Want to write biography of a famous Kenyan? Good luck

Many successful men and women believe that their life experience is worth narrating to the outside world, and that if compiled, their struggles, challenges and successes would also interest or inspire readers.

Though this is a natural inclination, reality shows the jury is always out. Readers worldwide are fickle; they will easily trash or praise a memoir before reaching page five. The story better gel with the readers at the earliest, or they move elsewhere.

Indeed, the biggest enemy confronting many Kenyan authors of biographies — be it authorised or unauthorised, be it a memoir or a simple autobiography — is Okonkwo-like hubris so deftly described by Chinua Achebe in his Things Fall Apart — unjustified self-aggrandisement by owners of the story. Our overriding desire to impress the world is the undoing of many a biographer. As our ancestors put it, mwi-iri eitaga nyoko (the world laughs at he who judges himself elegant). Self-praise misleads many the world over.

The next foible with owners of Kenyan biographies — and most likely a by-product of post-colonial self-flagellation — is the craze to make money from the sale of their memoirs. With our very low reading culture born of exam cramming by the school-going population, a biographer is better advised to search for lucrative dividends elsewhere.

That is not to say that the compiling of biographical works is fruitless and should be abandoned. On the contrary, good biographies are very close allies of a national history and the bedrock of national literature. I can, therefore, restate with confidence that those who know not their history, know not whence they come, nor how they fare into the uncharted future. More likely than not, icons and celebrities of any society influence momentous events of their times, as well as contribute to the moulding and rise and fall of their societies in unpredictable ways. To this extent, like ancestral warriors of yore, true legends do matter, for better or for worse.

A good example is our dire need for fully researched, authorised or unauthorised biographies of Jomo Kenyatta, Rawson Macharia, John Michuki, Paul Ngei, Bishop John Henry Okullu, Mwai wa Kibaki and Charles Njonjo. Such works would do Kenya proud, and there is no point in burying our heads in the sand.

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Plus, whether we like it or not, when our academy rises from the ashes of the ‘8-4-4’ debacle and its immediate cousin — the examination-transfixed school system — biographical works of these icons will surely see the light of day – hopefully this will happen soon.

Of import for any biography are owner’s life anecdotes, incidents and hilarious moments that spice and invigorate many a storybook. Needless to say, lighthearted stories entice readers to read on even when the rest of the book is heavy or too serious. This is how our own pre-literate ancestors taught the youth. Through fables, idioms, folk tales, proverbs and wise sayings, they learned of one-eyed ogres, warrior legends as well as our values, ideals and ethos.

And, truly, this was my take some 20 years back: It was not until I got bombarded with sharp questions about Africa’s vast history from bright students in lecture halls abroad that I decided to come home, intent on conducting detailed research on our national histories, our historical sites in particular. Inadvertently, I was diverted into compiling biographies.

I learned the hard way about the paucity of corporate funding for academic endeavours, unlike in the US, UK or Canada. It was then that I unwillingly diverted to compiling biographies but for two good reasons: First, owners of memoirs are more amenable to financing authors to document their life experiences. Second, societal icons worldwide rely heavily on professional writers and academics.

All the same, reality shows that more often than not, benevolence does not necessarily go hand in hand with personal wealth. Parallel to this proclivity is the assumption that owners of stories will be candid enough to aid the veracity of their story, all hidden motives notwithstanding. It is self-deception to assume that wealthy owners of stories tell us the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Despite their motives, the complete story is rarely fully told. Yet, as researchers soon find out, it matters little as others soon find out and quickly add to the tome. The more the bios, the better!

A myriad of challenges also crop up to even the best of authors in their efforts to promote national literature or history by way of biographies. For example, it is easy for an author to assume that the subject and owner of the story will remember or even disclose the historically significant events of his time, the milestones or highlights of his life and of his land. This is often not the case.

But the flip side is also tricky, particularly if the author is driven by greed for money. Whereas I am now working on my 10th biographical work — with six books already  published — one out of four of my efforts has fallen by the way side, mainly due to owner dereliction of duty or his/her selfish abandon. This heavy toll is due to prospective biographers forsaking their contractual obligations as well as from a belated realisation by the owner of the paucity of requisite material.

This, coupled with the absence of a perceived audience, leads to the project ending up dead in the water. Indeed, many would-be biographers underestimate the complexity of authoring worthwhile volumes or find they are let down by depleted personal memories and shallow life exposure.

Hence authors of biographies increasingly encounter enumerable hurdles in their efforts to elicit valuable memory from owners. Such experiences leave a sour taste to both victim and perpetrator, and often come too late to amend. Thus the author who went hunting often ends up being the hunted.

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Furthermore, as important as a compiler’s zeal to capture and synthesise what adds value and is of essence to the memoir; what appeals to the owner may not appeal to the reader or even leave a lasting impression. Yet we have not delved into important matters relating to voice, language and style, the form and flow of the narrative itself. In other words, what style and method the author chooses matters a great deal. Should the story seem encumbered, you have lost your audience from the word go.

It is equally salient to mention how critical a well-thought-out writing process contributes to a biography. In-depth research and soliciting memory of the subject of each work cannot be overstated. Oral interviews with the owner-subject and their informants are as important as is the search for material in private and public archives.

And at this point, the writer is duty bound to re-write and meticulously revise the text, as well as continue to verify the ongoing text with the owner long before the copy is handed to an editor. Needless to say, Kenyan publishers are overly cautious of any manuscript which has not undergone these steps; never mind that they employ senior editors to scrutinise bio manuscripts.

Finally, this leads us to ponder why the sale of local fiction and non-fiction bios is so measly in Kenya. Why don’t our people read? What happened to our reading culture, with history and literature most neglected?

Reasoned conjecture points straight to the deplorable and examination-crazy ‘8-4-4’ educational paradigm — the very one giving the Education CS a headache. Our poor children have only time to cram for exams and start hating books. Hence our profit-oriented publishing industry focuses on ‘school texts’ that sell in millions annually, while the best biography will be lucky to sell 5,000 copies in any one year.