It has been said that former Subukia MP Koigi wa Wamwere and controversy are inseparable. Nowhere does that come out clearly than in his new book Towards Genocide in Kenya: The Curse of Negative Ethnicity in Kenya. Actually, this is not an entirely new book. Koigi added a new chapter in his earlier book Negative Ethnicity: From Bias to Genocide, to come up with the present book.
The first book was published by Seven Stories Press in New York in 2003. It warned of what would happen in Kenya should we let the monster of negative ethnicity (tribalism) entrench itself in the country. We entertained the monster and it did not disappoint. Four years after Koigi’s book was published the country burst its seams.
Kenyans turned against Kenyans in an orgy of murderous violence previously unseen in the country history of the country. Well, we had witnessed violence inspired by negative ethnicity since 1992, at the introduction of multi party politics, and which occurred predictably, every five years, in time for general elections.
The violence that took place after the contested 2007 General Election, though said to be a “fight for democracy” was just an extension of what had been happening in 1992 and 1997. The only difference is that this time inhibitions were cast aside, and our soft underbelly was exposed. Local and international media cheered on as poor Kenyans butchered fellow poor Kenyans.
If truth be told, the 2007 elections were not about issues. It was all about tribe and hatred, and negative ethnicity was on the driver’s seat. The new chapter on Koigi’s book is aptly titled Reaping the Storm, for we surely reaped the storm. The author puts events that led to the violence into sharp perspective, and he takes no prisoners. In the book, he delves into issues that are only talked about in whispers. In short he goes where the Kenyan media chose to ignore or to cover up all together.
Koigi also takes the battle to the backyard Western powers and exposes what he thinks was their role in the whole issue. Most of all he examines the relationship between various ethnic communities in Kenya and how politicians were able to exploit that and sow seeds of enmity and hatred among the people. He also addresses the issues of the coalition government, and what he thinks are its chances of success.
Going by some of the revelations in the book, it is likely that it might rub some feathers the wrong way, and that is where Koigi excels in courting controversy. Some publishers had to turn the book down, in view of the explosive contents of the new chapter. Eventually, the book found home in Mvule Africa, a publishing venture run by Barrack Muluka, another person who does not shy away from controversy. I must also mention that the book has some pictures, whose only intention must have been to cause “shock and awe”. You only need to see some of the images to see what I mean.
The book is available at leading bookstores and is retailing at Sh1,200, which I think is a bit on the higher side. Overall, the general physical outlook of the book should have benefited from more professional input.
Category: Personalities
I must admit here that Sarah Palin, in spite of the awful things that have been said and written about her, pulled off quite a speech when she accepted her vice-presidential nomination at the Republican Convention.
She proved that just like Obama, she has what it takes to work up crowds and the Republican conservatives must really love her. While I would wish her well, as she and McCain face off with the formidable opposition of Obama-Biden, I can’t help but wonder what she has against books.
I think her speech was going on rather well until she decided to make Obama’s authorship the topic of her attacks against the Illinois Senator
“… it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform – not even in the state senate,” she charged. This was in obvious reference to Obama’s two best-selling books ‘Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance’ and ‘The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.’
It is not hard to see that Palin is miffed by the positive publicity the two books have afforded Obama. On the contrary everywhere she turns she effortlessly attracts scandal and more scandal.
Isn’t it the height of mediocrity that any person, let alone a vice-presidential candidate, would decide to attack the very fountains of knowledge; books.
What example is the good lady setting to American children by pouring scorn on books? The saddest part in this macabre script is that those gathered actually cheered when she uttered these unfortunate words.
I can understand where she is coming from. Brawn as opposed to brains has served her well on her way to the top. When you hear that she managed to tear apart the “old boys” network in Alaska, as well as taking on oil cartels, don’t imagine she did it through the power of persuasion. Is it any wonder that the word Barracuda has liberally been used to describe her? Oh, by the way she loves guns and likes hunting.
I gather that Palin has a degree in Journalism. But pray tell, why she exhibit such contempt of knowledge and information?
In spite of everything, I still have much faith in Palin. She can redeem herself and even put her massive talents to good use by writing a book or books of her own.
Suggested titles:
Pregnancy Myths: A Working Mum’s Journey to the Top
More Guns, Less Books: My Dream for a Terrorist Free America
Good luck Palin. You really need it.
Update: I gather that sometime back in Alaska, Palin tried to get a librarian fired because the said librarian refused to remove some books, the governor found “offensive” for the library! How anti-knowledge can one get?
Judy Akinyi, or Saga MacOdongo, if you like, is the latest sensation in the Kenyan literary scene. Every one now seems to want a piece of her. Well, I will not deny her the right to be feted by literary enthusiasts. She has earned it. Her book Deadly Money Maker is currently the talk of town. The book was written while she was serving a jail term at the Langata Women’s Prison, for drug trafficking.
A former lecturer at the Kenya Polytechnic, Akinyi fell to the lure of quick money and plunged into the underworld. Her dream of overnight riches evaporated into thin air when on coming back from her maiden trip as a mule, she was arrested at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
The drug queen, who had introduced her into the illegal business left her to her own devices, and that is how she found herself cooling her heels at Langata. It seems odd and cruel that she would be arrested even before she tasted the fruits of her “work”. Well, word on the ground has it that, she had been set up as a pawn. She was earmarked to be a sacrificial lamb. This theory goes on to further suggest that drug lords and drug enforcement officials sometimes work in collusion.
The plan, it is said, is to have an unfortunate mule arrested, after a certain period of time, so as to show the public the war against drugs is alive and well. Thus, poor Akinyi found herself in the middle of a complex web and suffered the consequences
As fate would have it, it was not long before she got her chance to exact revenge. The drug queen, who sold her short, was finally arrested and was to be tried in the US. Akinyi was only too willing to testify against her. Akinyi’s testimony was all the justice system in the US needed to finally put the other woman behind bars.
Akinyi had not finished her sentence when she was released courtesy of a presidential pardon. Shortly after her release, Kwani? featured her in their monthly prose reading sessions, the Sunday Salon in June. Storymoja were waitinng in the wings and no sooner had Kwani? finished with her, they snapped her up with an even bigger and more elaborate schedule.
The readings kicked off on July 5 at the Wheels Restaurant along Ngong Road, followed by another one at the Das Restaurant in Westlands, the following day. On Saturday July 12, they were at Choma Vision along Thika Road. Their next event takes place on Sunday, July 27 at Tea Pot Restaurant, along Koinange Street from 2p.m. to 6p.m. The host will be radio personality Valentine Njoroge.
This is on top of the numerous TV interviews she has made in the intervening period. And Maisha Yetu reveals that a movie project, based on the book is in the works. Watch this space for developments. All this hype will definitely do a lot of good to the book, which might boost its sales. Hopefully then, she might not be tempted to go back into crime.
One thing though, all this hype risks getting into her head. Before you accuse me of sour grapes let me explain; Soon after her release, a journalist with one of the leading papers in Kenya called her seeking for an interview. After taking him round in circles postponing the interview, she finally asked him if he would pay her! To cut the long story short, the interview eventually did not materialise.
And how come her publishers, Paulines Publications are not getting any mentions? Could it be that they are just content to have their book marketed for them?
Prof Wangari Maathai’s memoirs Unbowed, will be the subject of discussion during this month’s Storymoja’s Book Club. The event takes place on Monday 7th of July 2008 at the Sherlock’s Den Nakumatt Lifestyle from 6pm to 8 pm.
Nominated MP Njoki Ndung’u will grace the event.
Unbowed, published in 2006, puts the Nobel Laureate’s life in focus. In the book, she opens her life to the reading public, including intimate details about her marriage, and the messy divorce that followed.
She also describes, in great detail, her struggles against retired President Moi’s dictatorship, for which she suffered severe beatings, public humiliation from politicians, and being locked in police cells. Incidentally, it is those tribulations that eventually earned her the Nobel, not forgetting her tree planting efforts.
Many publishers in Kenya did not take kindly the fact that Prof Maathai overlooked them and chose a foreign publisher. During the book’s launch at Outspan hotel in Nyeri, in September 2006, Prof Maathai said that no local publisher had approached her for the project.
This is despite the fact that an editor, at a local publishing house, had confided in me that they had contacted her office with a view to writing the book, but got no response.
To be honest had I been in Prof Mathaai’s position, I would have opted for the foreign publisher. The offer one gets from these people is, to paraphrase Kimunya, is simply irresistible.
This should not be interpreted as a slight to local publishers, but do they have the capacity to market such a book internationally? The answer is a big NO!
Let me illustrate this. Why is it that a book like Onduko Bw’ Atebe’s The verdict of Death, which in spite of winning the inaugural Wahome Mutahi Literary Prize, is not known beyond Kenyan borders?
Even Ngugi wa Thiong’o, with his attachment to East African Educational Publishers, decided to give international rights for his book Wizard of the Crow, to foreign publishers.
Local publishers however made up for it by publishing Children’s books on the Nobel Laureate. Oxford University Press published Waithaka Waihenya’s Army of One, in 2006. Last year, Sasa Sema, an imprint of Longhorn Publishers published Kinyanjui Kombani’s Wangari Maathai: Mother of Trees.
But I digress. The Storymoja Book Club brings together book lovers, who discuss their shared love; the book. The book club also affords them the opportunity to network. Annual membership to the club is Sh1000.
What are the benefits of being a Storymoja Book Club member? For starters you qualify to get 20% Discounts for books in Nakumatt Ukay, Mega, Nyali and Embakasi bookshops, hmm not bad at all. That is not all. One also gets 10% reduced on the price food and drinks courtesy of Books first, Sherlock’s Den and Storymoja. I wonder if this enticing discount is applicable whenever a Storymoja Book Club member drops by at Sherlock’s Den at anytime?
The Movie Hotel Rwanda might have done a lot to sensitise the world on the 1994 Rwandan genocide, but not many people in Rwanda are happy about it.
So much such that there is nothing in or around Hotel des Mille Collines that says that this is actually the hotel that was famously depicted in the movie.
One naturally assumes that the huge publicity generated by the Hollywood movie, directed by Terry George and starring Don Cheadle, might be taken upon by Rwandan authorities to promote it as a popular tourist destination.
The movie tells the story of Paul Rusesabagina, acted by Cheadle, the manager of the hotel, at the time of the genocide, and who is credited with saving the lives of more than 1200 refugees, who had camped there.
Now, the name Rusesabagina is spoken of, not with fondness, but with contempt, by certain quarters in the country. In fact, government officials want nothing to do with Rusesabagina, a Hutu.
The Rwandan government, comprised mainly of Tutsis and moderate Hutus, and who were on the receiving end of murderous Hutus during the genocide, are angry that the movie depicts Rusesabagina as a hero who saved people’s lives. They say that is not the case.
While at some point, following the release of the movie in 2004, Rusesabagina carved himself a high profile career, in Europe and the US, giving talks about the genocide, he is currently faced with tough questions back at home.
Authorities in Rwanda are deeply angered by the fact that Rusesabagina, courtesy of his high profile, today goes around the world allegedly trying to absolve the genocide masterminds of the crimes they committed.
So concerned, about Rusesabagina’s alleged portrayal in the movie, and what he is doing with the recognition, that a book has been written to specifically challenge his story in the movie.
Hotel Rwanda: Or the Tutsi Genocide as seen by Hollywood, co-authored by Alfred Ndahiro and Privat Rutazibwa was launched on Thursday, March 13 in Kigali. It was launched at Hotel des Mille Collines, the very place Rusesabagina was supposed to have carried out his heroic deeds.
Speaking in halting English that rainy evening, Bernard Makuza, Rwanda’s current prime minister, expressed his disgust with the movie and particularly the Utalii College-trained Rusesabagina.
The Prime Minister’s anger is perhaps informed by the fact that at the time of the genocide he was among those who sought refuge at the hotel.
He narrated how, during the Screening of the movie at the Serena Hotel in Kigali, he actually averted his gaze from the screen during the whole time the movie was being screened. “I only attended the screening of the movie out of protocol, as a government official. Otherwise there was no way I would have gone there,” said a fuming Makuza.
Apart from the prime minister, there were other persons who were at the hotel then, and who gave their testimonies, all of them saying that Rusesabagina was anything but the hero depicted in movie.
Serge Sakumi, who was 14, at the time recalls how a relative brought them to Hotel Mille Collines, only for Rusesabagina to turn them away for lack of money. He had turned out at the hotel with nine of his siblings.
All the while, armed Interahamwe militia were roaming the road waiting to pounce. “I was about to be killed in front of the hotel because I had no money. Rusesabagina does not have a human heart,” he charged. “How can he call himself a hero if he had no mercy on children.”
The book is filled with testimonies of how Rusesabagina harassed those in the hotel for payment and threatened to throw out those who did not have money.
“Many other Rwandans who took refuge in the hotel have publicly declared that the heroic acts attributed to the character of the film bear no resemblance to the reality of events there over that three-month period,” says the book.
It adds: “it should also be pointed out that the hotel manager, unlike the saviour portrayed in the film, initially prevented the refugees from procuring food from the Red Cross because he preferred to sell them the hotel supplies.”
Among other evidence book reproduces a copy of fax sent to Rusesabagina, from the hotel owners in Belgium, instructing him not to charge for food that was acquired for free.
In the movie Rusesabagina is depicted as a resourceful person, who persuades the architects of the genocide to spare the refugees by bribing them with cigars, alcohol and a little money.
“… General Bizimungu and his cohorts were not poor wretches that could be bribed with goodies…they were the cream of the genocidaires, that is, hardened killers with everything they could desire at their disposal, who had the power of life and death over almost everyone,” writes the authors.
In any case, the book argues that these genocide plotters were Rusesabagina’s friends, and that they would constantly drop in at the hotel for refreshments. It adds that through his ‘useful’ contacts with Georges Rutaganda, the Interahamwe vice-president, Rusesabagina was able to have a steady supply of alcohol at the hotel. “Not surprisingly, the senior officers of the Rwandan Armed Forces needed a quiet, safe place where they could quench their thirst and organise their next move after a killing spree,” says the book.
However, in his book Shake Hands with the Devil, LGen Romeo Dallaire acknowledges that Rusesabagina’s act of giving alcohol to the genocidaires contributed in a small way in saving the refugees in that hotel.
It should also be recalled that Rusesabagina’s wife, a Tutsi, and their children were also camped at the hotel, thus he had an obligation, if only to his family, to ensure that Tutsis in that hotel were out of harm’s way.
If as the book claims that Rusesabagina did not save the refugees from the genocide plotters who used to frequent the hotel, then how come these people did not come under attack?
Among other things the book owes the people’s safety to the UNAMIR, the United Nations peace keepers in Rwanda. It also says that expatriates, UN and other NGOs personnel, as well as international journalists were housed there, “which was enough to deter would-be murders from the wholesale massacres that were going on in the rest of the country.”
Rusesabagina’s credibility was dealt a further blow when Valerie Bemeriki, who was a presenter with the infamous Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines, (RTLM) and who is currently serving a life sentence in prison, for her role in the genocide, told researchers for the book that Rusesabagina used to pass on names to RTLM. “…I also know that if you reported anyone, like I used to do on radio…you put them on death row. That’s what he (Rusesabagina) used to do; he gave us the names we broadcast on RTLM,” Bameriki is quoted as saying.
It would appear that authors of the book put in quite some work in researching for the book. They even unearthed information to the effect that Rusesabagina at some point, while still working Hotel Mille Collines, in the early ‘90s, used to spy on Tutsis for the Rwandan Intelligence services.
And in what appears to be an obsession with the man, they have traced his every move. They are well aware that Rusesabagina formed the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation (HRRF), and whose registered directors are Rusesabagina, his wife and his two sons-in-law.
The authors also know that all the monies raised by the foundation actually goes into Rusesabagina’s personal account. Perhaps their real reason for hounding him, is the fact that “he used his newly-acquired fame, thanks to Hollywood to indulge in petty politicking that exposed his ethnic and revisionist tendencies.”
At some point Terry George, Hotel Rwanda’s director found himself in the thick of this controversy. In an article he wrote to the Washington Post in May 2006, seeking to clear his man, he suggests that the fact that Rusesabagina intends to form a political party, is causing the Rwandan ruling elite anxious moments. He nevertheless concludes that Hotel Rwanda 2 “is a sequel I never want to make.”
Suggested reading Shake Hands with the Devil by LGen Romeo Dallaire, An Ordinary Man, by Paul Rusesabagina, A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Rwanda’s Genocide by Linda Melvern.
His was such a powerful voice, especially coming from a person of such small stature. Even as he was ailing, Amisi’s voice did not betray this when together with Prof Chris Wanjala and author Onduko Bw’ Atebe hosted Literary Giants on KBC Radio every Sunday afternoon. His unmistakable voice on radio was only but a facade of the daunting odds that must have weighed heavily on him in his last days.
Otieno Amisi, given to a cheerful disposition, never missed any literary event. One thing that struck a person upon meeting him for the first time was his small eyes, that burnt with so much life. I first met Amisi in 2002, when I was writing for the The Standard. He joined from Daily Nation as a theatre critic. Though we didn’t interact much then, from his pieces, I could tell he was a serious person.
In September 2003, a shake-up at the Standard, saw a number of journalists out in the streets without jobs. Amisi and I were among the unfortunate lot. In the course of our freelancing we would bump into each other in several functions. It is around that time that I heard that he had become a dad to quadruplets! I imagined it must have been tough surviving as a freelancer, in Nairobi, and having to raise four new babies.
My real interaction with Amisi came about in 2006 when he opened his blog – he is actually the one who ushered me into the world of blogging. “Dear friend,
I finally have a new blog, where we can share ideas on editing and writing. Just go to otienoamisi.wordpress.com Otieno Amisi,” was the message he sent me on October 25, 2006. And that is when I came to know the other side of Amisi. His fearless wit and intellect came out in his postings. His pen spared no one. When James Murua – www.nairobiliving.com – launched his website on social life in Nairobi, Amisi gave it a stinging review, in his blog, dismissing it not being ‘artistic’. This drew sharp reactions from people who thought Jaymo was doing a great job, including yours trully.
With our pens, Amisi and I had crossed s(words), and this brought about a healthy mutual respect. In the course of his blogging Amisi never shied away from getting into a fight, with whoever, as long as he believed he was right. He had opened my eyes to the exciting world of blogging. He would put enything he wrote in his blogs, and while most of it presented readers with interesting readings, others made for labourious reads.
Soon he opened another blog on poetry, and he did justice to it seeing as he was the secretary of Kenya Poets Association. Courtesy of www.writethatstory.com Amisi made a first when he launched a poetry e-book Back to the Future during the 2007 Nairobi International Book Fair, which was celebrating its tenth anniversary.
Then it was qiute clear that he was really ailing. After a lengthy hospitalisation at Kenyatta National Hospital – he included his hospital experiences in his blog – he lost use of his right hand and it was permanently in a sling. If anything, his ill-health served to drive him even harder. I remember seeing him hand-in-sling make his way through treacherous and slippery rocky gorges, during a trip organised for writers, by Kwani? Trust, to Hell’s Gate in Naivasha, in early 2007. Amisi also rarely missed the monthly poetry Open Mic organised by Kwani? at Club Soundd in Nairobi. And he almost always had a new poem to recite.
When Tony Mochama aka Smitta Smitten launched his poetry book – What if I am a Literary Gangster – in November 2007, there was no way Amisi would have missed out in the action. I reviewed the book in my blog and it generated quite a debate. To date, it is the most popular post on my blog.
On December 10 2007, Amisi called on me and gave me his review of Mochama’s book, and insisted that I publish it in my blog. I saw it an honour that Amisi would consider blog worthy of his review. Whenever we met he used to tell me a lot of nice things about my blog, which was naturally flattering. Amisi’s review, which I titled Gangster Poetry: Otieno Amisi’s Verdict was to be my last post for 2007, and that was the last day I saw him alive.
In the meantime, the political scene was getting heated up with politicians, making a nuisance of themselves, campaigning for the 2007 General Election. The violence that greeted the presidential poll results left many, including bloggers, shell-shocked. Come the bloody new year, the country is in ruins, and people are preoccupied with their safety. That is when I heard that Amisi had passed away. It also emerged that he did not even vote, which is as well, as he did not partcipate in the process that has almost reduced our dear country into a hell hole.
With Amisi’s death, Kenya’s writing fraternity has lost a committed journalist and a dedicated poet.
RIP Amisi, you lived the full life.
Categories
Kingwa Kamencu, Kenya’s rising star
As a first year Literature student at the University of Nairobi Kingwa Kamencu took up the challenge by the National Book Development Council of Kenya (NBDCK), to come up with a manuscript for a novella, and won the second prize and Ksh35,000.
That was in 2003. The same novella, now in the form of a book – To Grasp at a Star – won the youth category of the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature, Kenya’s most prestigious literary prize.
An elated Kingwa says winning the prize is enough testimony that her writing can actually compete with the best in the country. Looking back at the manuscript she wrote as a student, she says at the time she not quite sure it would be among the winners. “I nevertheless submitted the manuscript and hoped for the best,” she recalls.
“At that time in campus I decided to write so as to overcome the disappointment of losing in student leadership elections,” she says.
During the awards ceremony, she got to interact with many personalities in the literary world, some of whom she had only read about in her Literature class. However, one individual was to make all the difference.
In the gathering was Barrack Muluka, who was then the managing director of East Educational Publishers (EAEP). “I talked to him and he asked me to submit the manuscript for consideration at the company,” says Kingwa her face lighting up at the recollection.
She wasted no time. The event was held on a Friday evening and by Monday morning an excited Kingwa was knocking at EAEP’s offices in Westlands.
Then the good news came. She was informed that her manuscript had passed the publication test only that they wanted another novella of the same length. Luckily, for her she had written one.
Her dream of being a published author was finally realised when she was in third year. To Grasp at a Star was finally born. She says that after the book was published, there was so much excitement both from her family members and university colleagues.
“My university lecturers were very proud of me. They held a launch for me at the university and even adopted the book for use in children’s literature,” says the only girl in a family of boys.
That was just the beginning for what was to be exciting times ahead for the book. When the Kenya Publishers Association announced that they were introducing the Wahome Mutahi Literary Prize, in 2006, in honour of the late humourist, EAEP entered Kingwa’s book for the competition.
She was pleasantly surprised when her book took third position behind Stephen Mugambi’s book Wait for me Angela (Kenya Literature Bureau). Onduko bw’ Atebe’s book The Verdict of Death, also by EAEP took the overall prize.
During this year’s Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature Awards, To Grasp at a Star won the overall prize in the youth category, beating Ken Walibora’s book Innocence Long Lost (Sasa Sema) to second position. Meja Mwangi’s book Boy Gift came in third.
The judging panel led by Prof Emilia Illieva of Egerton University was full of praises of the book.
“Kingwa Kamencu tells immensely interesting stories of young female adults who, under the impact of illusive ideas of success and glamour, get caught up in dangerous situations that nearly jeopardise the bright future they so much deserve by virtue of their outstanding qualities,” said Emillia.
Kingwa, who now works as a writer at the Media Institute, finished her undergraduate studies in August last year, where she graduated with First Class Honours. She is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Literature, a scholarship she got from the university.
She has attended various courses on writing including British Councils’ Crossing Borders programme. She has also volunteered during the Kwani Trust organised Litfest held in December last year.
She however thinks that more needs to be done to improve the literary situation in the country. “Writers need to be more serious in their writing and publishers need to market their products more,” she says. “Otherwise we will keep moaning about a poor reading culture forever.”