

Publisher: Lesleigh Inc

Publication date: 2014

Number of pages: 256

Belonging in Africa is the debut novel by Kenyan born, USA based Jo Alkemade and it follows the exploits of Sara a young girl of Dutch parentage who is born in Kenya in the early 1960s. Based on real life events in the late 1970, it starts as she is turning eighteen and she is excited by the concept of being an adult. On this day she receives gifts from family and friends befitting her age; her father pays for her driving lessons so that she can finally start driving her own car. Her friends give her a fancy lighter for her cigarettes which her father on seeing them hopes will not make her smoke more.

As she is enveloped in love, she is waiting for her boyfriend to come through for a date on her special day. He did not the bastard. Heartbroken, she eventually hooks up with Sam Dragu a dashing Ugandan rugby player who lives in a motel in Westlands with his brother Dennis. The affair seems extremely enjoyable on both sides and it looks like one happily ever after thing is on the cards. It is not flawless. Sara’s dad doesn’t like it that her daughter is going out with some miro and he does his best to cock block the two. He even goes as far as to try and veto a trip for the two to a farm in Kapenguria. What kind of father doesn’t want his daughter to go of with some dude who he knows will be shafting her with wild abandon you ask? I mean this was before HIV/AIDS so this should be OK right?

In spite of daddy’s best intentions, the couple make their way to Kapenguria where they bring the beast with two backs to life. Such a special time that was had there. When they separate, they have a plan. The two lovebirds will meet in London to study and continue their attempt at decimating the supply of condoms in the UK. He goes off home to Uganda and she awaits communication in Nairobi.

As she awaits, she informs her parents of her nefarious plan and guess the response? Do I have to tell you? Evil dad vetos it! World War 3 seemed to be on the cards until a call comes from Uganda. Her lover is dead. She goes to the land that has just been liberated by mad cap dictator Idi Amin and then goes home to make decisions about her future. Against her father’s wishes again the poor old man.

When I was given this book by the publisher I was a bit apprehensive. I am still recovering from the horrible “White Maasai” literary phenomenon where white women write about coming to Kenya to marry savage African men and how it doesn’t work out so well for them. Then I’m looking at this book telling us about a forbidden love between a white girl and black man; jamaneni eish! The beauty about it is that the author tries; she really does her best. But even as I read it I can still see the white privilege there. I mean how many locals do you hear who are already driving at eighteen with parents that allow them to smoke in their house? How many locals do you hear would allow their eighteen year old to go off on an adventure that probably will end in sex. How many people will tell you about their favourite beggar to give a shilling outside the Stanely? Not many I assure you. Even as I read the book these little things jump up at me try as I might to ignore them.

Apart from that itsy bitsy issue there’s also the problem of lack of content in the book. This book could have been much much shorter and it wouldn’t have affected the plot in anyway. For this reader, there were many periods I would trudge through the book because I was determined to finish it (my new year’s resolution) and review it.

The book does have many redeeming qualities. It is exceeding well edited. This means that I am not worrying about the quality of my reading as I do when reading some of the manuscripts being touted as complete books in this town.

It also gives a very nice snapshot of the expat life in the late 1970s and its connection with some of the more affluent miros in town. The Uganda leg of the story is also very informative. I’ve read about the Uganda of that time but she gives a fresh eye to it all.

Would I recommend that you but this story of a young girl and her love for a Ugandan dude that dies? I don’t know man. The answer has to be a no. If you have the time and have nothing better to do why not?

Miro – Black person.

Odiero – White person.

by

Ciku Kimeria channels Pet Shop Boys, Goes West

Ciku Kimeria

The Pet Shop Boys are one of the most famous bands out of the UK in the latter part of the 20th Century who sold more than 50 million records worldwide. The group, two lads, played to packed stadia around the world with stadium management from the US to the Japan having to deal with screaming teenage girls and probably a lot of discarded undergarments. The glory times.

One of the biggest song was Go West which they sung in 1993 and it had a glorious lyrics with a chorus that went like this;

(Go West) Life is peaceful there
(Go West) In the open air
(Go West) Where the skies are blue
(Go West) This is what we’re gonna do

(Go West, this is what we’re gonna do, Go West)

It seems even African writers follow in the words of these two British boys as Kenyan writer Ciku Kimeria recently went west; of the African continent in Ghana and Nigeria. The writer was presenting her debut novel Of Goats and Poisoned Oranges which had been received enthusiastically when it appeared in Uganda.

Her Ghana launched happened in Accra at the annual Kenyans in Ghana festival which was chaired by the high commissioner in that part of the world on 1st February. In Nigeria, there was a launch at the Bogobiri House on Victoria island in Lagos on 5th February.

Which she was doing her launch duties she was heard on local stations selling her book with the energy only a Kenyan can. One of these was on Citi FM where she was grilled by Martin Egblewogbe the Caine Prize finalist and writer of The Gonjon Pin (yes, the title story from THAT Caine Prize anthology). She was also heard on Enterprise Radio and Radio 1 Lagos.

So those of you in the West of this rock can buy this book at the Vidya Bookshop in Osu, Accra, and Glendora, Ikeja Mall Lagos.

Courtesy of the writer and marketer please check out images from her West African tour.

P.S. If we are all channeling famous artists from the 20th Century then I will now bring in my inner Inikamoze… Here comes the hot stepper/Bloggerer!

Ciku Kimeria at Glendora

by

Storymoja breaks Kenya’s national reading record

Kids read aloud in different venues. Photo/Storymoja

According to Guinness World Records™, the record for the most people reading aloud from the same document simultaneously is 223,363 participants at 909 venues across the United States for an event organized by Walden Media on December 13, 2006.
The good people at Storymoja have been gunning to break that record for the last few years which is why 30th of January was the day that we tried to break the record. They were to read “Attack of the Shidas” at different venues.

Our Storymoja friends did their best but they didn’t quite get the world record. 160,190 children from 422 schools in 12 counties did read at the same time.

Its not a world record but a Kenya national record. We’ll take it.

by

Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor makes Folio Prize 2015 shortlist

Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor

In December last year I wrote a blog about The Folio Prize, the first major English language book prize open to writers from around the world published in the UK. When I mentioned it the interest for me was that there were three Africans on the list: South African author Damon Galgut, Ethiopian born Mengestu Dinaw and Kenyan Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor. I was quite please for the three.

Last night the people from Folio announced their short list and I was even more happy as Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor is on it for her debut novel Dust (My review here). She is still in the running to be the next winner of the title Folio Prize winner which comes along with a cheque for £40,000.

This is not her first prize as she was the winner for the Caine Prize in 2013.

Folio Prize 2015 short list

The shortlist in full

10:04 by Ben Lerner (Granta)

All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews (Faber)

Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill (Granta)

Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (Granta)

Family Life by Akhil Sharma (Faber)

How to Be Both by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton)

Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín (Viking)

Outline by Rachel Cusk (Faber)

by

Storymoja for World Record reading attempt. Again

Guinness World Record Attempt

Storymoja Publishers is most famous for the annual literary festival that they host in Nairobi, Kenya. They are also the people behind several titles. They are also the people who have several initiatives that they push to ensure that they spread the importances of reading.

One of their most noteworthy initiatives to bring the focus on reading is the Guinness Record for reading aloud. The current record for the most readers reading aloud from the same book at the same time is 233,000 people and it is held by the USA. The Storymoja people have been hunting that record for a while now with their “Storymoja Read Aloud” drive. Last June they broke the national record for reading aloud with 142,279 students read aloud in 360 schools from the same text.

Attack of the Shidas

This year the team at Storymoja have decided to try at this record earlier in the year. They are calling on all of you who can to take 30 minutes to help us smash the record at 9am on January 30th, 2015.

How can you do this? You can visit a primary school and urge them to participate. The registration form is online on org.

Alternatively you can Donate “Attack of the Shidas” books to participating schools. Each costs Kshs. 350.00 (The extract to be read aloud is at the back of the book. You can send your donation via mpesa using Storymoja buy goods number 779741). We will take the books to schools on your behalf and/or you can join us.

If you want to take part please contact [email protected] or [email protected].

Good luck Team Storymoja.

by

Kenyan author Nganga Mbugua predicted #NgiluSingh jokes

The Man in green Dungarees

The big story in Kenya right now is the #NgiluSinghJokes that have been trending on the Kenyan twitter. The jokes as a back story started when the police teargassed Kenyan school kids in what many considered a land grab by a powerful Kenyan. The lands minister or Cabinet Secretary as we call them here tabled the names of the directors of the company that allegedly owns the land the school kids play on. They were an interesting set of names;

  • Mandip Singh Amrit,
  • Madat Singh Amrit,
  • Harban Singh Amrit
  • Kamal Singh Amrit

As you can see the names are very similar. With this revelation Kenyans on Twitter or #KOT started the #NgiluSinghJokes trend that has been rocking the popular social media portal. The images have been mainly of embattle Deputy President William Ruto who many assumed was the person behind the land grab. Many of the images include him dressed in a turban or him as a “private developer.”

Literature reflects life!

Even as we worry about the drama of dealing with high placed individuals in Kenyan society it seems reading literature is a good way of gauging how prevalent something that actually happening in society. Take a case in point The Man in The Green Dungarees by Nganga Mbugua. In Page 76 we are introduced to a private developer called Kuldeep Singh which clearly shows that Singh as a property person in Kenya isn’t as strange as you would image.

Maybe we want to start reading a bit more and see what our society actually looks like?

 

by

Ciku Kimeria for Ghanaian launch

Ciku Kimeria

Kenyan writer Ciku Kimeria is one of the new novelists to watch in the continent. Her weirdly titled novel “Of Goats and Poisoned Oranges” is described as the tumultuous marriage of a middle-aged Kenyan power couple living in the hills of Mount Kenya as it is told by different parties in their life.

After a decent showing at the Storymoja Festival in 2014 the writer recently launched her book in Kampala, Uganda and got some good vibe from her sisters across the border.

It looks like West Africans are the next to get Kimeria’s special charm and plan for world domination. She will be launching book in Accra, Ghana on January 31st at the Accra Polo Club. For details for those who might be in Ghana and want to attend please read the poster attached.

 

by

Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor dazzles at TEDxEuston

Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor

Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor is probably one of my favourite writers to come to the African literature scene in the last decade or so. The Kenyan burst onto the scene winning the 2003 Caine Prize for African Writing for her story Weight of Whispers. The story was about an aristocratic Rwandan refugee who is displaced by the genocide in his home country and ends working in a very unpleasant job in Nairobi. It’s probably one of the best stories I have ever read.

She followed this up with Dust in 2014 which is considered a very important book in Kenya with her in the running for the Folio Prize and other things . My heart also highly regards the novel if my review is to be believed.

The writer who was named “Woman of the Year” by Eve Magazine in Kenya in 2004 for her contribution to Kenya’s literature and arts was the speaker at TEDxEuston yesterday and the was some decent (actually great but I’m being modest on her behalf) with Chikwe Ihekweazu describing it as “sheer poetry!” The blogger goes to state that, @She dropped many memorable lines, including this which takes a swipe at the “Bonoesque” brand of charity’: “We complete you “they” imply in songs that obliterated our voices”. “

You can watch the video and make your own judgement whether modest or hugely enthusiastic here.

by

Ciku Kimeria launches ‘Of Goats and Poisoned Oranges’ in Kampala

Ciku Kimeria Photo/Femrite

Ciku Kimeria is a Kenyan writer who exploded onto the literature scene last year with her book “Of Goats and Poisoned Oranges.”

The book has been blurbed thus; “It is generally accepted that there are only two possible outcomes to the flipping of a coin – heads or tails. In reality, there is also a small possibility of the coin landing on its edge. In this book we explore the tumultuous marriage of a middle aged Kenyan power couple as it is told by different parties in their life. On this riveting journey across the foothills of Mt. Kenya and the chaotic streets of Nairobi, the reader will learn that the truth is not a universal concept, but one that is dependent on the person telling the story.”

Kimeria, whose full time job is as a consultant focusing on international development issues, had her first major literary conference appearance at the Storymoja Festival 2014.

The audience listens to Ciku Photo/Femrite

It seems that our Kimeria has started spreading her wings as she launched her book under the auspices of Femrite in Uganda yesterday evening at the office courtyard in Kampala. Femrite for those not in the know is probably the most active women’s literature outfit on the continent which is saying something.

There was a decent turnout at the event and hopefully we shall see more African writers crossing borders to showcase their work.

Update: If you missed the event you can buy the book at Aristoc in Garden City and Acacia Mall