• Anthology provides a kaleidoscopic insight into Nairobi’s underworld
Peter Kimani, Ed., Nairobi Noir, Cassava Republic Press, Abuja-London 2020
Nairobi Noir is an edgy literary work with a big Kenyan heart that captures perfectly the current mood of a defiant nation on the cusp of radical social change. Published as a series of stylish, crime-themed short stories in various locales around the city, it includes stellar authors, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Stanley Gazemba, as well as such newcomers to the genre as Rasna Warah and JE Sibi-Okumu. Admittedly, talent, quality and intellectual acuity vary.
In her delicious debut “Have a Roti,” on Parklands, intrepid journalist Rasna Warah takes top prize for her fascinating portrayal of l960s Asian family life. Fresh, topical and devoid of clichés, Warah weaves fascinating insights into a narrative that effortlessly transports the reader to a closed world few knew.
Racially segregated Parklands gives way to post-Independence era’s black elite, re-contouring the area into equally egregious class and ethnic divisions that provide context and shape to central character Anamika’s story.
The dreariness of Indian women’s domain in patriarchic society with substantive discussion on weighty issues were always upstaged by tedium on food preparation. Through her love interest, the Somali Raage, the author examines the serendipities of disrupted lives of refugees in Kenya and elsewhere. In Nairobi, they face officious police, while in the US, they are exposed to the horrors of white supremacy.
Psychiatrist Dr Shirin Manji invites discussion on “the talking cure” with Warah reflecting on patients’ painful ordeal “to remember things they have carefully stowed away….” Why? According to the author, [w]e all have secrets we do not wish to share…because … they remind us of the person we once were… .
In her excellent offering entitled She Dug Two Graves, Winfred Kiunga on “Eastleigh” disrobes the multiple miseries facing Kenyan Somali women under Sharia law and patriarchal rule in extremis. Thoughts of female genital mutilation compounded by years of child-bearing and talaq (disgraceful Islamic divorce) underline their plight. As childless Fawzia angrily intones, Among Somalis, a woman is only worth her children. Minus a womb, she was as good as dead. Shedding light on the dangers of radical Islam, Kiungu’s unnamed character informs us:
While our main objective is to overthrow the Western–backed government in Somalia and make our motherland an Islamic State, and to be recognized as having made significant contributions toward revitalising the global Islamic Caliphate, we also want to punish the Kafir.
JE Sibi-Okumu, celebrated actor and playwright’s who-dun-it about Belonging in “Westlands”, needs a hefty rewrite. His tiresome treatise on black-white relations feels dated and tawdry with an improbable storyline, prompting sarcasm deserving of juvenilia. A heist takes place with two thieves stealing ATM funds from some white Kenyans as the robber-character jeers: “Remember, any nyoko nyoko (funny business) and I’ll cut off this man’s penis and make him smoke it like a cigar.”
In his Blood Sister on “Karen,” Peter Kimani also scrutinises black-white relations. Cliché-ridden and again populated with patronising men and hopelessly naive chicks, one wonders why the author’s characters never engage with any intelligent women, white or black. Beginning with a terrible bromide of life, lemons and making lemonade, the omniscient character sets his story in Karen and Kibra with Jackie as the English woman photographer/ love interest and Mwari as his black African equivalent.
Dispatches from a Sh*thole Country is the culmination of Jackie’s endeavour with a flying toilet deemed best photo, while Mwari weeps Boobooooo after being told she would never be the author character’s wife.
These illuminating stories provide kaleidoscopic insight into Nairobi’s underworld as well as shedding light on what our promising literary future holds in store.