It Won’t Be Soon Before Long

Spurred by what Keguro has noted is the Kenyan ability to form committees at the drop of a hat, I have been thinking about our temporalities. Over the years I have been struck by the overlap of our commissions of inquiry. They relay into each other endlessly. If I understood Physics—I don’t—I would compare the …

Against Forgetting

#TeamMafisi and the Male Gaze

Levi-Strauss writes of a Native American people for whom every dream has a hidden sexual meaning, except explicitly sexual dreams, for which it is imperative that non-sexual interpretations be found. I am reaching for an Oscar Wilde aphorism here. Everything is about sex, except sex. Sex is about power. The Freudian in me demurs against …

Nairobi si Kenya. Mtito Andei si Kenya. Eldoret si Kenya. Kapenguria si Kenya. Lokitaung si Kenya.

The map is not the territory—Alfred Korzybski “Nairobi si Kenya” started as an attempt to wonder what it would mean to decenter the hub. To reconfigure the dominance of center over periphery. To open up a limitless vista. To illustrate that other elsewheres are are not only possible, but indeed necessary. More to the point, …

Not Loving Nairobi

I feel wary whenever someone professes love for Nairobi. I feel nothing for Nairobi, and this is probably brought on by Nai “attitude” (I’m not saying attitude is always a bad thing). For me, Nairobi lacks tenderness: it is all cock and no cuddle. Elsewhere I have said that Shamit Patel is one writer who …

Kenya’s Vision 2030, or, The Return Of The Repressed

Kenyatta is secretly alive in a cryogenic chamber somewhere in Gatundu waiting to be unveiled.

Patriotism

How does it feel to get fucked by Kenya? Is there foreplay? Wetness? Is there lube? Does Kenya call you days later, after fucking you? Is it a one night stand? Are you in an open relationship? Is Kenya even a good lay? Does Kenya perform oral? Does Kenya like S/M? Is Kenya GGG? Does …

All Work And No Play Makes Jane A Lesbian

  I am angry. This is no way to start a morning. But how else am I to feel when twelve students “suspected” of “abnormal” activity are expelled from their boarding school? The principal tells us these girls are “suspected” of engaging in “love-ish touching”. She asks, “Do you do that [love-ish touching] on somebody …

(Some) Kenyans Are Angry

The Kenyan cellphone network provider Safaricom sent its customers this advertising text: “katia (woo) her with a tune for only Ksh. 5 this Valentines.” The bulk-text ad campaign meant to get subscribers to buy and share ring tones with each other. But according to the Daily Nation: most users found the language used inappropriate, particularly …

Nancy Baraza as Nikolai Gogol’s “The Nose”

Nikolai Gogol’s “The Nose” is a short story in three vignettes. In the first part, barber Ivan Yakovlevich finds a nose in his sandwich during breakfast; recognizes it as the nose of collegiate assessor Kovalev whom he shaves every week; panics and tosses it into the Neva River in St. Petersburg, but he is caught …