On a normal day in Lebanon in 1967, a young Kenyan man was attending Prof. David Gordon’s History class at the American University of Beirut. You blink I blink, boom, the class came to an end with Prof. Gordon’s mouth half open on an unfinished sentence. All the students were being ushered out of the…
The gate to his castle reads “Garden of Hope”. Here, Simon Lekita rules. His level of knowledge and confidence stretches out across the acres of the lush farm he tends to. A rich variety of no less than twenty types of vegetables, herbs, fruit trees and farm animals thrive under his master-gardener skills. Without an…
There’s a saying in Swahili: Ukitaka cha mvunguni sharti uiname – “If you want what’s under the bed you must bend down”. It stuck in my head because I told Preston this and he thought it was funny. The remote control had fallen through the headboard and I wasn’t about to crunch my spine to…
The one thing coursework in International Terrorism can do is make you despise simplistic good vs evil storylines. So can the study of History, the reading of other people’s literatures, and the willingness to know what you don’t want to know. Be warned that your capacity to suffer fools gladly quickly wanes too. In this…
When we were kids and new to the magic of learning, we did Number Work in Standard 1 (first grade). Then I think it was in Standard 2 when we graduated to Maths. What numbers become when + – x / was applied to them just totally confused me, especially if the answer was more…
*Posted Oct 13th, 2018 // This morning we woke up to the reactions of Kenya West’s visit to the White House. What did you think? I was asked at a private at-home conversation. I’ll make my opinion public. I said my first uncensored reaction felt like watching a black man in a cage on display…
My languages teacher in primary school was probably my biggest inspiration ever. She taught us English and Kikamba, both part of the school syllabus in that part of the country. I think Swahili too, although I don’t quite recall any Swahili text book. She was from Taita, and I know for sure at her home…
*This story was written as a personal email. The author gave permission for it to be published as a work of creative writing. The decision to maintain the email details is to have the reader contextualize the narrator’s voice. From: Preston E. Hall <p…com>To: “mkawasi” <m…com> Sent: Saturday, August 13, 2011 5:48 AMSubject: I am amazing You know, I am…
