A friend’s post took me to this raging debate about Kikuyu men with women’s names for a surname, and how one non-Kikuyu man has created a stink from it. Short story: I went to Primary school with a boy called Peter Wanjiru. Standard 7. I knew nothing. Our teacher used to make fun of poor…
I’m here to tell you something, you people who go to crusades of prophets what-not in Kenya. Like the dude with the ungroomed beard who was recently in Nakuru. Here’s the thing: After they are done with their stage performance of “miracles”, they must return the props back to the disabled owners, with payment to…
In high school, if you pursued the arts path you had a choice between Geography and History. Those of us who went with Geography got the benefit of some pretty memorable field trips. One was a visit to a marine park somewhere in north coast, Mombasa. I forget the name. We got on a boat…
Part I: Mama gathers up her handbag and says- We are going to jumuiya. So I hold onto her skirts and skip along. I am 5 all over again and graying on my head. We arrive at a neighbor’s home, the one to whom we owe this visit. She has been unwell, and we are…
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…
Religion is good, as long as you know it’s performance and performative. It is how you dramatize your spiritual being if you believe you have a non-material aspect to your existence. It should be beautiful, releasing, profound, personal, communal, needing no defense. It is a sacred story that you perform through ritual. These stories can…
*First posted on March 23 2021. Listen here Asian people. Here’s my dry-eyed truth. All week long, I’ve had a case of empathy deficiency. Like one forced to empathize with an abuser who is suddenly the victim of abuse. I acknowledge your humanity and will actually defend it, but I accuse you of lacking the…
A story is told about a simple man in the village who came home and found his dear wife in the copulatory embrace of another man. He said nothing. The next day, and the next he still said nothing. He would come home, have his dinner quietly, sleep peacefully, wake up, sharpen his panga, and…
This story is dedicated to my Mombasa people. Hawayuniii! Abdel Nasser Rd stretches from just beyond Allidina Visram to the Mwembe Tayari roundabout where I remember drinking the most quenching fantas as a child meandering through the drenching Mombasa heat. The air in Mwember Tayari was always sweetened with the smells of the day’s fresh…
