Kenyanpoet

• Women Behaving Badly

  Posted: July 22, 2008, 7:53 pm by N.W

  I am your typical girl from the Slopes
  Who was taught that trousers are for men
  Shorts for boys
  And well
  Dresses and skirts are for women and girls.
  My grand mother always insisted
  Red ink appeared on the lips of those who drank blood
  Paint on nails was as rare to see as the occasional chapattis made over the festive season
  
  I am your typical woman from the village
  I wake up when the sun is still hiding far in the horizon.
  Walk hours on end to the river to put water in the 2 mitungis
  5 times I go back and forth,
  The cows need to drink, Chicken, pigs, goats
  Clothes washed,
  The utensils from last night washed
  Njeri & Kamau will bathe tomorrow
  
  My husband
  Snoring like a pig
  Wakes up and shouts
  Wanjiru Winaku ?
  Wewe ni mwanamke ama mfano!
  “ I am going to Nairofi to rook for a real woman”
  A woman who is learned
  A woman with kirathi
  Not rike you
  Everytime I want
  Always compraining
  Head, back, feet, stomach, teeth, hair, ah!
  I want a Nairofi woman
  
  I hate Nairofi women, those whish my husband wants
  Yet he can’t have for more than a night
  These women, is rike their eyes have been ricked by wild cats
  They oroways want things
  I want pizza (what in God’s name is that?),
  I want a ndesigner handbag,
  I want clothes,
  I want money,
  They only return his smiles when they can smell money on him
  Like dogs on heat they follow him everywhere
  Kwamaiko bar, sirikiso, they even have no shame
  Coming into the compound asking for Mike!
  Ati -Mathe ako wapi Mike?
  Is micheal your mother
  Micheal ni nyukwa!
  
  Look at them, these women,
  They behave so badly like its going out of style
  Like the solea I still apply to my face
  Like the hotcomb I still use to fry my hair
  These women behave like wild cats
  With painted faces, like Wangu the witch
  Torn clothes like a cow was eating them
  With tight trousers I wonder if they were poured into them
  And panties peeping out of their behinds like they want to come out and be worn on top
  
  But they say, I am not a well behaved woman,
  That I am a shame to real women
  They say, my covered hair in mother’s union headscarf,
  Long dress, cracked feet and plain face
  Should be cultural artifacts in the National museum
  
  I say
  They can go jump in a river
  They are the real W.B.B (Women Behaving Badly)
  
  --------------------------------------------------
  N.W
  All rights Reserved©
  
  Inspired by a theme event at the GoDown Art Center some while back
  --------------------------------------------------

• Foreign Correspondent's Literary Image of Africa - From Stanley To Kapuscinski

  Posted: July 22, 2008, 7:51 pm by N.W

  FROM STANLEY TO KAPUSCINSKI - How foreign correspondents have formed the literary image of Africa.
  
  A panel discussion featuring
  Binyavanga Wainaina, Jonathan Ledgard, Maryanne Fitzgerald
  Moderated by Steve Bloomfield
  
  23rd July 7 pm, start at Alfajiri, Maalim Juma Road, opposite Royal Media
  
  "We went into the heart of Africa self-invited — therein lies our
  fault." (Henry Morton Stanley)
  
  Since Stanley became the first man to cross Africa and write about it
  for the New York Herald, the literary image of Africa has been inked
  by foreign correspondents turned writers - Mark Twain, Ernest
  Hemingway, Graham Greene, and Evelyn Waugh among them.
  Can the continent ever escape the dark romantics?
  

• Rwanda Special;July 22nd, 24th & 29th @ Goethe-Institut

  Posted: July 22, 2008, 7:50 pm by N.W

  Screenings of movies from Rwanda eg. 100 days will take place at the  at Goethe-Institut, Nairobi Library Lounge, July 22nd, 24th and 29th, from 6pm, free entrance. More from NairobiNow

• Kwani? Special at Kenya National Library,Nairobi

  Posted: July 22, 2008, 7:32 pm by N.W

  
  Kwani? will host an interactive session featuring poetry performances, prose readings and story telling this Thursday at the Kenya National Library in Upper Hill Nairobi from 2 - 4pm.
  The event will feature Binyavanga Wainaina, Cindy Ogana, Njeri Wangari and Samuel Munene(whose work 'Obama My Uncle has been featured on this blog).
  
  This is a great opportunity to get information on how to participate in the Kwani Literary Festival and register for the writers' workshops.

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes