Africa, my Africa! Africa of dry savannahs….and the poem goes on. One can tell I have been hanging around artists.
The
reason that a poem on Africa consumes my mind is because I realize I
love Kenya above all other nations. It may not the best country to many,
it may not be the richest, it may be a security mish mash right now,
but it is my Kenya. I would not trade it for any other nation. I guess
these words will haunt me when I am famous and seeking an immigration
visa to Venus.
I attended aStorymoja
recruitment drive’ of the likeminded last Friday. One of the things
that Storymoja wishes to do is make Kenya a reading nation, put ‘a book
in every hand’ as they say.
This
is in addition to the Storymoja festival held every year. The festival
brings together writers, poets, story tellers and performers from Kenya
and other countries into one creative hub for a couple of days.
It’s
commendable, given that we are living in an interconnected world driven
by a knowledge economy that depends on human creativity and innovation.
The
challenge with trying to put a book in every hand is that it’s very
difficult, and it seems that the only place to start is by berating
Africa on her doom and gloom and lack of a reading culture. That, I do
not like.
What
I like about western nations is that they shape their reality to their
needs, not to their disadvantages. And this is where Kenyans with very
good ideas risk putting potential local partners and supporters off.
It’s okay to start a pep talk on how corrupt Kenyans are if you are
seeking support from Western nations, but not from the Kenyan
government, I suppose. And it is preposterous to refer to Kenya as
Africa or use the two terms interchangeably.
THE VILLAGE WELL
Nevertheless
getting Kenyans to read through whatever means is a great idea. Putting
books in libraries wherever they may be is one way to go. But why, I
wonder, should I not go to the village well and read to the children
washing clothes there? It may be the only story they will hear in a
country where our cultural ways of life - that by necessity included
storytelling at the end of the day - are slowly being overtaken by other
pressing needs like the search for water to satisfy increasing domestic
requirements, and scarce fuel wood that is getting harder to find even
in the countryside.
Dr
Auma Obama is the patron of the festival this year. She has a famous
surname, great personality and an obviously sharp intellect. She
reminded me of how precious Africa is to me.
But
the most impressive thing about Dr Obama is that she looks at Kenya and
Africa from the bright side of life. It has been a while since I met a
positive minded, spoken and thought Kenyan who has lived both locally
and internationally. She is optimistic about creating this reading
culture.
I
realized by relating to her for a couple of hours that she has a
practical approach to overcoming challenges. She looks at seemingly
unsurmountable challenges as temporary confines to the goal and will not
let anyone infusive negative energy into an activity that she is
involved in. She will make a great patron for Storymoja this year. She
is a published author of some privilege, since being a sister to the
American president will obviously make publishers want to write your
story. But I have no doubt that her memoir ‘And Then Life Happens’ is a reflection of her personality and, at a glance, well worth reading
No comments :
Post a Comment