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: Reviews
Good people,
I received this thought provoking piece from Mundia Mundia and I thought I would share.
Leave your comments down there.
Hi, May you kindly permit me to break into the residence of the ‘Nyama Choma Siesta’ with a few reflections on the ‘Story Moja Nyama Choma Fiesta’. First, Muthoni Garland, the stewardess of this ‘eatery’ venture deserves a warm part on the back for a job well done. The ‘Reading is Fun’, that was the thyme of the recently held event certainly would help promote social interaction with love for the book as the main course. On the flip side though does the recipe for pages and the Nyama Choma flavor equals summer, dumber and slumber? For it seems that reading a book certainly should thus leave behind a meaty, but memorable, taste now that the combined delicacy appears popular. But does the seemingly harmless fever appear imperceptible and surely infecting all, including children?
When I think of food I think of, ‘Comfort Me With Apples by Riechl; Chocolat and Five Quarters of The Orange, by Joanne Harris; Eat, Cheat and Melt the Fat, by Suzanne Somers and Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser ( Houghton Mifflin).
My friend, Perminder Suri, informed me that he could not attend the fiesta for he is a strict vegetarian though he is a religious reader of novels. He could not allow his wife, who is obese and has secondary medical complications to join other readers. He is also worried that his children, Inaara and Khaliq Singh, may be exposed to a ‘strange’ economic class and socio-cultural orientations though he is keen to witness the ‘end product’ of the fiesta. This then led us to a lengthy verbal discourse on differentiation, association, the Pavlov effect and other related habits. He wonders how Nyama Choma can readily be associated with reading. He says that his friend, Musau, always talks of ‘having a siesta after a Nyama Choma spree’ (may be due to him taking alcohol). On the other hand he recognizes the impact of the ‘crowd puller’ merger. I asked him if that wasn’t deceit but he literally swallowed his answer but this time round not with chapatti.I later joked that my taking Nyama Choma may literally overtake my reading habit due to the former’s readily and easy-to-take palatable and ingesting flavor.As I contemplated taking the fleshy pieces a bout of gout and overweight caught my mind.There is no doubt that, ‘one can safely assume that the Kenyan literary landscape is slowly coming to life’, as Joseph Ngunjiri (SN, Aug. 17, 2008) put it.The same writer also confirms that Story Moja is ‘causing ripples in the literary world, if only through their unorthodox way of doing things’. Thus, Story Moja has helped promote social interaction at the same time reading.
But is Nyama Choma a recipe and the menu on the elusive literary pages?
Mundia Mundia Jnr.
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.
Categories
Negative Ethnicity: From Bias to Genocide
Title: Negative Ethnicity: From Bias to Genocide
Author: Koigi wa Wamwere
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
For a long time Kenyans held their heads high confident that theirs was a peaceful country, that the “Curse of Africa” – internal fighting – has never struck us, in spite of the fact that we are a multi-ethnic communities.
Well, this came to an embarrassing end following the disputed December 27 elections, when untold violence was visited upon innocent Kenyans. Their crime, they belonged to an ‘enemy’ ethnic community.
Following the clashes that saw Kenya being put in the same category with perennial trouble spots like Gaza, attempts have been made at explaining what caused such violence. Some have said that the presidential election results brought about the mayhem, while others put it down to “historical injustices”.
Former Subukia MP Koigi wa Wamwere begs to differ. In his book Negative Ethnicity: From Bias to Genocide, written in 2003, he identifies negative ethnicity as the chief cause of what is happening in the country today.
It is astounding how the book, written a good four years before the 2007 General Election, speaks almost prophetically about present day happenings. What is more the book says that negative ethnicity is not a phenomenon unique to Kenya or Africa for that matter. Based on research the book says negative ethnicity is to blame for what happened in the former Yugoslavia.
From the outset, Koigi sets about distinguishing ethnicity from negative ethnicity. According to the book ethnicity denotes the aspects that make us unique and different from others, be it shared language, beliefs, religion, race or colour. One’s ethnicity is something to be proud of, as it defines our culture and who we are.
Negative ethnicity on the other hand manifests itself when a group of people see themselves as being superior to others by virtue of their ethnicity. It also applies to those who see themselves as being inferior to other ethnic groups.
While in Africa negative ethnicity is manifested as being black against black, further a field it is in the form of white against white. “Though obvious, there are many who deny the existence of white negative ethnicity,” writes the author. “And when it is conceded, people seem to think it is less pernicious than its black counterpart… White negative ethnicity is just as brutal as black negative ethnicity, as the Croat-Serb conflict in the former Yugoslavia illustrated.”
“In this ethnic carnage,” he continues. “Over 200,000 people have lost their lives and two million were displaced from their homes, half never to return – proof that the monster of negative ethnicity is no more civilized in Europe than in Africa.”
Recently Kosovo declared itself an independent state, earning the recognition of world powers like the US. While the separation of those countries might seem the way forward in bring an end to the violence, Koigi does not believe it is an answer in itself.
“The more difficult promise of democracy, security of life and property, freedom, justice, and equality for all must replace the simplistic carving up of multiethnic nations into weak single ethnic states that are hostile to one another,” he writes.
Seeing as negative ethnicity, among the whites is no different from that which occurs among the blacks, the author singles out Europe and America for blame, if their response is anything to go by. He argues that powers in Europe and America were more enthusiastic in dealing with negative ethnicity in Yugoslavia than they were in Rwanda or Sierra Leone.
In the book, the author expresses concern that negative ethnicity is yet to be handled with the seriousness it deserves by the international community. “Like racism, negative ethnicity has spawned many genocidal forces. But while genocide, the product of negative ethnicity, is rightly regarded as a crime against humanity, negative ethnicity is not. It is indeed funny logic that considers the child worse than the parent,” he argues.
Koigi’s book presents the interplay between negative ethnicity and racism. He argues that while racism is a form of negative ethnicity, it is indeed racism that prevents Western powers from putting in place mechanisms that would tame negative ethnicity. On the other hand African leaders will whine about racism, while at the same time conveniently overlooking negative ethnicity, which the author identifies as Africa’s biggest problem, after HIV/Aids.
According to the book, the seeds of negative ethnicity are planted with such innocence that they are a source of fun. In the Kenyan example it manifests itself in the form of the ‘harmless’ jokes leveled on the different ethnic communities. These gradually grow into ethnic prejudices, and these are as varied as we have many ethnic communities.
These prejudices eventually graduate into using derogatory terms. These are geared towards generating resentment and hostility, and eventually the need to get rid of the ‘enemy’ communities. At that stage proponents of negative ethnicity drum into their people such hatred for their ‘enemies’ that they justify the killings that occurs afterwards.
Giving the example of the Rwandan genocide, the book argues that Hutus equated Tutsis with pests like cockroaches or weeds that had to be destroyed at all costs. “Negative ethnicity does not only dehumanize those it will destroy. It also dehumanizes the murderers into cold, sadistic machines. In Rwanda, the dehumanization of killers was unmistakable,” writes Koigi.
In a multiethnic country like Kenya, negative ethnicity challenges multiethnic nationalism, uproots and replaces national patriotism with ethnic patriotism. Thus, like it is the case in Kenya, politics takes on an increasingly ethnic nature, such that those who refuse to identify with ethnic patriotism are branded traitors to the ethnic cause.
Negative ethnicity, among other ways manifests itself when a particular community says that they would like one of their own in State House so that they can take part in “eating”. On the other hand, those with one of theirs in power say that they would like to protect their “chance to eat.”
Negative ethnicity presents itself in such a way that those who practice it do not see it as being a problem, and therefore has a way of deflecting people’s minds from its evil nature.
Writes Koigi: “Negative ethnicity never parades itself as evil. It promises security, food, power and freedom to African communities, and such it wins adherents by millions.”
And negative ethnicity afflicts everyone, in spite of their profession or standing in society. “I have seen church leaders use their pulpits to preach it (negative ethnicity) to their unsuspecting congregations. I have seen it taught by university professors, advocated by young intellectuals. I have seen it fed to the masses by journalists working, not just in the so-called gutter press, but for respectable newspapers, radio and television. I have seen in practiced by politicians in government and used by those in opposition,” writes the author.
The tragedy of negative ethnicity is that while it promises ‘liberation’ to the whole community, it only benefits a chosen few, namely the ethnic elite and those closest to them. “The elites are guilty of masterminding negative ethnicity, ethnic clashes, wars and massacres. Ordinary people are guilty of executing these conflicts…” says the book.
The book gives the author’s own experience with negative ethnicity in the country, as well as the history of ethnically inspired clashes and massacres in the country, their causes and effects. The book also gives channels that are used to entrench negative ethnicity. It also suggests ways in which the fires of negative ethnicity can be quelled.
The author suggests that a body be formed to measure how widespread negative ethnicity is, something akin to the global corruption index. “If we had such a chart for Africa,” he writes. “Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Ethiopia, Congo, Sierra Leone, and Liberia would top the list with perhaps 95 per cent of the population involved in ethnic conflicts.”
Kenya, Nigeria and Ivory Coast would come a close second with 80 per cent. South Africa would follow with 30 per cent, while Tanzania and Botswana would be at the bottom with 20 per cent.
This book is recommended reading for all Kenyans, if only to understand, the kind of enemy they are flirting with. Negative Ethnicity also comes highly recommended to the mediation committee led by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. It would help them understand the conflict that has brought them here in the first place.
Categories
Deadly Money Maker: A Review
Title: Deadly Money Maker
Author: Saga Macodongo
Publisher: Paulines Publications Africa
It is human nature to yearn for better life. This is the reason why people work so hard so as to improve their livelihoods. It is no longer strange to find people holding multiple jobs, if only to make ends meet.
However, there are a few who opt not to live by the sweat of their brows. These are the ones who prefer to cut corners in pursuit of the ‘good life.’
As a teacher at the Kenya Polytechnic, Judy Akinyi, felt the money she was earning was not enough for the kind of lifestyle she wanted for herself and her family. The fact that she was not content with whatever she was earning put her at a very vulnerable position.
Just as she was contemplating ways of supplementing her income, her mind wondered back to a friend who seemed to lead a thoroughly luxurious life. Akinyi wanted this woman to share, with her, secrets of success.
Just as expected, the other woman held the ‘keys’ to unimaginable riches. She only needed to part with Sh200,000, which would then yield millions. Her vulnerability thus exposed, Akinyi was ready to go all the way, in pursuit of riches.
And go she did. Today, she is a guest of the State, housed at the Lang’ata Women’s Prison, where she is serving the last of 11 years prescribed to her by a judge at the Kibera Law Courts.
While in jail, she decided to put pen on paper, and could well be the first Kenyan to have a book published while still behind bars. Deadly Money Maker, which she writes under the pen name Saga Mcodongo, gives the account of her life including her deadly encounter with the woman who was responsible for her incarceration.
The saga of the collapsed pyramid schemes goes to show how Kenyans, including educated ones are gullible when it comes to making quick money. Akinyi was no different. The lure of easy riches led her to taking a loan, money which she gave her friend, Queen.
Her dream of riches would turn into her worst nightmare. The money got ‘lost’ in unexplained circumstances, leaving her a thoroughly desperate woman. This was the sign Queen was looking for and she went for the kill. To get her money back she was required to run an ‘errand’ for Queen.
The errand involved delivering a ‘package’ from Pakistan. Akinyi had gone to deep to turn back. She had now been initiated into the risky world of drug peddlers. The trip to Pakistan, and back, was supposed to last five days. It was not to be.
Hoping all would turn out well, Akiyi told her family that she was going to her rural home for the five days. And so with a fake passport she embarked on a journey that would take her, not five days, but three months, and straight into the waiting hands of police at the JKIA.
In her luggage was 150 grammes of heroine. So instead of getting rich, she instead earned herself a lengthy jail term, and lost some money in the process.
Deadly Money Maker takes the reader into the murky world of drugs, and in Queen, reveals how ruthless drug barons can be. “She had contacts with key personnel in government and mixed with the high and mighty,” she writes. “… after giving me a long lecture on how secretive I had to be, she went on to tell me how she dealt with people who tried to be clever. “I kill them,” she said coldly.”
From her narrative, it would appear that Queen was extremely powerful and influential. But then, the bigger they are the harder they fall. The long arm of the arm soon caught up with Queen, and she later joined Akinyi at Langata.
And since her case involved trafficking drugs to the US, she had to be flown there. Akinyi was airlifted to the US, where she spent two months testifying against Queen, who was later handed a 24-year sentence.
Akinyi landed at Langata before the Moody Awori prison reforms, and her narration shows how much the reforms improved the place. Sadistic beatings by the prison officers were the order of the day.
The author says that at times prisoners were beaten till they passed out. She argues that the Kenyan Prison system, before the reforms had been inherited from the colonialists and that no efforts were put in place to improve them.
“I keep thinking how the colonialists left us to oppress each other with their old dehumanising rules, while they went back to develop their own countries, practicing none of the things they left behind with us,” she observes in the book.
Wanini Kireri, who during her time as the officer in charge of Langata, receives special mention in the book for the role she played in bringing about reforms at the institution. “In three months (after Wanini’s arrival), there were reforms all over the prison. Where there had been gloom and screams there was now laughter. The new officer in charge radiated sanity, and charity, and there was light at the end of the tunnel at last,” she writes.
Having shared prison walls with inmates who were also drug addicts, Akinyi witnessed first hand the deadly effects of the drugs, which she had wanted to traffic.
She explains that it is that feeling of remorse that led her to testify against Queen, although one cannot rule out the possibility that she did it to get back at her tormentor.
The book also has useful tips on how one can identify signs in a person who is abusing drugs. It also contains a section that describes the common drugs and the effects they have on those that abuse them.
Akinyi should be commended for gathering the courage to tell her story, if only to educate others, and steer them away from the destructive ways of drugs. The book, however well written has quite a number of unanswered questions.
Her explanation of how she ended up in the world of drugs is not entirely convincing. One gets the nagging feeling that she held back some information.
She is also not convincing about the disappearance of her money in the hands of Queen. Why didn’t she report the matter to the police if she hadn’t engaged in any wrong-doing before then?
Since she decide to reveal all, it would have been nice to know they related with her husband after her arrest.
The shortcomings notwithstanding, Deadly Money Maker is a useful addition to literature that touches on prison life and the drugs underworld
Categories
Gangster poetry: Otieno Amisi’s verdict
Tony Mochama’s book What If I am a Literary Gangster has kicked up such a literary storm it appears that people cannot stop talking about it. Journalist Otieno Amisi insisted that Maisha Yetu must publish his review on the book. And who are we to say no to a good literary argument. Here you go:
Gangsters invade literary scene
Writing is suddenly becoming an attractive pastime in Kenya. Politicians, religious leaders and journalists are writing poems and biographies. A few are even venturing into the craft of poetry. With dire costs.
Last year, there was Kiraitu Murungi’s Song of My Beloved (Oakland Books, 2007). Then Raila Odinga followed with An Enigma in Kenyan Politics. And Kalembe Ndile has recently come with My Squatters, My Struggles, My Dream. Now journalist Tony Mochama has joined the fray.
But Mochama is a different sort of literary gangster. A journalist with something of a reputation for experimentation, Mochama is synonymous with what has become known as teen journalism, a medium obsessed with a footloose urban lingo called sheng and local heroes or ‘celebs’ as these one line, on line musicians are called. Last month, he launched his collection of poems under the title, What if I am a Literary Gangster? at the Goethe Institute, Nairobi.
The effect of Mochama’s book has been to divide critics down in the middle. There are those who think this kind of new, underground writing should be encouraged, especially considering that publishing even a line of poetry is so difficult in our part of the world.
Then there are those who argue that the book is not serious enough that its lighthearted broaching on what should be serious international issues like global trade imbalances and freedom is intolerable.
Sympathetic reviewers like Joseph Ngunjiri have been at pains to defend Mochama. Ngunjiri identifies what he calls “the soft side of the gangster. “ But old school critics like Egara Kabaji argue that his verses are “decidedly defiant,’ and are “neither poetic nor artistic.”
These are not the conventional neatly trimmed lines, as in rich in meaning and social concern as Okot p’Bitek or Jared Angira. Because Mochama the journalist is always on the run, his scribblings and musings are no more than snippets from his fleeting encounters with the world, with a world on the run.
According to the sympathizers, Mochama’s brand of poetry is ‘from another planet.’
Lumping his apparent ‘success’ in journalism of the gossip and rumour type, they see Mochama as a rising star in Kenya’s literary scene. But pulse journalism and poetry are worlds apart.
Ngunjiri argues that Mochama’s poems are ‘refreshingly real, and could only come from someone who has been through so much.’ He goes ahead to identify what he calls the ‘softer side’ of the poet, which he claims comes out especially in a piece titled, ‘Whispers’ and which is dedicated to the late word juggler Wahome Mutahi. The poem goes:
Laughter and your stories, lingers,
Like a silver cobweb clings
On a broken wall
lit by silver moonlight
But the ‘gangster’ leaves the reader breathless not for its lack of style or bland creativity, but for the sheer absence of beautiful language. The persona rushes, in one breath, between airports and seaports and rhythms and rhymes that are at once alarmist and drunken, then rushes back again to a gasp of short lived reality.
According to the author, the title was provoked by one Egara Kabaji, a former don at Kenyatta University lecturer at Masinde Muliro University who once dismissed Mochama as a “Literary Gangster, whose godfather is Binyavanga Wainaina.” In revenge, Mochama deliberately misspells the don’s name, calling him “Egaji Kabira, a lecturer at some minor college in Western Kenya.”
Kabaji, like many grammar school graduates, has few kind words for Mochama’s writing, which is mere wordplay. Mochama simply splatters words on a page, without a major theme or driving force. He is more of a roving juggler with words than a serious poet. But perhaps he had no intentions to be a serious poet—and like his newspaper celebs, just wants to ride big on fame, with a miniature substance.
His scribblings are about nothing in particular and about everything all at once; snippets of his love life, his nightlife, his love for vodka and his travels to far away cities. His attempt to rhyme at all costs sometimes ends up like an echo of those ‘hip hop’ musicians who strangle meaning in their strings of rhyme, or poor imitations of Wole Soyinka. Who said poetry must rhyme?
Mochama’s poems are also full of strange references to Siberia, Russia, St. Petersburg, Stalin and other travel experiences. But who said poetry must be about distant journeys and privileged encounters?
Yet his skill with words sometimes emerges strongly. Sample this:
When I run out of poetic tricks
I shall commit syntax
Ferry my body in a verse
And bury me, in the symmetry
Mochama the wordsmith has a pulse that comes with a wicked, sometimes explosive, sometimes mischievous sense of humour, and, — let’s give it to him — a whiff of fresh air into the drab poetic scene.
Here’s another clip from Black Mischief a word play on Sissina, the victim of Naivasha farmer Chomondley’s gun wielding racism:
Sisina’s sin, it seems
Is that he had no idea
Where Naivasha ends,
And England begins.
Right from the cover, which shows a shattered glass window, complete with holes on the words of the title itself, what is contained between the covers of the book is quite unlike your ordinary, conventional book of poetry. It is unthinkable that such a book should find its way into the classroom; the good old chaps at the Kenya Institute of Education are unlikely to take a second look at it; but not everything must be written for the Orange book.
In ‘Trading Places’, the poet takes a mischievous shot at the social, political and economic differences between Africa and the West. He addresses the double standards employed by the West when dealing with Africa, and in typical poetic license, puts Africa at the top of the world.
When he is not tackling universal themes like freedom and love he takes a philosophical musing on life and death. But his tone is typically, even annoyingly, happy-go-lucky, full of mischief and appears fired off from a cannon loaded with irony.
Like Kabaji, Otieno Otieno, a journalist with the Nation Media group, is furious. He writes, “It is not so often that literary clowns like Mochama enjoy such unflattering reviews. But the intellectual freedom of the blogosphere propels this rebel from obscurity into a somewhat comfortable abode in the mainstream.
Another reviewer, Munene wa Mumbi, calls it ‘exhibitionist verse, which fits under the category of travelogue’ and relegates this writing to a Russian Tourism Board Newsletter, ‘if it is there.’ Mochama is merely fascinated with gangsterism. He is awestruck by overseas travel,’ Munene barks. “Clipping the lines of a short story does not render it a poem.”
By and large, the book remains a one man show, lacking the editorial edge that could have come with a bigger, local and more careful publisher.
Amisi rans a blog called Creative Ventures
Categories
Literary Gangster: Smitta’s poetry book
Saturday, November 10 was a big day for Tony Mochama. He was launching his book What if I am a Literary Gangster? – a collection of poetry – at the Goethe Institute in Nairobi.
With such a defiant title, you almost guessed what is contained between the covers of the book. Well, one thing you are assured of is that this is not going to be your ordinary goody goody conventional poetry. You also know that such a book will not find its way to a classroom, as a school text – the guys at the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) would have recurring nightmares would such a thing happen (but I am sure they would love to read it in private.)
Having said that, let us now examine the logic behind the title. Apparently, the title was inspired by Dr Egara Kabaji, who teaches at the Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, in Western Kenya. Writing in the Literary Discourse section, in the Sunday Standard, Dr Kabaji dismissed Tony Mochama as a “Literary Gangster, whose godfather is Binyavanga Wainaina.”
To some extent I agree with Dr Kabaji, but without the Binyavanga rider. To me Mochama is a literary gangster of a different type. The product of his “crime” is one that really appeals to my literary buds. And for sure he shoots from the hip.
Sample this:
When I run out of poetic tricks
I shall commit syntax
Ferry my body in a verse
And bury me, in the symmetry
Witness how he effortlessly plays around with the words syntax/sin, verse/hearse and symmetry/cemetery. That verse is picked from the poem titled The Poetry Police.
Now, Tony Mochama is not your everyday writer. To me, he is the very exemplification of the title wordsmith. At the Standard, where he writes, Mochama has about four columns, the most celebrated being Scene at, in the Pulse Magazine, which comes out every Friday.
As a journalist, I will tell you that maintaining just one column is hard enough. Writing four columns week in week out is a different thing altogether. And he still spares time to write poetry, and drink some Vodka, lots of Vodka!
Speaking of Pulse, I think I will not be contradicted when I say Mochama, who writes under the name Smitta Smitten, is the very pulse of that magazine. It is not very difficult to see his wicked and wacky sense of humour, in most sections of the magazine, even without seeing his byline.
I came to know Mochama in the late nineties. Then he had a terrible afro hairstyle and still he was a poet. His fans called him The Mad Poet – what else did you expect?
Later he would be a contributor in the earlier edition of Expression Today (ET), published by the Media Institute. He later wrote the arts for Daily Nation, but it was not until his former boss at ET David Makali dragged him to Standard, that his star really shone. At the Standard, Pulse to be precise, he was given the freedom, nay latitude, to bring his latent talent to the fore, and it has shone ever since.
Pulse in itself has been a revelation in Kenyan journalism. It dispensed with the status quo kind of journalism long practiced in the country and brought out an explosive mix of bold and exciting entertainment reporting that really appeals to the targetted audience, the youth.
Simply put, it has been a breath of fresh air.
And did I mention that Mochama was once denied entry into Russia? Perhaps the first African to enjoy that rare “honour”. What crime did you commit against the Russians Smitta?
Back to gangster poetry. Well, a lot has been said about poetry being difficult, elitist and that kind of stuff, but Mochama in his book brings it down to the level that it can be enjoyed by every person.
The topics are as varying as the world is big. In the poem titled Trading Places, the poet takes a mischievous shot at the social, political and economic differences between Africa and the West. It also addresses the double standards employed by the West when dealing with Africa.
But coming from Mochama, it has to be different. In his poem, the tables have been turned. Africa rules the world and the West comes begging for aid.
And Libya invaded America to
topple George Bush
“the tyrant,” and “restore
democracy and freedom to the long-suffering people of
United States of America!”
From war to freedom and love, to the philosophical musings of life and death, Tony Mochama addresses these topics with the same happy-go-lucky manner that is the hallmark of his writing. His poetry is full of mischief and is in many instances fired off from a cannon loaded with irony.
That the gangster is also capable of being soft, reveals another side of his pen not many are aware of, partculary in the piece, Whispers.
Laughter and your stories, lingers,
Like a silver cobweb clings
On a broken wall lit by silver moonlight
The poem is dedicated to the late Wahome Mutahi, another wordsmith, of the humour variety.
I was especially intrigued by his pieces on love and heartbreak. They are refreshingly real and could only come from someone who has been through such emotions and trust the Smitta to have gone through all those.
However, careful editing of the book would have taken care of some annoying typos occasionally appearing in the book. Maybe that has to do with the fact that it was published in Russia.
Well, a literary gangster? The “celebs” who are always on the receiving end of his pen every Friday would rather use the word terrorist.
The book is Published Brown Bear Insignia
What if I am a Literary Gangster is distributed by Suba Books and Periodicals based at Hazina Towers
Categories
Book on Kalembe Ndile out
I have always been fascinated by the outgoing Kibwezi MP Kalembe Ndile, who is also an assistant minister in the Ministry of Tourism. His modest education aside, the politician has a way of putting his points across, that I think makes a lot of sense.
Take the case when he told off envoys attached to Kenya, when they were calling on President Kibaki to reappoint Samuel Kivuitu, whose tenure as the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) expires on December 2, for the sake of fairness in the December 27 elections.
“Mimi sijui Kivuitu wa Amerika, ama wa Uingereza,” – I don’t Know Kivuitu’s equivalent in the US and UK – he said. He went on tell the foreign envoys that Kenya is a sovereign state, and other countries should not interfere with the way it conducts its elections. He also added that it would be unheard of for a Kenyan envoy, say in the US, to tell President Bush who to elect as the head of their electoral body.
Now, if that is not common sense, tell me what is. At the risk of being accused of leaning against one political side at this crucial moment of the political campaigns, let me stick to the mandate of this blog. Books. Well, Kalembe, in spite of his modest education, has done what Kenyan politicians rarely do, and that is producing books.
Kalembe Ndile: My Squatters, My Struggles, My Dream, is a book written by journalist Peter Thatiah, and seeks to have the reading public know the politician better.
Kalembe might not have written the book, owing to his well documented inadequacies, but it nevertheless provides Kenyans with much needed details that might not find their way into newspaper pages, and which allows us to better understand and appreciate our country. Leaders, or politicians for that matter, by virtue of their positions and interactions, tend to influence decisions, and thus can be reagarded as depositories of a country’s history.
The book tells of how Kalembe’s parents emigrated to western Uganda where his father was then working at the Kilembe Copper Mines. And it is from the mines that Kalembe got his name. Apparently, when they got back to Kenya he could not tire telling people,about that “wonderful” place in Uganda.
So the name was amended to Kalembe as Kilembe was found to be too big for his small stature then. Note that in most Bantu dialects, which Kalembe’s Kikamba belongs, the prefix ka denotes small while ki is associated with something big. After the murderous Amin regime kicked the Ndile family out of Uganda, they found themselves back to Kibwezi in Eastern Kenya to a life of squalor and landlessness.
It is under that life of squatterhood that young Kalembe found himself struggling to get education. According to the book he had to burn charcoal to pay his fees at Emali Secondary School.
Having been brought up under such dire conditions Kalembe cultivated an burning desire to fight for the rights of fellow squatters, who incidentally are the majority in Kibwezi constituency. And what a better way to articulate this than in an elective post, he reckoned. He contested Nguumo Civic Ward in the 1997 General Elections and won. He was also elected the chairman of Makueni County Council the same year.
His term as a councilor was informed by waging battles with well-heeled and well-connected individuals, in the then Kanu Government, against land grabbing, a thing that earned him many enemies, including stints in police custody. At some point Parliament spent quite a considerable amount of time discussing his tribulations in the hands of his tormentors.
Still, such drawbacks could not extinguish his burning ressolve to fight for the rights of squatters. And they reciprocated by giving him their support during the 2002 General Elections, when he was elected as the Kibwezi legislator. At some point Kalembe was accused, in Parliament of being a highway robber in an earlier life. The book has not shied away from that, as well as his well publicised altercation with the ODM-K presidential candidate Kalonzo Musyoka, when he was ejected from a cultural function in Mwingi district.
In the book, Kalembe reckons that event contributed to Kalonzo’s dwindling fortunes in opinion polls.
Although the coming up with the book is commendable, the fact that it is self-published explains the rather lucklustre cover design, binding and quality of paper used. Still Thatiah’s command of language almost makes up for the shorcomings in quality.
I also got the feeling that the author dwelt a bit too much on some details, that are outside the main story of Kalembe’s life. Those details are okay when one is writing a big book, as they provide the useful background information. But for small book like this one, it is just too much. The reader for example misses out on how Kalembe met and married his wife, a thing that should not miss out on a biography or an autobiography for that matter.
In most parts, the reader gets assailed with too much of the author’s opinion, what with his showy and pompous use of language, at the expense of the story at hand. And on that note, I would not be surprised if the book attracts a libel suit or two, from some parties who might feel aggrieved by what is contained in the book. Whether the book is a campaign tool for Kalembe, only time will tell.
Categories
Anyang’ Nyong’o’s New Book
Former Planning Minister Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o launched his new book A Leap into the Future: A Vision for Kenya’s Socio-political and Economic Transformation, at the Grand Regency on Wednesday October 10.
A Leap into the Future is a collection of speeches, essays and articles compiled during Prof Nyongo’s tenure as minister in the Narc government, and soon after. In the book, the author examines the challenges of development of development, analyses how Pan-African and global partnerships could facilitate development.
Prof Nyong’o also projects his vision for socio-political and economic transformation of the Kenya society in a bid to formulate an economic strategy capable of transforming the country to First World development.
The book is published by African Research and Resource Forum, with WordAlive Publishers as the consultants. Prof Nyong’o, who is currently ODM Secretary General, believes that if Africa is to lift itself from the current situation of economic stagnation, then African countries have to learn from the East Asian countries.
The book is in the form of essays Prof Nyong’o, presented over a four-year period (2002-2006), including when he was Planning minister.
Politics aside, Prof Nyong’o is considered to be one of the toughest thinkers to have come out of the African continent, and A Leap into the Future proves just that. While being incisive and convincing his arguments betray the fact that sufficient research and thought went into their crafting.
The book contains information that the author believes if followed to the latter would transform Kenya into an economic success. Finance, governance and economic students will find the ideas packed in the book to be of invaluable help.
With admirable insights, Prof Nyong’o proceeds to shatter some long-held myths as to why African countries lag behind in development. He also takes on global bodies like the UN, which on paper are mandated to help end suffering in the continent, but are instead pursuing policies that continuously subjugate the continent, while miring it in debt.
He however does not lose sight the fact that African leaders are to blame for the economic mess African countries find themselves in. The common denominator in all the essays is the fact that good governance is key to faster development.
And for good governance to be there, then a country’s politics have to be put in order. And on the local front, he gives a valuable peek into what went into the crafting the now famous MoU, which was disregarded by the Kibaki, once the Narc Government came into power in following the historic 2002 General Election.
On the subject of corruption, Prof Nyong’o sheds some light into what some figures in the Kibaki Government refer to as “The Scandal that never was” – Anglo Leasing.