On July 27th, 28th and 29th 2018, the historical theatre storytelling show, “Too Early for Birds: Brazen Edition” was staged in Nairobi. I loved every moment of it. A few months later, an editor at The Elephant–and phenomenal writer in her own right–Christine Mungai asked if I could share my reflections on the show. This […]
Creative Non-Fiction
Damned. Gifts.
Missing mothers loom large. And on this day that marks 22 years since Mama’s passing, this understanding grows clearer. Paps was a great stand-in. He was doubly warm, kind and giving. Made enough noise to distract me from the gap, the deep shadow, the sorrow. His gift for me was the power to forget, to […]
Remembering the railway
I wore a red t-shirt and green and white shorts on my first trip to Mombasa by rail. This memory is clear, as is that of my father strapping in the security harness as I settled in to sleep on the top bunker in our compartment. In the 1990s, it was a special thing to […]
These languejs of ours
Wrote an essay for Jalada, a writers’ collective I’m part of, in the bonus edition of The Language Issue. This piece has been rolling around my head for a few years now. How far? That phrase made me fall in love with pidgin right there in the backseat of a taxi in sweltering Lagos as […]
Yasiin Bey in Nairobi: The Artist is Present
It was close to midnight when burly bodyguards finally led a TMT-capped figure to the club’s backstage area. He was a sort of tall fellow whose long-sleeved shirt hung off his wiry frame. Bodies hungrily pressed forward, necks craned, drinks were held aloft as a chant sprung from the people’s lips: “Ya-siin Bey! Ya-siin Bey! […]
Son of a Tiger
He was facing the stage, arms akimbo with perspiration gradually gluing a purple polo shirt to his back. Oblivious to the hordes of spectators in the cavernous warehouse, the light skinned man bobbed his head and snapped his fingers to the band’s high-energy polyrhythmic melody. Afrobeat prince, Femi Kuti had wandered among the mortals and […]