Amka forum tackles feminism and writing a historical novel

Joan Thatiah and I first met in a prison in May, 2017. AMKA, a literary forum for women, where men are welcome, too, had held its monthly the meeting at the Lang’ata Women’s Prison.

As it was this past Saturday, the literary discussion had taken a slant towards feminism. The question then was whether men tend to do exactly what they want while women are usually forced to compromise.

At our literary forum last Saturday at the Goethe Insitut, we again had Joan as one of our two guests. The other guest was Andreas Baum, a writer and journalist from Germany.

Joan is a pretty thirty-one-year old author and journalist. She has written three books; Things I Will Tell My Daughter, I am Too Pretty to be Broke and Other Lies Women Tell Themselves and the latest one, Things I Will Tell My Son.

After reading an excerpt from her book, I am too Pretty to be Broke and Other Lies Women Tell Themselves, I asked Joan to talk about her feminist writing. Joan feels that feminism is long overdue. When I asked her whether it was not too early to push feminism in a society where the Swahili phrase, wacha umama — stop behaving as a woman, is used an insult, Joan asserted that feminism seeks to make everyone behave decently towards other human beings and to ensure that women get equal opportunities with their male counterparts.

In her book, I am too Pretty to be Broke and other Lies Women Tell Themselves, Joan writes that men should be included in the fight for women’s rights. I was curious to know how she has fared in trying to get men to embrace feminism and she said that it has not been easy but some men have stopped viewing feminists as embittered men haters. Although they not yet fully embraced feminism, some have become friends of feminism.

One of the participants, a young man called Moon from Southern Sudan, would later declare himself a feminist and report that he was writing a story about a girl wanting to get an education in the face of daunting challenges.

CHALLENGES

I wanted Joan’s views about the often-repeated statement that women are their own worst enemies, and she said that it is a myth that has been perpetuated for long. Joan went on to explain that women have not been given equal opportunities at work.

Mothers do not get enough leave days to care for their young ones, and in many institutions, day care facilities are not provided so that mothers can breastfeed while at work. Joan, though, explained some women have a victim mentality, and as long as women view themselves as victims, they won’t stand up for themselves.

Feeling older and wiser, I asked Joan why at only 31 she feels qualified to write about issues affecting women. She said that in the course of her work, she has interviewed many women. This gives her an opportunity to acquaint herself with a rich variety of issues that women deal with. She also writes from her own personal experience.

I would realise a while later how subjective the concept of age is and what one is perceived to know at a certain age when the participants were commenting on one of the stories we had read. The story, Matanga Chronicles, set in Jericho Estate in Nairobi, had a lot of dialogue in Sheng, even though the narrator in the story said she did understand all of it.

One of the participants, a young man in his 20s, felt the writer of the story was an older woman pretending to be young — hence the use of Sheng. Asked by my fellow moderator, Tony Mochama, how old he thought the writer was, the young man said he thought the writer was someone in their 30s.

Andreas Baum, our other guest, has one book published — Wir Waren Die Neue Zeit (We Were the New Era), which he explained he wrote while he was in his 40s. Andreas explained that he had wanted to write a book when he was in his 20s but he could not get enough time to write. Andreas read a translated excerpt of his novel.

I asked him how he manages to include so many details in a novel and he described how he conducts a lot of research to verify facts. He said that he writes in the morning when his mind is still fresh and he is able to remember details about the setting. His book is a historical novel set in the 1990s after the fall of Berlin wall and he says he visited the places where he set his novel when he was a child and has always been observant.

MAKE A LIVING

We have just had a Ngugi week and Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o has been a huge advocate of writing in one’s mother tongue and then having the work translated. I sought to know from Andreas whether he felt something had been lost in the translation of his work from German to English. He agreed that he felt that something was lost but something was gained, too, in the richness of the language the work has been translated to.

Both Joan and Andreas are journalists. A member of the audience asked whether it is easier for a journalist to write. Although both of them said that it is difficult to get time to write, they admitted that the skill of observation gained through reportage, stands them in good stead while writing a book.

Few writers in Kenya have been able to afford to write full term and I wanted to know from Joan and Andreas whether it is possible to earn solely from writing. Andreas, who has one book published, said that even in Germany, only about five per cent of writers make enough to live on.

Joan said she actually earns more from the sale of her three titles than she does from her salary. Joan, who is self-published, uses street vendors (Inama bookshops) and she has found this to be very effective. This was illuminating and those who have been whining about the low sales of our books can now look beyond the traditional distribution channels.

The literary discussion went on after the forum. As I left the room with Andreas, this time to turn into the interviewee, as Andreas wanted to interview me for a radio program in Germany, I could hear snatches of conversation on feminism, self-publishing, finding time to write …

Muthoni wa Gichuru is a writer. She coordinates the monthly AMKA literary forums at the Goethe institut