Lake Victoria imbued Burt Award winner with magic of telling stories creatively

Adipo Sidang learnt the beauty of literature at the feet of his grand-parents and from hearing mythical stories revolving around Nam Lolwe and its islands. PHOTO| THOMAS RAJULA

What you need to know:

  • In September, Adipo added another feather to his cap after winning the national Burt Award for his novella, A Boy Named Koko. The award, which has now gone regional, comes with a cash prize of 1,000 Canadian dollars (about Sh82,000).
  • “The muse, being the goddess of creativity, elicits that and you’re able to write. I had a lot of ideas but I settled on this particular one,” he says of his winning manuscript.
  • “The strength of the story is that it is relevant to our society, and it’s something all generations can relate to,” he says. “How do you see them?

For a man of 34, Adipo Sidang’ — the winner of this year’s CODE National Burt Award for African Young Adult Literature, Kenya — has had more than enough to chew. Besides being the holder of a Master’s degree in Philosophy, Adipo has also taught the subject at the University of Nairobi’s South Eastern University in Kitui.

After his stint there, he went on to become a political analyst for Elections Observer Group (ELOG). It is, however, possible that he is better known for his work as a performer both at the Kenya National Theatre in Nairobi as well as on YouTube.

In September, Adipo added another feather to his cap after winning the national Burt Award for his novella, A Boy Named Koko. The award, which has now gone regional, comes with a cash prize of 1,000 Canadian dollars (about Sh82,000).

The winner is also guaranteed that his book will be sell 3,000 copies once it is released in November. The prize, which was announced on September 29, is usually awarded to an unpublished work of fiction targeting readers between the ages of 12 and 18.

Adipo is an intriguing man. He hides his face behind a bushy beard and a grey cabbie cap, but he wears his culture on his sleeve. He appears to have a penchant for African print shirts in muted colours.

Growing up in a village in Uyoma District, Rarieda constituency of Siaya County, he was brought up on stories and cultures of the Luo community. With their home a relative short distance from Lake Victoria (Nam Lolwe in the local language), where he used to and still bathes when he visits today, he said it was easy for a curious child to learn about the local culture. There were numerous activities he saw and stories he heard going on along the shores around the mysteries of Africa’s largest fresh water lake. It was here that he got to learn about myths and legends that surround the Lake Victoria islands. His appreciation for culture was further enhanced by his closeness to both sets of his grandparents.

A highly philosophical individual, graduating with a summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Pontifical Urbaniana

University in Rome, Adipo says his reading, academic formation and upbringing define what he writes. He is better known as a poet and has been writing poetry for the last 16 years.

His first published work, Parliament of Owls, is a poetry anthology which traverses different themes: Politics, relationships and life situations. It was self-published in 2016. His delivery of his poems is what sets him apart as he is a gifted performer. Oh, and he is non-apologetic about the pride that he exhibits during his performances. Besides poetry, he has also written prose and has a some yet-to-be published short stories written in his much younger years.

Interestingly, when an editor at Longhorn Publishers asked if he had a manuscript that he could submit for the Burt Award, he said ‘yes’ although he was being economical with the truth. He did not have one at that point but went on to pen A Boy Named Koko to satisfy the editor.

“You never tell a publisher that you don’t have a manuscript,” he says. “When he told me to submit it, I asked to be given two weeks to fine-tune it. I started writing in the last week of April this year and was finished within the first week of May. I was writing nonstop every night.”

During that time, he switched off his phone and often went to bed well past at 2am each night.

“It was a painful period,” he recalls.

Longhorn Publishers submitted the manuscript which went on to overcome competition from a past winner, Tony Mochama, a journalist with the Standard that Adipo calls “the old king” because Tony mentored him, and Kinyanjui Kombani, author of The Last Villains of Molo and other works of fiction.

“From a poet who’d write 50 lines to writing a 40,000-word novel, this was like Usain Bolt competing in a 1,500-metre race,” says Adipo.

On his win, he says: “I was very surprised because until that hour I didn’t know who else had made the national shortlist”.
The trick to being a good writer is to always put down ideas as they come, either something about society that he wants to address or something that ignites his creativity and makes the muse visit him.

“The muse, being the goddess of creativity, elicits that and you’re able to write. I had a lot of ideas but I settled on this particular one,” he says of his winning manuscript.

A Boy Named Koko dwells on the plight of children living with albinism.

“When I was growing up in the village, there was a family that had a boy much younger than we were, who was living with albinism. We did not understand what his condition was all about. Children and adults alike were talking about him in derogative language, calling him chotra (a corruption of chotara which is Swahili for biracial) to mean bandia (a counterfeit white person). The family had to move,” Adipo recalls.

After graduating from the university in Rome, Adipo lived in Pangani where had a neighbour who was a young, easy-going guy who was also ambitious though he was living with albinism.

"I saw the little boy from the village in him, and I wondered if the boy had a chance to live his life free of discrimination and the negative perceptions that had surrounded him,” says Adipo.

From these influences, he came up with a story about an orphaned boy living with albinism, and who had to overcome different challenges that were standing in the way of his talents. The young adults’ story tries to show children how they can evolve out of their situations to become heroes. The story addresses the reality that is facing individuals living with disabilities. Adipo says he intended to make people question how they interact with persons living with disabilities.

“The strength of the story is that it is relevant to our society, and it’s something all generations can relate to,” he says. “How do you see them? Do you treat them differently just because that is a person with a congenital disorder? I think the credibility of the story, exposing the pain that we have caused these boys and girls in one way or another, is what appealed to the judges.”

Now he has to manage expectations that the award has placed on him.

He says the one question that keeps coming up in conversations since he won is when his next novel is coming out. Interlocutors also want to know what the story is about and what award he is targeting thereafter.

“Adding the ‘award-winning’ title to your name is not an easy thing in terms of what it takes to get there, and then the impact it has on you.

The expectation becomes impossible. I just stepped off the platform from receiving my award, and after congratulations people ask those questions.

When you go back to your lonely cocoon of writing you struggle with that burden,” he says philosophically.