Of a few of the people who made my year

Happy New Year. By the time you read this, all the red-letter days that incarnadine our December calendar will be done and gone. We are back to the blues that characterise our normal year.

What are your resolutions for 2016? Ha ha ha! I can hear you laughing. You should not laugh. Next week I will tell you about resolutions and why, after 71 years of life, I still make them.

But today, I will just mention a handful of people who brightened up my 2015 in some special ways and made me enter 2016 with a heightened intent to “live”, not just exist. To be fair, I should also mention some of those with whom I was not particularly amused, and who, I hope will mend their rotten ways and make our world a better place for themselves and for everyone else.

Of these latter, my worst villains are the inorate and illiterate managers that neither acknowledge nor respond to even business mails, messages or phone calls, especially in the process of cheating or dodging honest workers who have contributed significantly to the success of their enterprises. I know the story because we have no shortage of these rogues in the publishing world, with the rare exception of the publisher of this column, to prove the rule.

Another lot that I would thoroughly charaza (shower with whips) are the demonic polluters of our environment with electronic noise. We cannot talk to one another, we cannot sleep and our children are growing up deaf because these miscreants are invading

every minute of our day and night in the name of entertainment, preaching, information or any other infernal excuses. Nairobi, Kampala, Dar es Salaam and their suburbs should not be allowed to become kelele cities.

The perpetrators of these crimes, however, including the slimy terrorists of all shades and the “utadus” (what will you do) of the Impunity Club, are simply infra dignitatem, below our dignity. So, we will not dignify them with extended recognition or comment.

The naming and praising of the positive characters is an invidious task. I honestly feel and believe that most of the people I meet every day contribute to my growth and happiness. This is why I am always trying to reach out and bond with people, saying hello and finding out who they are, where they come from and what they do. It is a hobby that I find enormously rewarding.

So, it would be difficult to do justice to the many who sustain my spirits even within the course of a single day. The few individuals that I mention here are just representative of the many who constantly contributed to the building and development of my sanity and humanity throughout the year.

Anyway, back to my friends of the year, we will “ram” (random access memory) quickly backwards, though not every month will get a mention. My December beloved are the “Mandera heroes”, who adamantly resisted the terrorist tactic of divide, kill, and poison Kenyans’ minds. Did you notice it dovetailed with a hint I had dropped in my article after the Paris massacre?

My November loves were Professor Egara Kabaji and and Dr Bob Mbori of Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST), who invited me to deliver the Second Annual Francis Imbuga Memorial Lecture.

WORTHWHILE

Though things did not work out as expected, my visit was worthwhile in any number of ways. First, it got me back to Kakamega, a city that I love, and frequented for many years. I remember running in-service seminars for English and Literature teachers there, adjudicating drama festivals, and even staging shows with my Kenyatta Creative Arts Centre artistes.

Most importantly, Kabaji and Mbori’s invitation liberated me from my fear of admitting the reality of the departure of Imbuga, and the significance of his work to our literary generation.

I will certainly share my thoughts and feelings in one form or another.

September and October were, for me, dominated by the Nairobi International Book Fair. That is an event that never fails to inspire and fire my desire to do more in the service of the pen.

The Sunday my editor, my two (Ugandan) Luo academic daughters, Dora and Joan, and I spent with Professor Bethwell Ogot at his house in Kisumu was supernatural. We went over to condone with him over his loss of Grace Ogot and discuss a suitable memorial for her. But we ended up in a unique tutorial on everything from our roots to the real meaning of bereavement.

Kenyatta University gave me an uplifting welcome home. Though initially on a private visit, I found myself invited by two of “my” departments, Literature and Kiswahili, to meet them and talk about activities since I left in 1998.

The opportunity was sweetly challenging and the seriousness and respect with which my colleagues and their students received my ramblings were truly humbling.

The Literature and Culture Conference in Makerere was my August treat, as I told you in these columns. But there was also the young man, my nephew, who struck a nuptial deal with his Dar es Salaam heartbeat, vicariously fulfilling my long-thwarted dream to marry a Tanzanian.

In May, you were my heart-throbs as we celebrated the first birthday of our column. You are truly the raison d’être of these pieces, and I cannot fully express my delight at learning that you are out there reading me.

Penina, my chemist at Fifth Avenue, Ngong Road, is a good example of my readers. She keeps track of each article I write, and she always takes the trouble to track down my other writings. When my publisher delayed with the delivery of her order of a copy of A Hole in the Sky, she rang the publishing manager to ask why.

My April plum was reconnecting with Bakoki Chris Wanjala and sharing not only that long-delayed hug but also an ubusuma and ingokho repast, though that was under the shadow of the Garissa campus terrorist horror.

I will end in March, with Lydia Gaitirira and the Goethe Institut’s invitation to me to the AMKA young writers’ invitation to me to attend their monthly reading. The memories have lasted the whole year, and I will definitely come again.

Have an active, productive and blessed year. Keep reading. 

Prof Bukenya is one of the leading scholars of English and literature in East Africa