| The Hard Life of Miriam Makeba was the Good Life | The Hard Life of Miriam Makeba was the Good Life
Miriam Makeba died of a heart attack while performing on stage in southern Italy last week. It was almost a month after my grandmother Mariam Wangui Mathenge was felled as she fed cows on her farm in Nyeri.
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| Facing Facing Mount Kenya |
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Facing Facing Mount Kenya
In 1971, Heinemann Educational Books published an abridged version of Jomo Kenyatta's Facing Mount Kenya. I have yet to research how or whether this book was used within schools, but it was reprinted at least six times between its first publication and 1991 (1972, 1973, 1975, 1981, 1984, 1987). Again, I have yet to find out whether it has been subsequently republished.
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| Monday Puzzle 2 | Monday Puzzle 2
Ali wanted to become a lawyer but could not pay Juma. Juma agreed to teach him law on the condition that, as soon as Ali won his first case, he would pay Juma.
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| From Jhelum To Tana: A Search for Identity |
 | "From Jhelum To Tana": A Search for Identity
On a personal journey to find her history and identity, angered by the lack of recognition given to Indians in Kenya's fight for independence, and inspired by a portrait of her great-grandfather, it took Neera Kapur-Dromson five years to write From Jhelum to Tana.
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| Conflict, or, All a Writer Needs |
 | Conflict, or, All a Writer Needs
Incredibly, no one went over their five minutes. Going by the event’s title – “Writer’s Stories: Unpacking Kenya’s Crisis Session” – not to mention the venue, a Nairobi University lecture hall, all signs were pointing to a listener’s crisis of over-pontification.
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| Sunday Salon |
 | Sunday Salon
Heads up – the Ugandans are here. Two swept in from Kampala to dominate last week’s Sunday Salon: Kalundi Serumaga, that verbal assassin of a journalist, and David Kaiza, who recently traded in journalism for, shall we say, ethnotravelogue-ism.
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| My Name, My Race: A Young African's Untold Story |
My Name, My Race: A Young African's Untold Story
When I began working on my memoir, I decided to lay the facts bare; even though uncomfortable, these are meant to probe the hearts and the minds of society. I warn my readers to literally shed their ethnic and racial prejudices before plunging into this book full of angst, suspense, hope and despair, culminating in the search for true justice, for it has the potential to turn people into ‘anti-racism racists’ or ‘anti-tribalism tribalists’ effortlessly.
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| Kitchen Toto |
 | Kitchen Toto
Kenyan film has made large strides in quality and distribution. Encouragingly also, a growing, cultured middle class is adding to the viability of these efforts.
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| Malooned movie |
Malooned- the movie
A week ago I had the pleasure of getting to watch the latest craze on the Kenyan film scene, Malooned! Its taken me a while, but I thought I would share it with you. Warning- spoiler ahead.
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| Purple Hibiscus |
Purple Hibiscus
The first time I read Chimamanda Adichie's Purple Hibiscus, I could not put it down. I finished it up in one sitting.
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| The last king of Scotland |
The Last King of Scotland
Traditionally it is the Makeda that is fanatical about film, a black face or two in an acclaimed movie and she is doubly excited.
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| Reading Kenyan goes to Hay Festival |
Reading Kenyan goes to Hay Festival
I woke up at five o' clock this morning, to take the coach from my sleepy little city. It's westward, ho! Destination, Hay-on-Wye, in Wales for the annual literary festival Bill Clinton once described as the Woodstock of the Mind.
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| Provoked to murder |
Provoked to murder
Kiranjit Ahluwalia arrived in Britain
from India in
1979 aged only 24 years. Like many Indian girls her age she had been married
off to a man she had never before seen.
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