Readers' corner: Siundu’s Vassanji piece made delightful reading

Siundu’s Vassanji piece made delightful reading

Makutwa Omutiti

Godwin Siundu’s piece last Saturday titled, ‘M.G.Vassanji: My World in between’, was a delightful read. I always enjoy reading his articles. His consistently conscious stance of fore-grounding repressed histories and subjectivities is highly commendable.

It reminds me of Shlomo Sand’s latest injunction to intellectuals to endeavour to disrupt “hegemonic circuits of memory”.

At the level of language use, Siundu is “yummy”. I am still tingling with excitement at terms like “spatial literacy”. He does not suffer from the affectation that afflicts much post-structuralist writing.

When you read him, you sense a mind that is invested in an authentic voyage to grapple with complex existential issues.

Siundu is right that in the East African context, the histories of people who trace their lineages to the Indian subcontinent have been marginalised. I think that one of the reasons for this is the fact that the discourses of nationalism in Africa were framed in exclusivist terms, “race” included. Very few of the founders appreciated Benedict Anderson’s concept of the nation as an imagined community.

Mahmood Mamdani reinforces the latter by arguing in Citizen and Subject that what Africa needs in this regard are political leaders who will restructure the nation on the idea not of volk but of a collectivity with a common future and destiny.

This is important because as Immanuel Wallerstein has recently argued, multi-culturalism is a dynamic that has always defined society and that it is normal for conflicts to occur when variegated histories come into contact with each other: the other always interrogates our self.

Major problems begin to crop up when the Other is instrumentalised into a spectre that gets incorporated into a system of domination.

Conservatism becomes reactionary — an ideology simply meant to preserve the status quo.

However,  I think that Siundu does not adequately map this power dynamic in his perceptive pieces on the Asian community in East Africa.

The author writes from St Augustine University of Tanzania

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There’s a lot more to authors than books

Carol Sicherman

Gloria Mwaniga is right about the misrepresentation and omission of women writers: they are writers first and foremost. Her mention of responses to Achebe’s death had a particular resonance for me because I once had the privilege of exchanging a few words with him after hearing him speak.

He had such a capacious generosity, such an engaging personality, that it would have been easy for eulogists to focus on those aspects — but no, they wrote about his work, not his personality.

Grace Ogot’s eulogists, all male, are captives of their socialisation. Even Ngugi, whose work and wisdom I greatly admire, who is so deeply proud of his wife and brilliant free-thinking daughter — even he, supposedly “feminist,” falls into that trap.

Tom Odhiambo, a generation younger, is there with Ngugi. Kenya needs more critics like Prof Egara Kabaji, whom Mwaniga cites for his insightful comments on Ama Ata Aidoo as an example of a free-speaking writer of achievement.

But there was one name missing from Mwaniga’s article: Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye, the “grandmother of Kenyan literature.” No publisher touched her last novel!

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New writers overlook traditional publishers for genuine reasons

By Cosmas Mogere

While literary editors continue exorcising the demons bedevilling contemporary Kenyan writing, budding writers are opting for self-publishing. Evan as Lucas Wafula argues that self-publishing should not be a rubber stamp for mediocrity, Kenya’s publishing jungle continues to ignore new writers.

As a result, Kwani? is becoming the darling of new authors.

Wafula argues that self-publishing is an excuse for complacency. Does he mean the literary editors at Jalada and Kwani? are incompetent yet they publish award winning authors?

So far, the mainstream publishers no longer attract the best creative minds based on their egocentric and prejudicial judgment. Instead, they have centred their interest around school materials. Most publishers continue suffering alienative debauchery on new authors.

Secondly, arguing that one needs to be a creative genius stocked with dreams of unexplored areas in fiction is tantamount to inculcating the masterpiece syndrome. While exceptional talent is a prerequisite to creative writing, we cannot nullify the average minds. The best classic novels, poems and plays were done by average writers. Shakespeare for instance, dropped out of primary school but has been termed the best poet and playwright of all time.

Thirdly, Wafula initiated yet another debate by saying there is no room for fiction in self-publishing. I equally beg to differ as some of the authors we know today started with self-publishing. The Villains of Molo by Kinyanjui Kombani was first self-published before it was republished. Besides, the demons Wafula is trying to  invoke do not exist in self-published works, as most of these books undergo critical editing by  competent editors.

Thus, the raw deal he says the books will expose readers to is null and void. Some of the self published writers these days employ the services of reputable editors for not only revision of their works but also the reflection of maturity of thought in their works.

Quality content

I dismiss the fallacious argument that writers require training to produce quality content  complete with a digestive flow, mature thematic conception not trivial and master class  characterisation.

While I agree that all writers have to undergo some training, amateur writers seem to have carved themselves a niche in the publishing world.

Joseph Conrad, for  instance was never a trained journalist or literature graduate, yet he produced thought provoking content. That cannot be said of literature graduates who have been unable to produce a single book.

The writer is a student, Kenya Institute of Media and Technology, Nairobi

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Better appraisal systems can curb teacher absenteeism

Vivere Nandiemo

It is crystal clear that education is at risk. Over the years concerns have been raised about the low performance of teachers largely due the increased absenteeism in public schools.

This has had a pernicious effect on students’ results and the overall quality of education. A recent report on teachers’ performance paints a gloomy picture on the education situation in the country.

Unesco’s Global Monitoring Report – Education for All, 2000-2015, revealed that 20 per cent of teachers in public schools do not attend classes. The report clearly indicates that teacher absenteeism is adversely affecting the quality of education.

Absenteeism is a problem that is mainly attributed to poor remuneration. A vast majority of teachers have resorted to various businesses in a bid to supplement their salaries.

Teachers’ performance can be improved tremendously through effective performance appraisal system. Such a system should be anchored on domains of knowledge, practice, and professional engagement, each with standards that teachers should meet.

 It is time teachers were held to account for the outcome of their work. Then their delivery will be better and their presence will be more of a moral obligation than a professional one.

The writer teaches at Sakuri Girls’ secondary school in Kuria East Sub-County ([email protected])

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Advance water-tight arguments in writing

Collins Odhimabo

The article, “It’s wrong to claim women writers unfairly portrayed” (Saturday Nation, April 11), was fundamentally flawed. It wrecked its own premise immediately after take-off, rendering its fairly cogent body completely misplaced.

The introductory communicated a clear intention to challenge Gloria Mwaniga’s “How women writers are portrayed unfairly” (Saturday Nation, April 4).

The writer, Amol Awuor, pointed out Mwaniga’s message: that earlier published tributes to Grace Ogot portrayed the author unfairly and that scholarship on writers granted women scant representation. Awuor disagreed, and went on to offer clear evidence that women writers’ works are quite well represented in the curriculum, at least at her university.

This was all right, thus far. How she proceeded was what appalled my intellectual sensibilities.

In the sixth paragraph, she cited a professor’s observation that scholarship has predominantly been on male writers. She expressed hearty agreement and explained it by invoking our patriarchal socialisation, in which women are expected to play second fiddle. She urged the academy to encourage greater study of women writers.

As to whether the tributes in question indeed propagated male prejudices, she never deigned to offer the least of substantiation, a travesty of argument composition.

For the avoidance of doubt, the concern of Mwaniga’s piece had been that women writers are routinely treated with much less seriousness than is the case with their male counterparts.

In her view, this was heavily reflected in the tone of the said tributes, which had praised the late author’s beauty, grace, charm, politeness, motherliness, smile and so on, without, in Mwaniga’s view, giving her literary work “enough” critical attention. She added that this tendency was rife in other facets of life.

In my own estimation, Awuor’s unconscious support for what she had set out to challenge is attributable to innocent circumspection. This circumspection saw her leave the issue of nuanced male chauvinism totally unattended and the one on scant scholarly attention to women writers so sloppily handled as to work against her basic argument.

Besides pure deconstructionism, feminist critical approach is truly exciting, especially in this post-modern era. It imbues its ardent disciples with acuity for detection of chauvinism and the fearlessness needed to knock the same right on the head.

I ask Awuor to write again, both to own up to her messed up argument and to justify her position that the tributes to Grace Ogot did not propagate male prejudice, as Mwaniga claimed.

The writer is the president of Alyp Writers.

***

New writers overlook traditional publishers for genuine reasons

By Cosmas Mogere

While literary editors continue exorcising the demons bedevilling contemporary Kenyan writing, budding writers are opting for self-publishing.

Evan as Lucas Wafula argues that self-publishing should not be a rubber stamp for mediocrity, Kenya’s publishing jungle continues to ignore new writers.

As a result, Kwani? is becoming the darling of new authors.

Wafula argues that self-publishing is an excuse for complacency. Does he mean the literary editors at Jalada and Kwani? are incompetent yet they publish award winning authors?

So far, the mainstream publishers no longer attract the best creative minds based on their egocentric and prejudicial judgment. Instead, they have centred their interest around school materials. Most publishers continue suffering alienative debauchery on new authors.

Secondly, arguing that one needs to be a creative genius stocked with dreams of unexplored areas in fiction is tantamount to inculcating the masterpiece syndrome.

While exceptional talent is a prerequisite to creative writing, we cannot nullify the average minds. The best classic novels, poems and plays were done by average writers. Shakespeare for instance, dropped out of primary school but has been termed the best poet and playwright of all time.

Thirdly, Wafula initiated yet another debate by saying there is no room for fiction in self-publishing. I equally beg to differ as some of the authors we know today started with self-publishing.

The Villains of Molo by Kinyanjui Kombani was first self-published before it was republished. Besides, the demons Wafula is trying to  invoke do not exist in self-published works, as most of these books undergo critical editing by  competent editors.

Thus, the raw deal he says the books will expose readers to is null and void. Some of the self published writers these days employ the services of reputable editors for not only revision of their works but also the reflection of maturity of thought in their works.

Quality content

I dismiss the fallacious argument that writers require training to produce quality content  complete with a digestive flow, mature thematic conception not trivial and master class  characterisation.

While I agree that all writers have to undergo some training, amateur writers seem to have carved themselves a niche in the publishing world.

Joseph Conrad, for  instance was never a trained journalist or literature graduate, yet he produced thought provoking content. That cannot be said of literature graduates who have been unable to produce a single book.

The writer is a student, Kenya Institute of Media and Technology, Nairobi

***

The public needs military-type training to fight back terrorists

Kimtai Cherongis

It’s, indeed, difficult for ordinary citizens to differentiate a banging door from a grenade explosion nor discern tire burst from a gunshot at the height of terrorists raiding our country.

Even as the government of the day revisits the security situation in the county, many stampede episodes are being reported in our learning institutions. One student was killed on Kikuyu Campus of the University of Nairobi last Sunday as scores more were injured in a stampede caused by colliding power cables sound being mistaken for Al-Shabaab gunfire.

Kenyatta University students were also caught in a commotion after a colleague failed to adhere to library rules.

A policeman was beaten and left for dead in Mt Elgon after being mistaken for an Al-Shabaab militant. These show how the country is in a total fear from mysterious gunmen.

As a matter of fact, the country must come up with elaborate measures to provide psychological and military training to the masses, in general, and college students, in particular, so as to withstand a terrorist attack.

Such training will help people avoid any stampede and even be courageous enough to stand up  and fight back the terrorists.

Kimtai Cherongis, teaches English and is also a journalist based in Bungoma.