Author of the crime novel Nairobi Heat, Mukoma wa Ngugi has recently written an insigthful opinion piece on Kenya’s troubled political scene – and, in a broader sense, Africa’s:
Finally in Kenya after a three year absence, I am alarmed. It feels like a ship whose cargo is a terrible future of violence has already set sail from the distant hell of Africa’s past and is heading for our shores. It will dock in the near future. And we, the politicians, political activists, writers and intellectuals, are simply bickering over what exactly this ship may contain.
And more than that, the leaders and elites of countries like Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe – where governments are meant to be managing and ultimately stabilising the balance between the rich and poor – are unable to take heed. We do not learn well from each other and much less from history. When our past finally comes calling, it will be a terrible and unforgiving teacher.
Contrast the Kenya I saw in 2006 and the Kenya of 2009, and you might as well be looking at two different countries. In 2006, a year before the elections, it was a time of hope. In spite of rampant crime that turned people into prisoners in their own homes at night, and poverty that could no longer be hidden behind World Bank economic policies of less is more, political discussions were energized. There seemed to be a belief that the majority could wrest the government from the grip of the elite.
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The Penguin African Writers series, launched in 2009, showcases writing from a diverse range of writers from Africa for contemporary readers in Africa and the rest of the world. The series launched with works from Chinua Achebe, Dambudzo Marechera, Véronique Tadjo, Lília Momplé, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Karen King-Aribisala.
In 2010 we will be expanding the series and this is a call for submissions for artwork to be used on the covers of these forthcoming titles. It is a wonderful opportunity for both established and new artists, with assured international exposure and the support of the Penguin Group.
Every book in the Penguin African Writers series is distinctly African and the illustrations should reflect a theme central to Africa. We are looking for creative representations of “African”, contemporary and/or traditional. The artwork’s connection to the title and content of the book does not necessarily have to be literal as the messages and themes are open to interpretation.
A detailed brief will be available from 7 September 2009. Artists who would like to submit artwork for possible inclusion in one of the upcoming Penguin African Writers books should contact Reneé Naudé at renee.naude@za.penguingroup.com for more information.
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Soon enough I found myself outside the airport in what felt like a market – a wall of people shouting and heckling, selling newspapers, phone cards, even boiled eggs. But it wasn’t the people that stopped me in my tracks, it was the heat. The heat made New Orleans on a hot summer day feel like spring. Humid, thick and salty to taste, that was Nairobi heat.
When a beautiful blonde girl is found murdered on the porch of an African university professor in Maple Bluff, Madison, USA, hard-working detective Ishmael Fofona knows immediately that it will be the news event of the year. What he cannot know however is that the discovery of the dead girl will change his life forever and that barely seventy-two hours after being called to the scene he will find himself on African soil, hunting for clues in a case that seemingly makes no sense. Why would Joshua Hakizimana – a hero of the Rwandan genocide, a man who had saved hundreds of people from the machetes of the genocidaires – kill a random white girl and then dump her body outside his house? The answers, it would seem, lie in Africa. And there is only one way to get at them.
Kenyan author Mukoma wa Ngugi’s debut novel is a gripping and hard-hitting detective thriller that questions race, identity and class.
About the author
Mukoma wa Ngugi was born in Illinois and is the son of African writer, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. He is a Political Columnist for the BBC Focus on Africa Magazine.
His essays and columns have appeared in the Guardian, International Herald Tribune, Los Angeles Times, South African Labour Bulletin, the Mail and Guardian and Kenya’s Business Daily Africa, amongst others. He has been a guest commentator on Democracy Now and the BBC World Service. He is the author of an anthology of poetry titled Hurling Words at Consciousness (2006), as well as Conversing with Africa: Politics of Change (2003). His poems have appeared in the New York Quarterly, and in several anthologies.
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Penguin Books is delighted to announce that the first six titles in the new Penguin African Writers Series are now available at bookstores across the country.
Literary titan Chinua Achebe is the Penguin AWS’s Editorial Adviser – and the great writer’s book of short stories, Girls at War and Other Stories, comprises part of the initial list.
We’re immensely proud to present six must-have African reads:
Black Sunlight by Dambudzo Marechera (Zimbabwe): In an unspecified setting the narrative traces the fortunes of a group of anarchists in revolt against a military-fascist-capitalist opposition. The central character is a press photographer, Chris, whose camera lens becomes the device through which Marechera cleverly unravels the story’s incidents. Marechera said the book was influenced by the Baader-Meinhof story about German terrorists: “I really tried to put terrorism into a historical perspective, neither applauding their acts nor condemning them. The photographer does not take sides, he just takes the press photographs.”
Hangman’s Game by Karen King-Aribisala (Guyana): The narrative interweaves two storylines: a bloody revolt in Demerara, Guyana, in 1823 and a military coup in Nigeria in the late 1990s. The latter focuses on the terrifying experiences of a pregnant writer, her minister husband and their housekeeper during the murderous era of a ‘military democracy’, where the tyrant is known only as “Butcher Boy”.
The second storyline is the basis of the woman’s novel, set in her native Guyana, with historical characters who mirror their counterparts in the real world. Insecurities about her marriage begin to spiral out of control and paranoia sets in as the woman is unable to distinguish between real-life threats and the constructions of her imagination. The hangman’s noose from the simple spelling guessing game and the children’s nursery rhyme Three Blind Mice pervade in this studiously plotted and subtly told story.
Neighbours: The story of a murder by Lília Momplé (Mozambique): On the eve of the festival of Eid, Narguiss, who ‘never wanted anything to do with politics’, is more preoccupied with family problems than with the radio news of kidnappings and murders. Before dawn, however, she and other innocent people seeking to lead peaceful lives are caught up in a vicious conspiracy to infiltrate and destabilise Mozambique.
Skilfully weaving together present events and past memories, Lília Momplé gives us, in the drama of a few short hours, an insight into the consequences of Mozambique’s complex history. Beautifully written. Snapshots into different homes on the eve of a major religious festival. Contrast between the past and age-old traditions and a new way of life.
Weep Not, Child by Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Kenya): Two boys stand on a rubbish heap and look into the future. One boy is excited, he is beginning school; the other, his brother, is an apprentice carpenter. Together they will serve their country – the teacher and the craftsman. But this is Kenya and the times are against them. In the forests, the Mau Mau are waging war against the white government, and the two brothers, Njoroge and Kamau, and the rest of their family, need to decide where their loyalties lie. For the practical man the choice is simple, but for Njoroge the scholar, the dream of progress through learning is a hard one to give up.
A powerful, moving story that details the effects of the Mau Mau war on the lives of ordinary men and women.
As the Crow Flies by Véronique Tadjo (Ivory Coast): Véronique Tadjo weaves together a rich tapestry of voices to tell stories of parting and return, suffering, healing and desire in a lyrical and moving exploration of the human heart. Like a bird in flight, the reader travels across a borderless landscape composed of tales of everyday existence, news reports, allegories and ancestral myths, becoming aware in the course of the journey of the interconnection of individual lives.
Tadjo’s prose is so ephemeral that it’s difficult to remember that she is writing about heartache and pain. The narrative is presented as a series of chapters in varying length, with characters who are nameless and faceless, representing everyman and everywoman.
Girls at War and Other Stories by Chinua Achebe (Nigeria): A collection of 13 short stories Achebe wrote over 20 years, with the earliest dating back to his student days at Ibadan, Nigeria, and the latest to stories of the Nigerian civil war. This was the first collection of Achebe short stories to be made available to a wide public. “Girls at War”, the title story, is about the tragic effects of war on the civilian population, in particular on one girl, who starts with high ideals, which vanish as the war drags on and the need for food replaces the need for ideals.
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