Kwanini? Series
Kwanini? Series
Our pocket-sized series; Kwanini?, contains bite-sized stories told by the best contemporary writers and artists in Africa - Chimamanda Adichie, Yvonne Owuor, Binyavanga Wainaina, Parselelo Kantai, Richard Onyango and Enock Ondego.
The Cock Thief
Twice Caine Prize short-listed writer, Parseleleo Kantai explores the interface between reality and myth, desperation and futility that emerges from the death of belief in a collective future, and ultimately in the self - and the subsequent unachievable hope of escaping poverty when one is without...
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Internally Misplaced
"Seth can almost hear the thing he fears. He can hear it here growling in the German engine below him. Seth has seen it on CNN at Madam's house, this thing. A malevolent child, creating strangely heaped multi-car sculptures around lamp-posts and rippling bridges into skirts. He knows what it...
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The Life & Times of Richard Onyango
Richard Onyango, Kenya's most famous international artist, tells his coming of age story from his beginnings as a musical apprentice at the Coast, to lover of Englishwoman, Drossie, and his emergence as a force in the international art world. This is a street-to-canvas bildunsroman of...
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After the Vote : Now available as part of Kwani? 05 Part 1
The Kwanini? series reminds Dr. Tom Odhiambo here of the pocket-size economy that came years ago to East Africa - the small sachet margarine and the likes; if economies create inequalities, then industry follows by creating super-small for the common-man. Luckily, he finds the pocket-size Kwanini?...
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Weight of Whispers
" The collection of teeth in the man's mouth is a splendid brown. I have never seen such teeth before. Refusing all instruction, my eyes focus on dental contours and craters. Denuded of any superficial pretence; no braces, no fillings, no toothbrush, it is a place where small...
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You In America
" You believed that everybody in America had a car and a gun. Your uncles and aunts and cousins believed it too. Right after you won the American visa lottery, they told you, In a month, you will have a big car. Soon, a big house. But don't buy a gun like those Americans."
You In America is a...
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How To Write About Africa
" Always use the word 'Africa' or 'Darkness' or 'Safari' in your title. Subtitles may include the words 'Zanzibar', 'Masai', 'Zulu', 'Zambezi', 'Congo', 'Nile', 'Big', 'Sky', 'Shadow', 'Drum', 'Sun' or 'Bygone'. Also useful are words such as 'Guerillas', 'Timeless', 'Primordial' and 'Tribal'....
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Discovering Home
"Always use the word 'Africa' or 'Darkness' or 'Safari' in your title. Subtitles may include the words 'Zanzibar', 'Masai', 'Zulu', 'Zambezi', 'Congo', 'Nile', 'Big', 'Sky', 'Shadow', 'Drum', 'Sun' or 'Bygone'. Also useful are words such as 'Guerillas', 'Timeless', 'Primordial' and 'Tribal'....
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Beyond River Yei
"You may assume that a war torn place is aware of the abnormality of its situation. That it will, for your own modesty hide the graves, the torn clothes, the guns slung over shoulders, the hostilities. It is possible that this happens in certain places. Not here. Surely, you think, your civilian...
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The Life of Mzee Ondego
" The doctors released me at 5am. ' So we got into the Land Rover. By the time we reached Gatundu my heart was gone. I was worried I would be killed. So when our time came to sing, we sang the song which says Kenya is a peaceful country, which was number one. We were on our way to sit down...
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Running
The Kwanini? Title by Jackie Lebo named 'Running' is the first release from a larger project that seeks to highlight one of the biggest undocumented stories in modern sports history. What exists is fragmented reportage - statistics, anecdotes and inconclusive studies that try to extricate the...
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