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The Armageddon and Other Stories
The unpredictable weather patterns in Africa, the rise of earth's surface temperature, the melting of polar ice caps, rising of sea levels and the blazing wildfires in the Americas and Australia call for urgent action to conserve Mother Nature or risk Armageddon, the final destruction of the planet. This is the subject that runs through this compilation of stories to reiterate Wangari Maathai's assertion that the future of the planet concerns all of us and we should do what we can to protect it. It is the intention of debut and established authors of this anthology to perpetuate Maathai's legacy to avert Mother
Natures' vengeance against humanity. The Armageddon and Other Stories, therefore, breaks away from conventional social and political themes on the African literary scene to depict the demerits of deforestation, pollution, logging, the relegation of climate change, and other concerns of ecocriticism. At the crux of the anthology is the argument that the tendency to use financial profits to measure the success of commercial institutions without considering their role in environmental conservation is misleading. - Andrew Nyongesa.
Air, water, and earth are the basic amenities of life. Humans have constantly tampered with nature. Cyclical processes that nature has designed for resource conservation are fragrantly interfered with. As a result, the threat to life has been increased due to human activities in the environment. Some of these are air, water, and noise pollution; deforestation, blind industrialization, over-population; waste disposal, climate change, global warming, the greenhouse effect, and the imbalance established in the biosphere. The stories herein serve to spread environmental awareness in our society as well as in our daily routine life. It is necessary to save and protect our environment. - John Mugubi.
Say My Name and Other African Stories...
Cultural difference elicits both essentialist and hybrid conversations from diverse fields, particularly the humanities and social sciences. For Africa, essentialist voices, for instance, underscore the need to reject Western culture and return to the African ways of the past. In the 1956 conference of Black Writers, essentialists were represented by Aime Cessaire. In their view, the great Africa could only be founded on its past cultural ways.
Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Obi Wale bolster Cessaire’s proposition in their defence of African languages with respect to the writing of African literature. In their opinion, writing African literature in European languages in tantamount to transmitting European values. Frantz Fanon, on the other hand, contented that Africa can only succeed through a mix of Western and African ways.
Referring to Fanon, Homi Bhabha associates essentialist discourses with the politics of polarity. For him, the return to traditional culture is a recipe for cultural othering that could threaten national aspirations.
It is in the backdrop of these divergent conversations that the stories in Say my Name and Other African Stories from Home and Away we selected. While Joy Chenyenyozi, Yvonne Wamuyu, Maurice Simbili, Virginia Asenath and James Nderitu stand for a cultural mix of what seems inevitable in Africa, Denis Waswa, Muruli Muhande, Imali Abala and Ann Namatasi Lutomia are concerned with representation of Africa’s lost past. Using autobiographical style, the authors capture among other things, the physical environment, childhood activities, initiation rites, parenting styles, dances, food, cherished values and other aspects that show the cultural diversity of the Kenyan populace.
Many in One and Other Stories from Af...
Many in One and Other Stories is a convergence of stories by budding writers of both genders from diverse regions of Kenya. The anthology breaks the monotony of classical Kenyan writers and captures emerging voices on the Kenyan literary scene. This meticulous and careful selection has considered a range of subjects from post election violence, political animosity, national integration, greed, broken love and cultural alienation. Set in contemporary African settings with vivid characters, the stories seek to entertain, challenge, inform and chastise the readers.
With precision of eye and word, the writers in this anthology make lucid their creative territories. Ingenious and original, this anthology of resonant, assured and gratifying stories comes from a true connection with lived places and experiences accruing there-from. All the writers treasure language and deftly use its resources of metaphor, voice and syntax to explore their worlds and offer readers new knowledge about their worlds. I trust that readers will find this anthology a sizzling good yarn bubbling with edutainment.
Korondo-Panic: A Satirized Diary of a...
“Articles in this book overflow with humour and thought provoking jokes. The way Araka twists and plays around with names of public figures, their actions and inactions, and blends it with the joys and disappointments of ‘ordinary’ citizens is on another level. The style is readable and appealing. The articles revolve around the novel Coronavirus disease. This is a time to be told and retold to present and future generations.” - Rose Kong’ani Keya, Book Editor and Teacher
“The author has banked on wordplay to offer his contribution in chronicling a critical moment in our lives when COVID-19 threw the world into panic and confusion. The book tells of humanity’s inadequacies, hits and misses. Through his trademark satire, Araka shows that as human beings, we deserve better and can do better even when caught up in difficulties. - Edna, Gutenbergschule, Leipzig
“Many occurrences happen in everyday life and can go unnoticed despite being significant. Araka is a gifted writer that makes such occurrences memorable through satire and humour. The themes in the articles including: political manipulations, exploitation, corruption, family relations, hypocrisy, traditions, and modern technology are well intertwined in the writer’s rich narrative style with vivid descriptions that capture the reader to achieve reading this collection in the shortest time possible. I recommend this collection to readers that wish to relive occurrences in their lives and surroundings in a laughable way.” - George Onkundi, Principal, Nyamira School.
About the Author: Joshua Nyangau Araka is a journalist, creative writer and biographer. His other published works include: Peppered Path, Chronicles of the Idler-Volume One, and Beaten Odds, a Biography of Stephen Mabea.
The Return of the Sun by Kevin Omwanza
The Return of the Sun explores the immorality of slavery with partakers offering excuses in support of the brutal practice. The author elicits questions on how to end the practice: by supplanting the captors or forging a new, more inclusive, path.
The islands, home to most African communities, are breeding grounds for pirates who defend against invaders or are out to enslave others. An African king and slave trader, Jabari, is cruel to neighbouring communities, as a result of which his son and heir to the throne, Shaka, is abducted. Shaka's mother later flees on account of her husband's callousness.Zola, while searching for her brother, gets abducted by Charlie's pirates.
Charlie falls in love with her, but she promises to marry him when Charlie frees Shaka. Enchanted, Charlie agrees. Shaka leaves, planning to return and save all his people. Meanwhile, Tendai, a slave who grew up in Jabari's palace, realizes that the king orphaned him at an early age.
He joins Black Caesar, a black pirate focused on ending slavery. Caesar desires to entrench African civilization through the revival of Egyptian civilization. He has an island where he settles freed Africans and maintains a critical attitude towards Shaka who, though perceived as saviour by his people, practices slavery.
In a party that paves way for Charlie's marriage to Zola, Caesar lays siege that portends uncertainties!
Sabina the Rain Girl
Sabina and the Mystery of the Ogre
Sabina and the Mystery of the Ogre is a fast-paced thriller that winds through tales of encounters of mysteries and near-misses, underlining Sabina's unusual courage in the face of overwhelming sentiment of deeply-rooted traditional practices.
Sabina and the Mystery of the Ogre was the winner of the Burt Award for Literature 2015 (Kenya) .
Bilomelele bye Lukingi: Poems of Mt. ...
And O the lofty blowing of the horns
At various stations of the homeward journey
When the horn-bearers suddenly –
Blared their message to the mountain
Sounded their object to the plains
Announced their cause to the sunset
Declared their purpose to the sunrise –
Bv…..u!
Bv…..u!
Bv…..u!
Bv……………u!
Signifying that in the sundry homesteads
Of the candidates returning from afar,
An impending deed was to be done –
That would never be undone or done again!
This is the apex of Wangusa’s poetic career to date. As a category, the work is characterised by being phenomenally rooted in indigenous culture. And besides being strongly lyrical, it is dynamic, dramatic poetry. There are here multiple voices, various personas in life’s problematic arena. It is poetry not to be just recited but to be performed for maximum effect.
Traditional Marriage in Gusii
Traditional Marriage in Gusii (Enyangi y’Ebitinge), published posthumously, documents the process of old-style marriage in Gusii and related steps, culminating in a wedding ceremony. The process was meticulous and made of a series of steps, each with very clear purpose and intended not just for the couple but also their families and clans.
Abagusii attached a lot of value to marriage. It was a major landmark in the ‘growing up’ of a man or woman in that society. Marriage marked the transition from the care of one’s parents to being independent and taking care of oneself and one’s family. That transition was possible only after marriage.
The importance of marriage and the honour it was accorded is underlined by the respect that was given to a married woman. For example, she found herself late in getting home by someone, that person had an obligation to ensure that she got to her home safely; after all, she was a mother and her progeny would be the link to the future.
Riddles of Abagusii of Kenya
Riddles, along with proverbs, are key aspects of oral communication in many African cultures, including that of Abagusii of Kenya. Popular, especially with children in the community, participants typically use riddles to challenge one another's knoweldge. One person would metaphorically describe something with a concealed clue. The listener, using imagination, previous experience and the context in which the riddle is said, would search for the most relevant answer. It takes great imagination to get the correct answer.
Riddles are also performed communally as in the case of groups of people working in the fields, trekking to the market, riding in the same public transport or simply sitting around an evening fire as they waited to retire to bed. This aspect of riddling acted to strengthen community bonds, enhanced knowledge-sharing and imparted lessons, especially for the young in the community.
Riddles of Abagusii of Kenya documents the many riddles from that community recorded over a spread of time and space. It offers analysis intended for understanding the riddles and how they are used.
