Tag: writing

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International Literary Seminars: a call for applications

Are you an emerging writer? This is your opportunity to participate in the prestigious International Literary Seminars (ILS), where you will get to improve your writing skills.

ILS, a joint venture by ILS and Jahazi Press, is looking for three writers to fill the slots. You have until August 7 to submit your application.

The fellowship, covers tuition, travel and accommodation for the three recipients. “These merit-based fellowships are designed for upcoming writers who are looking to grow their writing skills with the guidance of an experienced ILS faculty and a community of peer writers,” says a statement from ILS.

Although only three successful applicants will be picked, the good news is that all the applicants will automatically be entered into the 2023 ILS Fiction Contest and considered for publishing in Yolk and Fence magazines. “This will also be a unique opportunity to listen to New Yorker editor, Deborah Treismann and acclaimed short story writer, George Saunders,” says ILS.

The week-long fellowship for the successful applicants which will take place in the coastal town of Lamu, in December, will among others, feature craft development sessions, manuscript based workshops and lectures and discussions with prominent authors.

Some of the acclaimed authors, who will be taking participants through the paces, include Mikhail Lossel, Billy Kahora, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor and Idza Luhumyo, among others. “ILS 2023 will launch in Nairobi where participants will interact with local and international writers as well as attend readings by core faculty members and guests. This will be followed by a week of writing workshops in Lamu,” says the statement from ILS.

Applicants are required to submit an unpublished sample of between 3,000 to 6,000 words, that represents their best work as a Word Document. Poets should submit three samples of their work.

Participants of last year’s event were Gladwell Pamba, Munira Hussein and Dennis Mugaa.

“Winning ILS has been my biggest achievement because it gave me opportunities I had only dreamt of,” says Pamba, who studied English and Literature at Moi University.

You can apply through this link.

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Books Featured Fiction Reviews

For the love of the game

Title: Benji’s Big Win
Author: Nducu wa Ngugi
Publisher: East African Educational Publishers
Availability: Leading Bookstores
Reviewer: Mbugua Ngunjiri

Though he enjoys his life in school, there are a number of things bothering Benji.
Top of them is his father’s apparent disinterest in his budding football career. He is not only the top striker in Kamden Boys School, he is also the team captain. Not once has his father, Musa come to watch any of his games; which is rather baffling considering that the father used to be a star footballer in his youthful days.
Karis is the other major source of Benji’s worry. A big bodied boy, Karis has been tormenting Benji through incessant bullying, to a point of him getting recurring nightmares. While his mother is sympathetic about the situation, the father comes down hard on the lad, wondering aloud why the son can’t stand up to the bully.
Then there are loggers, who with the apparent backing of government, have invaded Loki forest, cutting down trees. Keepers, the local environmental lobby group, led by Benji’s mother, appears to have hit a brick wall in terms of stopping the destruction of the forest. Benji and his friends are worried about the adverse environmental consequences that will befall their community as a result of the ongoing forest destruction.
Benji is the lead character in Nducu wa Ngugi’s book Benji’s Big Win, which won the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature, in the youth category, this year. Nducu is one Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s offsprings, trying to follow their famous father’s footsteps in making a name for themselves in the world of writing. This is Nducu’s second book after City Murders, published by East African Educational Publishers, which also happens to be his father’s Kenyan publisher.
In the book, the reader follows Benji’s escapades and close calls, waiting to see how his troubles are going to get resolved.
Soon, we get an inkling of why Musa appears to be dead set against his son’s football career. He has health issues arising from an injury he sustained as a footballer for Umoja Stars, the national team, while playing against the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon. This injury almost rendered him immobile, he is constantly on medication and undergoing therapy.
As a result, Benji’s father is stays at home, jobless, and has to rely on his wife to provide on the family. Though it is not spelt out in black and white, in the book, Musa must be anxious and worried that his son might suffer similar fate and be faced with an uncertain future. That is why he insists that Benji instead focuses on his studies, as that is what guarantees his future.
Using Musa’s example, the author brings out the sad state of footballers and other athletes, in Kenya, who lack support structures from the government and  end up leading pathetic lifestyles. Perhaps this explains why our football remains stunted as the players are constantly on the lookout for alternative sources of earning a livelihood; local football cannot guarantee that.
On the family front, we see the tension in Musa’s household, where his wife is the sole bread winner as the husband is incapacitated. Though she doesn’t show it, she must be feeling the strain of providing for her family alone. Already, there are signs of latent friction with Benji’s parents, when Musa gives his son an order and his wife reverses it.
Many families are undergoing almost similar troubles, particularly post-Covid, when many bread winners were rendered jobless and have had to rely on their spouses. Some families completely fell apart. Though the book does not give Musa’s perspective, no doubt he must feel his authority, as the man of the house, undermined; sickly and jobless, now seeing his wife and child disobey his orders. Thank God the family is still intact, but for how long?
Not as lucky though is Abele’s family. Abele is a beautiful girl, Benji has eyes for. She hails from Balaza Estate, in Nairobi, but stays in Loki with her uncle due to the fact that her own father is unable to sufficiently provide for his family. Abele is thus one mouth less to feed.
Meanwhile, the matter of Loki forest’s destruction sticks out like a sore thumb among residents of the community. Well, this is not a new phenomenon in Kenya. We have seen politically connected individuals being allowed to visit destruction on the environment by settling in protected forests like in the case of Mau. Before that, there was the protracted struggle to save Karura Forest; a struggle that won the late Wangari Maathai, the Nobel Prize.
On the bullying front, Karis is unrelenting. There are several episodes where Benji comes off worse for wear.
Karis’ bullying gets worse and is expelled from Kamden to Mawingu, a neighbouring school.
Still, a final showdown looms between the two protagonists when they come face to face in the local ‘derby’; a grudge match between Kamden and Mawingu.
The prize is too tantalizing for Benji. For one, winning the game will win him local bragging rights and the affections of Abele, who is also being courted by his nemesis, Karis.
During the game, Karis goes personal on Benji, a fight almost breaking out between the two. Despite huge odds, Benji scores the winning goal for his school. Icing on the cake is when, at the end of the game, Benji realises that his father was among the spectators, cheering him on.
Upon losing the game, Karis mellows down and seeks Benji’s forgiveness.
Though Benji wins the affections of Abele, he loses her as she is forced to go back to Nairobi, since his uncle is now unable to take care of her.
The book ends without the issue of Loki Forest being resolved. Could this be a signal that a sequel to the book is in the works. This is not far-fetched for, towards the end of the book, Benji and his pal, Jasper are plotting to visit Abele in Balaza.
Benji’s Big Win makes for interesting reading but the author needs to work on a few issues to improve on his craft. First, his writing needs to be grounded on some reality. How is it that Benji learns, at the last minute, that Karis is playing for Mawingu? Even prior to his expulsion, there was no mention of Karis’ involvement in football. Just like with Benji’s example, football requires commitment and regular training. One just doesn’t wake up and find themselves lining up for a major tournament.
The author’s stay abroad shows in his usage of US phrases and words. While these do not hurt, some words like cleats, for football boots, as it is understood locally, might end up confusing the young readers.
All in all, Benji’s Big Win is a major score for Nducu and the fact that it won an award is testament to his writing potential.

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Books Fiction publishing Reviews

Magical tale wins children’s award

Title: Chadi’s Trip

Author: Sarah Haluwa

Publisher: Storymoja

Reviewer: Mbugua Ngunjiri

The village of Kalole is faced with a deadly plague; Shaka Risha. Anyone who contracts it, most likely ends up dead. The whole village is worried; there is no knowing who will catch the deadly ailment next.
The village oracle announces that the cure can only be found in the forest, where spirits live. The bravest warriors, led by chief’s son, are dispatched to the forest to get the antidote, but they fail to return.
Another group is sent to the forest and they, too, fail to return. The very thought of venturing into the forest petrifies everyone in the village, yet the plague is still claiming its deadly toll.
When no one else is willing to go for the cure, little Chadi volunteers to go to the dreaded forest.
Will she make it where even the brave warriors failed?
You can only get the answer by reading Chadi’s Trip, a children’s book written by Sarah Haluwa and published by Storymoja.


This book won the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature in the children’s category. The award is organised by the Kenya Publishers Association.
Find out the unique qualities that set Chadi apart from other children and which make her suitable for the dangerous mission in the forest, where she will come up against unpredictable spirits.
Chadi’s Trip employs magical realism as a literary technique to fire up the imagination of young readers. The fact that it is a young girl engaging the spirits to a point of outmaneuvering them, makes it all the more attractive to the intended audience. Children love heroism.
It should be noted that the story is based in Kenya’s coastal region, where young girls are faced with heavy odds. These range from debilitating poverty, teen pregnancies not forgetting the less talked about teenage prostitution that feeds the underground sex tourism market.
It is therefore safe to argue that these girls lack role models. Haluwa’s book serves as a welcome inspiration to such girls, seeing as lead character is a young girl, a positive role model, beats odds and is eventually celebrated by a whole village.
Writing for children is no walk in the park, thus the author, known to pen adult stuff online, should be commended for successfully making that all-important transition.

Maisha Yetu feels that this book deserves the accolade it got

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Arts Books Events Issues

Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s tribulations in colonial Kenya

When Ngugi wa Thiong’o left his Kamirithu village, in Limuru, to join Alliance High School, the State of Emergency had already been declared, by colonial authorities in Kenya. This mainly affected members of the Gikuyu, Embu and Meru communities, that formed the bulk of the Mau Mau rebellion.

Members of these three communities could not move from one district to another without the passbook. Young Ngugi did not have this document, when he went to board the train from Limuru to Kikuyu. It took the intervention of a railways official, who hid him in a luggage compartment, for the train ride to Kikuyu, otherwise, he would have missed the trip altogether.

When he closed school for the April holidays, Ngugi went home to find that his village deserted. The whole village had been moved to the Kamirithu Concentration Camp. He was in time to join constructing the mud house where they had to live for the rest of the emergency period.  

These anecdotes are contained in Ngugi’s memoir Dreams in a Time of War, published in 2010. In the book, he recounts an incident where his half-brother was shot dead by colonial officials.

“A few days later, we learned that some people had been killed, one of the casualties being Gitogo, my half-brother,” writes Ngugi about a military operation that took place in Limuru town, during the Emergency period.

“Gitogo worked in a butchery in Limuru. He had started running, following the example of others. Being deaf, he did not hear the white officer shout simama! They shot him in the back.”

In the other incident, Ngugi’s elder brother, Wallace Mwangi, who was in the supply wing of the Mau Mau insurgency, and his uncle, had just bought bullets, from a source, who, unknown to them, was a colonial informer. It was a set-up. Immediately, colonial forces arrived at the scene and arrested the two.

Somehow, Wallace managed to drop his share of bullets in his mother’s shamba nearby. While being arrested, Wallace told his mother, who was in the garden ‘thikirira mbembe icio wega’. On the surface, Wallace told his mother – Mukoma’s grandmother – to cover the roots of her maize with soil and mulch.

However, the truth of the matter is that Mukoma’s uncle told his mother to cover the bullets – mbembe was the Mau Mau code for bullets – with soil that thy are not discovered by the colonial authorities.

Shortly thereafter, Wallace, jumped from the moving police vehicle and ran, under a hail of bullets, to become a Mau Mau fighter in the forest. Wallace’s wife would later be arrested and jailed at the Kamiti Prison.

After he cleared his studies at Alliance, two white police officers arrested Ngugi on trumped up charges of failing to pay taxes and was remanded at the Kiambu Police Station for three weeks.

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Issues News Personalities Releases Reviews

When a talented poet seduces your mind

A poet, like a spider, works tirelessly spinning silver yarns. He struggles, endures until finally, a pattern is made: a web of beauty; a trap for the reader.

Those are not my words; I have just paraphrased Ng’ang’a Mbugua’s poem A Poet for it beautifully captures what good poetry does to a reader. It rejuvenates the soul, runs away with your imagination and makes you want to create some poetry of your own. At least that is what it does to me.

Image

The above quoted poem is contained in an anthology titled This Land is our Land by Mbugua. In his seminal book Things Fall Apart, the late Chinua Achebe quotes an Igbo proverb that goes something like: “When the moon is shining the cripple becomes hungry for a walk”. For purposes of describing this book, I would have replaced walk with dance, for dancing is more poetic. After reading this collection even the most hopeless of writers would wish to create some poetry.

The vivid imagery in Mbugua’s poems seduces the reader’s imagination and drags you along to that secret world where only talented poets can take you. Take for example that short poem titled The Voice. The poet relives the relief of old Abraham and his son Isaac, when they laid their eyes on that ram, horns entangled in that thicket; specifically delivered to save the young man from the harsh knife wielded by his father.

From the introduction the reader mentally prepares themselves for a sermon on the all-enveloping love of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, until the poet takes an unexpected if not cheeky detour:

                                       Abraham lifted high his knife

                                       And was about to strike

                                       When out rang a voice

“What do you think you are doing?”

It was the voice

Of the owner of the lamb.

Aside from improbable Bible stories This Land or Land also captures the modern day realities and renders them in a way both entertains the reader and still retains the sting that admonishes our follies without being too preachy. A case in hand is the poem titled You should know people. Here, the poet brilliantly highlights the ever-widening rift between the haves and the have-nots.

‘You should know people’ therefore becomes the metaphor of what the poor should do in order to be ushered into the rarefied world of privilege. Sample this:

                          In a land where the many and the hungry are one and the same…

                          It pays to know people

                          If you are to be spared the pangs of want.

From the title This Land is our Land, one might think that this book is a patriotic ode to the Nation that celebrated 50 years of self-rule. The truth about the poem, however, is that it is a cynical appraisal of the nation our country has morphed into.

The poem is actually a deep-seated cry for peace, while also alive to the fact in the country we find ourselves in ‘real peace’ can never be attained. Or rather, some quarters would not allow for such peace to prevail; and that is why the poet is crying out for ‘just any peace’.

While the meaning in This Land is our Land might be somehow obscured Let’s Create Misery is an open bare-knuckled rebuke of wielders of power and who derive moronic pleasure from the suffering of the masses. Here, the ‘creators of misery’ revel in their ability to make people die; for they will create jobs in morgues, and more jobs ‘for coffin carriers and grave diggers’

And if all the workers die

                                             We’ll have bigger farms

                                             To grow coffee, tea, cotton

                                             No more food crops…

Oh, and there are also some love poems in the anthology as well including a tragic love story of Andrew and Jane who were ostracised by the church brethren, whose tongues began to wag, Casting the little couple in shady light/Preaching that they were far from right.

And who told you African names can’t rhyme? What about The merry old man from Ndumberi, who loved strawberry, and whose love was Njeri. Thus goes the tale of Wanderi.

Mbugua should be commended for investing his hard-earned funds to bring this publication to reality, at a time when mainstream publishers are giving poetry a wide berth and Kenyans think poetry is hard.

This book is selling at sh 350. You can order it through sales@bigbooks.co.ke or through the author at mbugua@bigbooks.co.ke

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News Personalities Releases Reviews

Tony Mochama’s book that won him big money

Everyone has a story to tell but it depends on who is telling the story and how that story is told. That is what makes the difference between a well told story and an ordinary, even boring story. Now, Tony Mochama, who also goes by the name Smitta, has a way with words and you can be assured that his pen can give even the mundane an interesting sheen, especially when he is not using his ‘Greek’ lexicon.

Omtita

Mochama’s new release is a book titled Meet the Omtitas. Keen readers of Mochama’s writing, after reading this book, will tell you that he is writing about his family, though in a fictionalised format. Omtita is a corruption of the name Ontita; the name he uses on Facebook, after Tony Mochama got appropriated by cyber thugs keen on cashing in on big name recognition.

Meet the Omtitas, told through the eyes of Tommy – presumably Tony – though told in the third person, covers a brief period when the young man, the first born in the Omtita’s household, fresh out of high school, is waiting to join university. The book also captures Tommy’s first day as a fresher – did they have to tell us the meaning of this and other words, when there is a glossary at the end of the book? – and the disaster it turned out to be.

Those who follow Mochama’s escapades in his Scene at column in Standard’s Pulse magazine, know the author is always a sentence away from a disaster; but you need to read his rendering in the book, where you do not have to navigate through endless ‘skis’ suffixes to almost every word, to appreciate what a hilarious writer Mochama is.

By far the most interesting character in the book is the head of the Omtita’s household, Mr Omtita himself. He comes home drunk at four in the morning carrying a bunch of bananas and two chickens from Kisii and orders Nandwa, the houseboy who, in his spare time likes reading novels and chasing after neighbourhood house girls, to cook chicken. Mr Omtita is also given to pinching branded towels from the various hotels he has been to so that people know that “the Omtitas have been to places.”

Everyone who finds their way to the Omtita’s household, including Simba, the mongrel Mr Omtita brought home from the local pub, is treated like a member of the family. Thus, when Simba is knocked down by a speeding motorist, the whole family skips church to give the canine a decent send-off – a burial behind the house – and Mr Omtita sheds real tears.

In spite of his quirkiness Mr Omtita has deep respect for his wife, Mrs Omtita, the family matriarch, who despite being consigned on a wheelchair – following an accident – commands loves and respect from the whole family.

The other ‘family member’ who enjoys prominence of place in Mochama’s book is Angel, who is Tommy’s sister’s (Wendy) best friend and who Tommy has the hots for to Wendy’s eternal embarrassment.

As the book is set in 1990 it is hard not to talk about retired President Moi – whom the author refers to as Omojaa, president of a republic called Kenaya, while the ruling party Kanu becomes Paku. In his drinking sessions Mr Omtita says unpleasant things about Omojaa and Paku, a thing that gets his wife worried. To forestall the likelihood of Special Branch officers coming to arrest her ‘anti-government’ husband Mrs Omtita makes sure a portrait of the president hangs prominently in the living room as a ‘show of loyalty’.

Mochama’s sharp, sometimes dark humour makes the book such an enjoyable read.

Meet the Omtitas won the third prize in the Burt Award for African Literature and which came with a sh430,000 cash award.

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Events Issues News

Finally, someone won Sh1 million; from writing!

Anthony Mugo (center) receives a dummy check for Sh1 Million from Prof Chris Wanjala, that chairman of NBDCK (Right) and Mrs Ruth Odondi, the CEO of NBDCK. At left is Geoff Burt, son of Bill Burt, who graced the occasion.

Anthony Mugo is probably the richest author in Kenya today. On Friday evening he won Sh1 million in the inaugural Burt Award for African Writing. The Burt Award, administered by the National Book Development Council of Kenya (NBDCK), is the richest literary award in Kenya’s history. His manuscript titled Never say Never has been published by Longhorn Publishers and is out on sale.

The Burt Award is a partnership effort between NBDCK and the Canadian Organisation for Development through Education (CODE), with the support of a Canadian patron Mr. Bill Burt, after whom the prize is named. The award is aimed at encouraging authorship as well as a reading culture among Kenyan children.

Anthony Mugo (center) receives a dummy check for Sh1 Million from Prof Chris Wanjala, that chairman of NBDCK (Right) and Mrs Ruth Odondi, the CEO of NBDCK. At left is Geoff Burt, son of Bill Burt, who graced the occasion.

37-year-old  Mugo, who until July was a credit officer with a micro finance company says writing is not new to him. “I have been writing for the last twenty years only that I have never been published,” he explains. In 2009, he participated in another NBDCK organised writing competition, where he won with his manuscript Too Innocent to Die. In 2010 he again participated and emerged victorious with another manuscript, Not a Drop. Mugo, who is married with two children graduated from Moi University with a BA in Economics.

Coming in at second position was Edward Mwangi, who took home Sh500,000. His manuscript, The Delegate, was published by Moran Publishers and is also on sale. The 32-year-old, who has just completed his MBA from Nairobi University, works as a general manager for an engineering company in Nairobi. Mwangi, who is also married with two children says his perseverance has finally paid off. “Every morning before I start working, I write for an hour and another hour after work,” he explains.

In third position was Ngumi Kibera, with his manuscript titled The Devil’s Hill, which is published by Longhorn. Mr Ngumi, who is an established author, won Sh250,000. He is not new to winning; His other book, The Grapevine Stories, a Collection of short stories, won the 1997 edition of the Jomo Kenyatta prize for Literature.

Ngumi is full of praises for the Burt Award saying that it is a timely effort that will take Kenyan writing to the next level. “There is a lot of writing talent in Kenya only that our publishers are not aggressive enough to tap them,” he said. “The fact that there were 400 submissions for this prize is testimony of raw writing talent out there waiting to be discovered.”

Also present during the awards ceremony, held at the Silver Spring Hotel,

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Events Issues News Personalities

Moraa:I have worked hard for Penguin nomination

No Kenyan publisher has ever taken Moraa Gitaa seriously. And while they have generally given her manuscripts a wide berth, Penguin Books, one of the world’s most respected publishers, thinks otherwise.

Out of the 250 manuscripts received all over Africa for the inaugural Penguin Prize for Africa Writing, Moraa’s and five others became the eventual nominees in the fiction category. The awarding ceremony will take place in South Africa next month. And if she wins the award, she stands to take home a cool half a million shillings (R50,000).

The other nominees are Kenya’s Mukoma wa Ngugi, Ellen Aaku from Zambia, Chika Ezeanya from Nigeria, Shubnum Khan from South Africa and another South African Isabella Morris. “Of all the nominees, I am the only one based in the continent,” she says with a touch of pride.

The award seeks to highlight the diverse writing talent on the African continent and make new African fiction and non-fiction available to a wider readership. Apart from the prize money, the winners will also benefit from a publishing contract with Penguin Books South Africa, with worldwide distribution via Penguin Group companies.

Among other things, the judges will be looking for freshness and originality that represent the finest examples of contemporary fiction out of Africa. In the non-fiction category the judges will be looking for serious narratives that examine and explore African issues and experiences for both local and international audiences in an engaging, thought provoking and enlightening way.

Moraa, who is in her mid thirties, believes that her manuscript meets the bill and is confident of winning the overall prize. “I deserve it,” she says defiantly.

When she had earlier presented the same manuscript to a Kenyan publisher, it came back with a rejection note accusing her of having ‘an extremely wild imagination.’

Such a put down would have left an average writer utterly devastated and unable to continue writing, but evidently, Moraa is not your average writer. “I licked my wounds and decided that if no Kenyan publisher is interested in my work, I would look for a publisher outside the country,” she says with a determined look in her face. “I have gone through more trying times in the course of my writing and there was no way I was going to allow such a comment to break my spirit.”

Without elaborating Moraa, who calls herself a pro-women and children’s writer, says her writing gives ‘profound insights’ into the human condition, “and for that you are labeled a controversial writer.”

She explains that she started writing the manuscript way back in 1997. At some point, in 2003, while still writing the manuscript, she developed pneumonia, yet she was staying in Mombasa, the last place you expect a person to catch a cold-related ailment.

“I almost died while writing this manuscript,” she says with a rueful smile. Then, she was working as an administrator in a busy nightclub at the coastal resort city. And in order to get some quiet time to work on her manuscript, she would cover herself in what she thought was warm clothing and sneak into the cold room, where she would put pen on paper, literary.

The effect of those stolen moments in the cold room was the pneumonia she developed later. “The people who knew what I was doing at that time believed I was genuinely mad,” she says. “But if following my passion means that I am labeled mad then so be it.”

Not even the pneumonia could douse the burning ambition she had of becoming a writer. In 2007, she moved to Nairobi, where has been working as a part time editorial consultant. “I shifted from Mombasa as I thought that Nairobi held more promise in terms of getting published,” she explains.

It was not in vain as the following year another of her manuscripts won the National Book Development Council of Kenya (NBDCK) literary award, and with it came a modest cash award of Sh30,000.

When she could not get a publisher locally she took yet another of her manuscripts to Nsemia Publishers, based in Canada. Unfortunately for her the book Crucible for Silver and Furnace for Gold could not be accepted for the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature, for the mere reason that it was published outside Kenya, never mind that Nsemia is owned by a Kenyan.

With the nomination Moraa now feels that her hard work and perseverance is finally being recognized. She adds that it should also serve as enough reason for Kenyans and East Africans for that matter to start dusting their long neglected manuscripts. “If you have a passion for writing you should not give up just because there are not enough opportunities in your home country,” she says.

That is the only way East Africans can ever hope to match their Western and Southern African counterparts, she adds.

If she wins the award, Moraa says that part of the prize money would go towards developing a centre for children with learning challenges. This has been motivated by the fact that her daughter, now fifteen, was born with dyslexia.

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Issues Personalities

Is Tony Mochama Taban’s literary son?

Good people,

I came across this email, written by Prof Chris Wanjala, and posted in the Pen Kenya google group, and I thought it was interesting. Though Prof Wanjala shies away from comparing Mochama with Zimbabwe’s Dambudzo Marechera, I would be more incline to compared Mochama, aka Smitta with Dambuzo. Read on…

Dear Juba, Taban may be in Juba and getting entangled in administrative chores.But he left a genre of writing which ver few younger authors are exploiting.I dont like Tony Smitta Mochoma’s guts very much,but I secretly admire the way he enjoys an irreverence and iconoclasm which are decidedly Tabanic. You and I hated Taban because of his tendency to draw attention to himself in Meditations in Limbo and The Last Word. I see this streak in young and naughty Smitta.Taban is also good at dropping names: of politicians,the women he has courted and slept with, the coffee bars and entertainment places he has patronized, and media personalities he admires.I dont want to talk about Dambudzo Marechera at this juncture. Taban engulfs himself in controversies and self-deprecation.So does Smitta Mochama .Is Tony Smitta Mochama Taban’s literary son?

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Events

Dr Alembi honoured for children’s writing

David Mulwa was just emerging from the Literature Department bulding, at Kenyatta University (KU) where he teaches, when he came to an abrupt halt. It was as if he had seen a ghost. For a few brief seconds he stood there, his mouth wide open, as if trying to establish whether his eyes were lying to him. Clearly, they were not.
“Chris Lukorito Wanjala!” he exclaimed finally and rushed forward to hug the other man, and they remained in a tight embrace for a few more seconds. Dressed in a sharp grey pin-stripped suit, Prof Wanjala had just stepped out of his maroon Volvo, and for sure he was a sight for Mulwa’s sore eyes. While Mulwa teaches at Kenyatta University, Prof Wanjala teaches at the University of Nairobi, some 23 kilometers away.
On that day, Friday, November 3, 2007, Prof Wanjala admitted that many years had passed since he last set foot at KU. And for him to appear there now, it really must be a big day. True, it was a big day. The Igbo of Nigeria say that a toad does not jump in broad daylight for nothing. The two lecturers had barely finished exchanging niceties when Dr Ezekiel Alembi appeared on the scene.
Now, Dr Alembi is the chairman of KU’s Literature Department, and he was the reason Prof Wanjala was there. It was a big day for Dr Alembi. Sasa Sema Publications, an imprint of Longhorn Publishers, were honouring him for his contribution to children’s literature.
To be fair to him, Dr Alembi has penned over 39 children’s books! no mean feat by Kenyan standards. This lead to one student in the audience to ask when Dr Alembi finds time to sleep! When he took to the podium Prof Francis Imbuga, who was the chief guest remarked quite rightly that writing for children is not child’s play!
To elaborate on that point, Dr Alembi recounted an encounter with a person who so much took writing children’s stories for granted, that he said that he could write 15 children’s books in a week. That was five years back. To date, he has not written even one.
Er, before I forget, let me add that the event was not a purely literary affair. There were some entertainment too. Serious entertainment at that. Students from the university’s band kept all the guests thoroughly entertained with their masterly of musical instruments. The Salsa group also staged some eye-catching dancing. Cream Group was at hand for some well-choreographed dancing. A comedy group, I cant recall their name, tore our ribs with their improvised narrative on what was taking place at the event.
Talking of performances, perhaps the best perfomance, at least according to me, was when David Mulwa accompanied by Prof Kitula King’ei, with a box guitar, did some two zilizopendwa (Golden Oldies) numbers, Taxi Driver and Dereva Kombo. That was really something coming from the aging university dons.
Now back to the event. Dr Alembi told those gathered at the event that he was really humbled with the recognition, adding that it is not everyday that publishers in Kenya honour their writers. “It is even more heartening that they have decided to honour me while I am still alive. In most circumstances, such honours come after its recipients have died,” he explained.
Dr Catherine Ndungo, who heads the department of Gender and Development studies at the university, hailed Dr Alembi for bring literature to the level of children. She said that among other things, Dr Alembi argues that the interests, needs and responses of child readers must be taken into account. “That a concern with the intended audience is crucial to the critical appraisal of children’s literature,” she explained.
Prof Imbuga thanked Dr Alembi for being ” a conscious writer, dictating to his pen the thoughts that go to the vulnerably receptive minds of his young audience.”
Dr Alembi has written seven books for Longhorn publishers. They are; Jaramogi Oginga Odinga: Peoples’ Revolutionary, Elijah Masinde: Rebel with a Cause, Andisi and the Cat, Brave Girls, The Tortoise Song, Kwa Nini Ndovu Hali Nyama, Teaching Reading in Lower Primary. He has also co-authored the Keynote Primary English Course which is approved by the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) and widely used in Kenya and Tanzania. The occasion was also use to launch his latest book, A Dream on Wings.
“ It is Alembi’s zeal and energy that made us feel guilty that he is rarely
recognized. We are now working on two secondary school supplementary books
with him, and it’s just great to work with a man who wants to give his readers the
very best,” says Musyoki Muli, the Sasa Sema Publications Manager.
In September Dr Alembi was in Argentina, where he presented a paper tiltled Children’s Oral Poetry as a Channel for Transmitting Social Values at the International Society for Folg Narrative Research (ISFNR). Dr Alembi is ISFNR Vice-President for Africa. Dr Alembi is also the chairman of the National Kenya Schools and Colleges Drama Festival.