Friday, May 07, 2010
Nigeria mourns President Yar'Adua: what's next?
Read here a continuous update on the situation in Nigeria as the country maps its political map following the death of their President Umar Yar'Adua.
Thursday, May 06, 2010
AG publishes proposed constitution
Its finally here. A few hours ago, Kenya's Attorney General, Amos Wako, published the draft law. The Interim Independent Electoral Commission is expected to announce a referendum date within the next 90 days. Published below is a copy of the proposed national document.
You can download, embed, email and share it on social network sites. Follow linky link.
You can download, embed, email and share it on social network sites. Follow linky link.
Surviving Germany
Its been a while since we published something in our Travel magazine. Read this beautiful narrative from Minda Magero on her time in Germany as a student at the Uni of Bonn. The city was beautiful and she made great friends, unfortunately, her bad experiences stand out most in her memory.
Drop me a line with your travel tales and/or photos: editor@kenyaimagine.com.
Drop me a line with your travel tales and/or photos: editor@kenyaimagine.com.
Channeling Ngugi: language and identity in Kenya and Africa
Sitawa Namwalie returns to our pages; this time defending Ngugi's decolonising the mind. Join the discussion, excerpt below:
Despite the divergence of these two opinions I believe that they represent the same limited view which confines Ngugi’s raison d'être to the logic of a village or at the very most within the fundamentals of Kenyan borders. Both groups claim Ngugi’s agenda as a national one and so use his work to justify the essentials of negative local ethnic discourse. As I listen to these views I am reminded of the saying that is attributed to Jesus Christ that a prophet often goes unrecognized and acknowledged in his or her own home. I can imagine the national debate that may have surrounded the great literary figures in their time. In a similarly multi-ethnic Russia, Tolstoy may have been accused of representing only the interest of his linguistic group and dismissed as a parochial chauvinist. And yet today we know his genius. If he wrote in his mother tongue then many others would have complained about reading and understanding his novels.
They all miss the point. By writing in Gikuyu, Ngugi is carving out an alcove of existence, a space of freedom, for all of those many ethnicities and civilizations, which do not come from a dominant language culture. The image that comes to mind is that of the meaning of the term niche in the natural environment. A rare highly specialized species of moss will inhabit a sliver of micro-climate created by the particular conditions that are due to an outcropping of rock perhaps; that results by chance; in just the right temperature, soil conditions, wind and moisture. A fitting anomaly becomes established and we joyously acknowledge the miracle of nature.
Despite the divergence of these two opinions I believe that they represent the same limited view which confines Ngugi’s raison d'être to the logic of a village or at the very most within the fundamentals of Kenyan borders. Both groups claim Ngugi’s agenda as a national one and so use his work to justify the essentials of negative local ethnic discourse. As I listen to these views I am reminded of the saying that is attributed to Jesus Christ that a prophet often goes unrecognized and acknowledged in his or her own home. I can imagine the national debate that may have surrounded the great literary figures in their time. In a similarly multi-ethnic Russia, Tolstoy may have been accused of representing only the interest of his linguistic group and dismissed as a parochial chauvinist. And yet today we know his genius. If he wrote in his mother tongue then many others would have complained about reading and understanding his novels.
They all miss the point. By writing in Gikuyu, Ngugi is carving out an alcove of existence, a space of freedom, for all of those many ethnicities and civilizations, which do not come from a dominant language culture. The image that comes to mind is that of the meaning of the term niche in the natural environment. A rare highly specialized species of moss will inhabit a sliver of micro-climate created by the particular conditions that are due to an outcropping of rock perhaps; that results by chance; in just the right temperature, soil conditions, wind and moisture. A fitting anomaly becomes established and we joyously acknowledge the miracle of nature.
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Bloggers Wanted
Unedited. Imagine Diaries. Your story, told how you want it. Send us your blog posts or reblog from your personal blogs. Find the submit button on our homepage, select blogs, and self-publish.
Today's blogger: Komanda takes on both the Kenyan and the United Arab Emirates governments on the Emirates new visa restrictions on Kenyan.
Today's blogger: Komanda takes on both the Kenyan and the United Arab Emirates governments on the Emirates new visa restrictions on Kenyan.
Free healthcare for women and children in Sierra Leone
A very ambitious program from the Sierra Leonese government, sponsored by the UN, will give free healthcare to 1.5milion women and children. Here, we read about this country's challenges.
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