Abigail Arunga: Why Kenyans are prudish about sexual topics

Abigail Arunga feels that Kenyans are unnecessarily afraid of talking about sex “even though they are having it”.

Her latest poetry collection, A Side of Raunch (2016), explores sex in a way that often leaves her readers scandalised. She fails to understand the reason for this. Her previous collection, Akello (2014), skimmed over the topic, but she delves into it more enthusiastically in the new online book.

Sample the first poem in the collection;

The valleys of our fingers make love/ Covered by a soft blanket of darkness in the movie theatre/ Kissing with the tips of our/ fingers + hearts

Her answer to the question “Why sex?” is: “Why not sex? It’s not as if people are not having copious amounts of it already. Look at the number of clandestine affairs around, if you want evidence.”

Never one to shy from controversial topics, as is evidenced in her weekly opinion pieces on the Daily Nation website, the poet goes where few have dared. She shares with us her self-publishing journey and her choice of topic for her newest collection. 

None of your poems have titles!

I am bad at giving titles, plus it feels so “Primary-High School”, as if I wrote a composition, and now I would have to find a title for it. It takes something from the poem, I would rather you just read it. Why does a work of art have a title? How many times do you remember the title of the poem? Don’t you just always remember the poems? I remember the first lines of most of my favourite poems, not the titles. 

So who is your favourite poet/poem?

Robert Service, who wrote “The Cremation of Sam McGhee”. The first line, however, is what really stuck with me; (Reciting) There are strange things done in the midnight sun/ By the men who moil for gold;/ The Arctic trails have their secret tales/ That would make your blood run cold;/ The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,/ But the queerest they ever did see/ Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge/ I cremated Sam McGee.

I used to rhyme my lines when I started writing poetry, not anymore, but I still enjoy reading poems with rhythm in them. 

Why have you featured other poets in your books?

I enjoy their poetry and hope that by featuring them someone else will, too. 

Let’s talk about your latest poetry collection, A Side of Raunch, which, like your previous book Akello, is also self-published. What is the most fulfilling or challenging thing about being self-published?

I enjoy it when people buy the book, actually read it and come back to me with feedback about it. The challenge is the amount of energy that it takes to self-publish. The branding, the marketing. I am the one who chose the design, had it printed, marketed and distributed it. 

What would you do differently in future?

Perhaps a bigger book launch than what I had for Akello. 

What has the reception of A Side of Raunch been like?

People are rather scandalised. I don’t know why, because I feel like Kenya is a very sexual nation, literally everyone is sleeping with everyone. There are specific hotels built in town for people to be with their “clandes” (side chics), there are clubs in this town where you are not allowed to take pictures because a lot of married men are there with their side chics. There is the explanation about why I wrote the book. People are having a lot of sex. They are talking about it in their chamas. I have been to too many bridal showers with male strippers and sex aunties showing people how to have sex. So basically the reception is that people have been surprised at their own sexuality. 

What are your future writing interests?

I want to write chic literature, think Marian Keyes, Sophie Kinsella, and Hellen Fielding. Marian Keyes writes how I want to write.

She makes it look so effortless and I wish I could write like that.