Kwani? 05, Part 1
August 27, 2009
Excerpts From Kwani? 05, Part 1
Truth does not set you free. Instead, truth sets loose. It risks what we hold dear. And there are no assurances.
Daring truth entails risking all we might want to preserve. It means daring to break with family and friends. It means disturbing the fragile peace we inhabit by having difficult conversations. It means telling our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, lovers, and friends that their political choices are unpalatable-Excerpt from ‘Daring Truth’ by Jeremeiah Okongo.
I saw someone being killed in town at the matatu station called Kalenjin airport because the matatus there carry people heading into the North Rift. The IDPs who had been evicted from Eldoret were very bitter and were going around looking for Kalenjins to avenge their losses. They came to Kalenjin airport because they knew that’s where most of them board matatus to go home. Unfortunately, one man was caught by the group. They beat him up and stabbed him to death. I was not noticed because I look like a Kikuyu.- Kevin Koros, a 20-year-old actor from Lakeview, near Nakuru.
When my uncle saw some people approaching his home, he called the chief again who didn’t answer the call. When the Kalenjin youths reached my grandparents’ compound they said they were looking for my uncle to kill him. When they spotted him running away they tried to shoot him with arrows, but luckily none hit him. My uncle and grandparents moved to Nyahururu to start a new life. – Gladys Maina, currently living in Kikuyu, Central Province.
We spend most of our lives listening to every word of those politicians. That’s why we are suffering, especially the middle class and poor people. The rich from Westlands, Lavington, Runda are very safe. -Alvando Msamani, electronics salesman,Dandora.
I was born in Baringo. I’m a Kikuyu, but I learnt Kalenjin before my mother tongue. Most of my friends are Kalenjin. But today I don’t want to see any one of them. I really hate myself for saying that.
I cannot go back to Central Province. The language they speak there is totally different from the Kikuyu I speak here. When I speak my Kikuyu there, they start laughing at me. And when I go to Baringo, where I grew up, they look at me as a foreigner. If I don’t belong in the Rift Valley, where else can I fit? I am married to a Luhya! – Jesse Njoroge, Nakuru Read more
How to Write About Africa by Binyavanga Wainaina
March 24, 2008
Author: Binyavanga Wainaina
Series: Kwanini
This trio of sharp-witted essays takes irony to a new level. In How to Write About Africa, Wainaina dissects the African clichés and preconceptions dear to western writers and readers with a ruthless precision. Read more
You in America by Chimamanda Adichie
March 24, 2008
Author: Chimamanda Adichie
Series: Kwanini
This is a love story disguised as a travelogue, the tale of a young Nigerian woman who wins a lottery whose prize is a green card to America. Does everyone there own a big house, a big car, and a gun? Not quite, though it turns out there are worse things than guns. Chimamanda Adichie takes us effortlessly from the shanties of Lagos to downtown Connecticut, where love – uninvited but not unwelcome – turns up to eat at a restaurant.
Weight of Whispers by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
March 24, 2008
Author: Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
Series: Kwanini
Awards: 2003 Caine Prize
Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor followed Wainaina’s example by winning the 2003 Caine Prize with her evocative tale of a Rwandan aristocrat who fled to Kenya in the wake of the 1994 genocide. The characters in Weight of Whispers come draped in history, wrapping the world’s dramas around their own as they struggle to adjust to their lengthy fall from grace. In this story of exile and death, Owuor draws us masterfully into a quest for light, and life.
