READER REVIEW: AFTER THE VOTE

I picked up a copy of a KWANINI? publication AFTER THE VOTE that is written by CONCERNED KENYAN WRITERS. The book as the title suggests is based on the reflections of various writers on the events of the 2008 ‘Post Election Violence’. I was curious, as the topic stirs up a bitter taste in my mouth and a cold feeling in the depths of my tummy of things that could have been and still could be. Things that before the election happened elsewhere on the African continent, not in Kenya. Never Kenya.

The introduction of the book has Billy Kahora (who is the editor of KWANI?) explaining the thinking behind the compilation. A friend called him and said ‘this is the time of the Kenyan writer. We can now move beyond “pretty” stories about our relationships with our mothers, and write about “real” things.’ When Mr. Kahora asked him what he meant by real he replied ‘War and Conflict.’

However anyone who attempts to write about war and conflict invariably writes about relationships, don’t they?

The writers KALUNDI SERUMANGA (Unsettled), ANDIA KISIA (Untitled), ALISON OJAY OWUOR (The Multiplication of Votes), SIMIYU BARASA (The Obituary of Simiyu Barasa)and TONY MOCHAMA (The Road to Eldoret) try through their narratives to explain our collective thoughts and fears and did a pretty good job of it.

ANDIA KISIA

Andia Kisias UNTITLED was perhaps the most poignant of all the narratives. She wrote invariably about relationships. The relationships our generation had with the country of our youth. What we thought it was (an infallible utopia) and what it truly was (a repressed and oppressed state). Our relationships with our President who he seemed to be (a benevolent father ‘Baba Moi’) and what he truly was (a cunning dictator). How we saw ourselves Watoto wa Nyayo and all (members of the tribe Kenyan rather than clansmen of rival tribes) and how we have now inherited the prejudices of our parents and by extension our tribes.

“I am no longer the unmitigated Kenyan I once was. And now I can see every straining seam, every river and every joint that holds us together. And I no longer take it for granted that they will.”

The Obituary of Simiyu Barasa by Himself would read like a screenplay for a television comedy if it did not ring true deep down inside. His dispatch tapped into that niggling fear we all had. Where would we go?  How would we get there? How would we protect our families, our children? What if we died? What if the violence never ended?

“… with youth dancing round it waving their bloody machetes, look closely. That ear might be mine. That grinning upper lip might be mine. I loved you my fellow countrymen. I loved without thinking of your parental lineage. I loved Kenya. But look what this country has done to me: sodomised my sense of humanity and pride.”

Simiyu manages to humanize the faceless nameless bodies we saw on television reminding us all too subtly that they are or were people with families, children, dreams. Innocent human beings. And he makes so graphic (and here I am reminded of the power of words well wielded) the feel of a violent death, by club, spear, machete…

“And Mwangi was on his feet, and out of the hotel before one could say the words ‘balkanization’ or ‘ethnic tension’- and now with the sun just coming up over the horizon, Mwangi is on his way to Eldoret to get his family, and take them to the safety of…”

 

Tony Mochamas short story about a man who has worked hard all his life and made a life for himself and his family, who braves the danger to go back into Eldoret to get his family to safety is good as it is horrifying for all it could have actually happened and probably did.

I was disappointed that his narrative of 8 days THE BRINKIPICE OF GENOCIDE was cut short at day one. It should have ended on day 8 or not have been included at all.

All in all AFTER THE VOTE was an edifying read, and I can say to Mr. Kahoras friend I would rather we were still reading “pretty” stories rather than trying to pick up our pride, and our humanity in the manhole we threw it in for “real” stories anyday.

Pick up a copy, tell me what you think.

http://www.kwani.org/publications/kwanini-series.htm Follow the link to see other KWANINI? publications, I am going out to look for more