SATURDAY NATION January 18, 2014 Weekendl25 LITERARY DISCOURSE I Right of reply The harvest is great, we need literary critics BY CHRIS WANJALA Taban wears a long white beard David Maillu, published in my them. There is enough for all of us VoN [email protected] with a long grisly moustache. I , two books, The Season of Harvest to create, Prof. And I really think literature have since these exchanges with (1978) and For Home and Freedom we do not give a good example to aban Lo Liyong is now an him nurtured a beard to counter- (1980). I was a columnist with younger generations by fighting don puts old professor who travels mand his. The challenge that our the Sunday Nation and a TV and each other," forward his Tfrom juba to Nairobi to I first knew him when I was a generation is putting to radio personality. The harvest is great; what we international book fairs and to young academic at the University you is that knowledge Some people have said unwise, need are literary critics to pore side of the launch his new books every year. of Nairobi and enjoyed a lovelhate uncharitable and self-adoring over the products and report to He enjoys literary debates with relationship with his writings. But has a bigger picture than things about us, but we have us what they see in them. Prof story Ngugi wa Thiong'o, AliA. Mazrui, now, with both of us getting ad- some of us may imagine:' developed thick skins. We say Ochieng slipped out through the after a the late Professor William Robert vanced in years, we seem to be in culture, every generation has fingers of the East African intel- Ochieng' and 1. In most cases, losing our balance. Chris Wanjala its own songs. In the University lectual scene almost in the same' string of William Ochieng, who died three In my culture, when you chal- College, Nairobi, days, when the way Elisha Atieno Odhiambo, weeks ago, and I bear the brunt lenge a son to a duel and you learn Clark did for Nigeria. Sierra Leonnian, Dr Arthur Por- Aloo Ojuka, Henry Odera Oruka, scathing of the debates, and we seldom that he is handling his weapons Ngugi's genius could not ter, was the principal, you could and G.S. Were went. attacks answer back. as dexterously as you do, you halt blossom In the harsh climate count the number of creative For me, the death of Ochieng But now, in honour of my friend the fight and shake hands in ap- of dictatorship and oppression writers from East Africa with the was a personal loss because he from Ochieng, my reply to Mwalimu preciation of your son's growth. in Kenya's one-party rule. Of all fingers on your two hands. was the other general in the war Taban 10 Liyong will take the Taban has ruminated over what I the four, he was the man of the Ngugi wa Thiong'o had oniy his against what Nuwa Santongo once renowned form of narrating the sequence said, and of course shot back, and essay, drama and the novel His trilogy of prose fiction to his credit called "stereo-typed pseudo-intel- Sudanese of events involving all of us. created conditions for a truce. I impact, however, thawed in the - The River Between, Weep lectuals?' Our struggle to reinforce am a grown up man now, but I can poison-like Kanu regimes when he Not Child, and A Grain of intellectual life in Kenya is not di- professor allow him to call me names as we and his foot soldiers told the then Wheat. For his drama, he rected at an individual. As Taban part, knowing that he is the elder powerful Attorney General that had only The Black Her- Lo Liyong said in 1969, in the TabanLo to whom I owe respect. the Englishmen at the hehn of mit, a play which was a East Africa Journal: "Knowledge Liyong Taban is a great thinker, an the Kenya Institute of Education hot number in Uganda about Africa can only be gained, essayist and wordsmith whose must leave with their curriculwn on the independence as indeed knowledge on anything communication skills have that put English literature to the day celebrations. whatever, through hard study." greatly matured. He lives fore and African literature to Today, librarians The challenge that our gen- his life as a man of letters the rear. cannot cope with eration is putting to you is optimumly. If I had another Ngugi's future is in the white the number of that knowledge has a big- life, I would reconcile with man's country, wreathed in the books which are ger picture than some him because of his genius mist of exile. We are the former being released by \ of us may imagine. and industry as a writer. young scholars at the University publishers. n Any bearded Afri- But now he has to keep of Nairobi - William Ochieng, the John Sibi-Okumu can who reads this his way as I follow the- true disciple and Bethwell Allan and David K. Mulwa are and says it is mali- one I have charted for Ogot's loyal student who wrote for present-day playwrights ciously directed to myself. the Sunday Post and the Sunday who were also Dr Porter's him would be claiming Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Nation as he studied the history and Dr Iosephat Karanja's ~ simllar sins that he Okot p'Bitek, and Owuor of Abagusii, Elisha Atieno-Odhia- graduates, respectively. Anyumba are Tahan's mbo who came from Alliance High Sibi-Okumu has au- CONTINUED ON comrades-in-arms in School and Makerere University thored more than PAGE 26 their struggle to liberate wielding his fountain pen as six plays to date; literature from the hold he commented on politics and David K Mulwa of the West. They did for wrote his poetry. Henry Mwanzi has more than Kenya what Chinua Achebe, was our theorist who dabbled in 10. In the words Wole Soyinka, Christopher Hegelian dialectics. We assigned of Sibi-Okumu, Okigbo and John Pepper him the study of the Kipsigis and "Francis D. prepared him very well for the Imbuga wrote Maasai studies, which he is to his grave ... doing today. and I would I did the East bet the African stud- Great Pre- ies touching fect has on Ngugi,' neither Taban, rea d Okot; nor Leon- seen a r d any Kib- of era, and Applied theatre comes under pressure from modem technology CONTINUED FROM PAGE 24 acquiring pseudonyms and accents that The more the number of people who This is what theatre practitioners The question is: can virtual commu- fering viewers dramas exploring issues are obviously different from their real attend the performances the happier have been struggling with for a long nities that participate in development that were traditionally considered the identities. Listening to some of these the sponsors are. According to Kamau, thne. Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Kamiriithu debates bring about real change? The domain of theatre. Also appearing on shows, one is inclined to imagine fundeb have realised that the new theatre that terrified the Kenya gov- answer, according to cultural analysts, the screen was social media with its that one is watching a performance media have a far wider reach and are ernment is what Augusto Boal calls is that the media creates communities unlimited possibilities. constructed to intervene in a specific now diverting funds there. "rehearsal for revolution?' with "no sense of place". Of interest is that the interactive societal concern. It can, thus, be argued, according to The messages disseminated by these Theatre for community develop- FM radio programs are hailed as The real tyranny of the new media David Poole and Sophie Le Phat, that new media assume that the Imagined ment deals with problems facing 'shows', This is in a sense imagin- is what a Kenyan theatre practitioner, "the advanced media technology has communities of listeners, viewers, communities in real places. In this ing a performance. Moreover, most film script writer, actor and director, significant and profound impact on the servers, bloggers and twitters are age of advanced media technology, presenters of radio taIkshows have a Kamau wa Ndung'u, calls the game of arts:' Social media, for example, tends homogenous. In this sense, global theatre for development, especially strong theatre background and have numbers. Kamau, who has worked in to create a site for imagined communi- issues are apparently privileged over in Africa, needs to reinvent itself if it brought techniques from theatre into theatre for community development ties to foment and excbange content, to the local ones. has to remain relevant. FM radio. with Sponsored Arts for Education organise, exchange and collaborate. The point of contention here is who Most talkshows are performed by (SAFE-KENYA), notes that funders What are the consequences of this sets-this agenda, how and why. Prof C.J. Odhiambo teaches at the two or three actors or presenters: of intervention theatre are usually ob- incorporation? One that comes to mind Since the messages are framed Department of Literature, Theatre one a serious "professional" radio sessed with the numbers of persons that easily is the role social media played in without considering the peculiarity of and Film Studies at Moi University presenter and the other an actor. The such interventions reach and not neces- the mobilisation of the masses in the listeners, this promotes the top-down and is a Wits University SPARC Dis- presenter-actors are ever playing roles, sarily their transformative impact.