Ken Walibora: Restless Kiswahili writer takes his final bow

Reflecting on death in Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now (Random House, 1993), Maya Angelou says that it is easier to accept the idea of one’s own demise and less so that of another person.

We find it difficult to “let a friend or a relative go into that country of no return”. Those who depart from this world leave a vacuum as those left behind seek to answer the “why now” question.

But we should always find comfort in the realisation that we are “not obliged to know everything”. Certain answers will inevitably elude us.

It is that feeling of denial that came to us when we learned separately that Ken Walibora had died in the streets of Nairobi.

Utilising the convenience afforded by information technology, we talked several times on Wednesday, April 15, before and after the confirmation of his demise in search of elusive answers.

Both of us started interacting with Walibora in the mid-1990s while he was a news anchor at Nation Media Group.

He had released Siku Njema (Longhorn, 1996), inspired to a certain extent by Said Ahmed Mohamed’s collection of poetry Sikate Tamaa (Longhorn, 1980) on sociopolitical struggles about which both of us had written.

More specifically, Walibora’s first novel had the spirit of the eleven-stanza poem titled “Siku Njema” and the words of the last stanza “Redio huvuma: ‘Ni siku njema’/Na sisi husema, maneno kwandama/ ‘Siku njema, siku njema’/Kweli siku njema?” (The radio advances the view that it is a good day, but is it really?)

CREATIVE WORKS

This questioning of a collectively endorsed media message about ‘a good day’ finds expression in the novel around the issue of legitimacy and voicing.

There is no basis whatsoever for the violation of rights of children born out of marriage. They have a right to have a good day, the writer says.

Our commitment to social justice and a politics of non-discrimination resonated well with the narrative voice in Siku Njema, a long-standing set book in Kenyan secondary schools.

Walibora wrote all the time. He commanded the muse and danced with the full gamut of creative genres.

In the recent past, he had started moving into creative non-fiction with the publication of the autobiographical work Nasikia Sauti ya Mama (Longhorn, 2014).

Prof Clara Momanyi says Walibora contributed significantly in debunking the myth that there was a paucity of quality Kiswahili creative writers.

He was a writer on demand and published with a wide range of firms. That is how he gave his readers the novel Kufa Kuzikana (Longhorn, 2003) on relationships; the play Mbaya Wetu (Moran, 2015) on corruption and ethnic solidarity, and Kisasi Hapana (Oxford University Press, 2008) on revenge.

His other creative works include a collection of short stories in Damu Nyeusi (Macmillan, 2007) and Maskini Milionea na Hadithi Nyingine (Oxford University Press, 2012)).

For younger readers, he wrote Ndoto ya Almasi (Macmillan, 2006) and Ndoto ya Amerika (Sasa Sema, 2001), both of which were well received.

STATE OF BECOMING

Although Ken published across all the major publishing firms in Nairobi, it is Simon Sossion, the Kiswahili editor at Longhorn in the 1990s, who ushered him into the publishing world with the debut novel.

Later, Sossion published Walibora’s Kidagaa Kimemwozea (Target, 2012), which went on to become a set book for secondary schools in Kenya for many years.

In Sossion’s view, “Walibora’s successful entry and indelible presence in the Kiswahili literary scene is largely attributable to the highly creative wit of his penmanship and his ability to create memorable characters that resonate with the society he sought to reflect.”

These sentiments are shared by James Mwilaria, the publishing manager at Longhorn, with whom Walibora worked closely.

Mwilaria pays tribute to Walibora’s patience and spirit of forgiveness. These attributes are further underlined by Prof Rocha Chimerah of Pwani University.

When poet Abdilatif Abdalla, of Mombasa, heard that Walibora had passed away, he told us: “He was not only a friend and colleague in the study of Swahili literature and language but also a younger brother. He called me ‘Kaka Abdilatif’, signalling this relationship.”

Kennedy Waliaula had washed his hands and could eat with elders. Abdilatif’s endorsement of Walibora’s literary output is conclusive.

He told us that Ken “understood literature deeply. More significantly, however, was his utu (humanness), courage, humility, self-effacement, and inquisitiveness. He had the courage to translate my anthology of poetry Sauti ya Dhiki, edited by Ann Marie Drury, of Queens University, USA. Sadly, he will not see the translated anthology when it is published.”

Walibora’s character ‘Kongowea (the ancient name of Mombasa) Mswahili’ is finally at home. In invoking the malleability of identity by shifting ‘Waliaula” to 'Walibora', he signalled our continuous state of becoming. “Aula”, the Kiswahili term for ‘better’ was part of his identity.

UPLIFTING OTHERS

Walibora advocated the promotion of Kiswahili globally. While at the University of Wisconsin, he served as the first president of Chama Cha Ukuzaji wa Kiswahili Duniani (CHAUKIDU), which is committed to the internationalisation of Kiswahili.

Back home, he provided support for the East African Community Kiswahili Commission and the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN), based in Bamako, Mali.

Prof John Kiango, chairman of the ACALAN Kiswahili Cross Border Language Commission, recalls Walibora’s contribution at the June 2019 ACALAN meeting, which came up with the Dar es Salaam Plan of Action for the advancement of Kiswahili in Africa.

He valued team work and it is no wonder that later in his life he collaborated with Said Ahmed Mohamed in editing a series of short stories, including Kiti cha Moyoni na Hadithi Nyingine (Oxford University Press, 2007) and Tumbo Lisiloshiba na Hadithi Nyingine (Longhorn Publishers, 2018).

In Rwanda, he collaborated with Prof Pacifique Malonga to publish the Kiswahili-Ikinyarwanda-English Dictionary (Spotlight Publishers, 2017).

During his graduate studies, Walibora worked closely with Prof Nina Berman. She was in fact his “Doktormutter”, doctoral mother, the dissertation adviser.

She was devastated by his death and told us: “Kennedy Waliaula, as he was known at Ohio State, was gentle and soft-spoken, but also firm in his convictions and passionate about the things he cared about, such as raising the status of Kiswahili in Kenya and advocating for free speech.”

Prof Berman saw the relationship between Ken’s intellectual pursuits and his earlier life.

CELEBRITY

She says, “His years of working at Shimo la Tewa as a probation officer left a deep impression on him and inspired his interest in prison literature, which became the subject of his dissertation titled 'The Incarcerated Self: Narratives of Political Confinement in Kenya, 2009'.

"I remember how deeply disturbed and unsettled he was about the violence that erupted in Kenya in the aftermath of the 2007 elections. He loved his country very much, and fully embraced his role as a public intellectual and advocate for Kiswahili.” She was clearly proud of him.

Prof Berman again told us: “When I first met Ken, I was not fully aware of how much of a celebrity he was in Kenya. So one day I asked a bartender in Ukunda, ‘Have you ever heard of Kennedy Walibora?’ Of course he had! Whenever I afterwards asked people about Ken, I received this kind of warm and cheerful response.

"He was truly appreciated and admired! A couple of years later I was in a matatu travelling to Mombasa, and next to me sat a young woman reading Siku Njema. I was very proud to say: I know the author! I am indeed very proud to be able to say that: I knew Kennedy Walibora Waliaula. He will be missed dearly!”

His PhD dissertation was later published under the title "Narrating Prison Experience: Human Rights, the Self, Society and Political Incarceration in Africa" (Common Ground, 2014).

FIRM LEGACY

Beginning with the precolonial prison ballads of Fumo Liyongo to the colonial memoir of James Kariuki (Mau Mau Detainee), postcolonial prison poetry of Abdilatif Abdalla (Sauti ya Dhiki) and Alamin Mazrui (Chembe cha Moyo), Narrating Prison Experience is a brilliant exploration of the relationship between the tradition of African letters and the preponderance of state tyranny.

Characterised by conceptual depth, elegance, gravity and clarity, this is a unique text that brings into sharp relief instances of the writing of confinement of political prisoners in Africa, both before and after independence from British colonial rule.

Walibora died at the peak of his creative genius. We will never know what happened on that fateful Friday, April 10, 2020, on Landhies Road, Nairobi.

But this we know: He has left a vacuum in Kiswahili literary scholarship that only he could fill.

In the words of the 19th century poet Muyaka bin Haji, “Ufapo ni lako jina, lipate wakumbukifu” (When you die, it is the name that you leave behind by which you will be remembered).

Ken Walibora’s name will remain in the Africa literary arena and it is through his works that he will be remembered.

Prof Alamin Mazrui teaches at Rutgers University (USA) and Prof Kimani Njogu is based at Twaweza Communications, Nairobi.