Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ

Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ (born 1971) is a Kenyan American poet, author, and academic. He is associate professor of literatures in English at Cornell University and co-founder of the Safal-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Writing. Quotes Kenya is my starting point but not necessarily my end point Growing up in Kenya has shaped a lot of my political thinking; it has certainly colored the ink in my pen I am always careful that my home does not become my prison I like to think of being able to use multiple genres as being fluent in many musical instruments American nationalism cannot exist if at some point the American citizen did not consciously decide not to look at the rest of the world The belief in being the most civilized, most democratic and consequently most able to civilize the world cannot exist if the American citizen sees the full humanity of the African or Arab for that matter it is important to understand that these kind of questions, which come across as ignorant or arrogant actually have a function to play in American nationalism putting Africa in its place our intellectuals don’t always contribute to African causes to agitate for African causes is to at the same time have deep faith in African people I do not think I can be a poet who sings (and singing contains wailing) for Africa without having faith that Africa can one day do right by its citizens. African writers have been, I think the single most important, facilitators of Pan-Africanism We should not always need the medium of English and French to talk to each other Our generation of writers should, as far as we can, professionalize writing African writers should not have to win a European or American literary prize before we recognize them as writers. Our intellectuals should not have to publish in Western publications before we take them seriously we also want to see borders such as between men and women erased One of the mistakes constantly made by previous generations was to understand as one kind of freedom being more important than another Freedom to vote is more important than economic freedom or national freedom more important than freedom from racism and in this instance, national freedom as more important than gender equality African writers have to be willing to discuss their differences and therefore it is not so much a question of a common message Why should, and to me this is the idiocy of leadership, one person feel that only he has the ability to lead a country of millions? I am not afraid to air my dirty linen in public, for how else shall I get it clean To erase a border, you have to acknowledge it stands in your way first even within American literature there has been constant debate as to what constitutes American literature literature should show just how interconnected we are and not be used as a barrier between communities a course in contemporary American literature should carry literatures by immigrants as well. we have to be wary about people who promise a single solution for the continent Freedom can only be a word amidst debilitating poverty I have grown up believing that anything is possible and I think in large part because of my father A Season of the Great Lake: An Interview with Mukoma wa Ngugi 2 July 2007 There are various levels of home and what it means To me ‘home’ are the places I feel a need to fight in order to make them better. Ethnicity has become a weapon in the hands of Kenyan and African politicians that they deploy when they need votes I think there is more awareness that violence and civil war are not far behind flaring ethnic tensions African writers are trying to tell a good story that Americans are appreciating more and more, and appreciating its diversity and cross genre aesthetics – and that is a good thing HOT READS: A KILLER INTERVIEW WITH MUKOMA WA NGUGI 26 July 2015 I also have a very hard time with the divide of high and low culture African literature doesn’t have to be one thing; allow it to flourish in many different forms I don’t want to write fiction that doesn’t say anything I want to work with an aesthetics that is not afraid of the political for a very long time home had become a place of negativity So to now be able to go back as writers – we are not going back because of anything negative, we are going back to celebrate writing and to celebrate each other’s writing Q&A: Novelist, poet and literary scholar Mukoma wa Ngugi 6 July 2013 Black Star Nairobi (2013) It was around midday but it might as well have been midnight, with us canvassing for clues in the light of a full moon — the canopy of the ancient trees let in an annoying in-between light, too low to see well in, yet too bright for flashlights. In Kenya, if someone with enough credibility told you that he or she was going to send you to Ngong, you had better back down unless you could get them there first. In Kenya, if someone with enough credibility told you that he or she was going to send you to Ngong, you had better back down unless you could get them there first. It was always a herd boy, venturing into the depths of the forest, who found the dead body. In our instance, he happened to have a cell phone and so we were able to get to the body in a matter of hours. More than just being flat broke, you could say we were like boxers who, having slugged through predictable wins, were ready to finally fight a worthy opponent. We were ready for a case like the one that nearly broke us, our first case together... Whoever killed him took the casing. There was nothing more to do but get the body to the pathologist. We didn’t have any body bags and the Administrative Police, or APs as we called them for short, had to carefully roll him onto a woolen blanket. DNA was useful only with a large criminal database — Kenya’s was in its infancy, and unless we were extremely lucky, there would be no match. And dental records? Forget about it. We just had to hope that the body would yield some secrets. This place, it reminds me how lucky I am — just to be alive, to be walking out of here. In the United States, there’s the Nevada desert — and football stadiums, if you count Jimmy Hoffa. External links Black Star Nairobi Category:Novelists from Kenya Category:1971 births Category:Essayists from Kenya Category:Cornell University faculty Category:Living people Category:Poets from Kenya Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni