aside 18 May

Book Review: The Zanzibar Chest – By Aidan Hartley

Aidan Hartley is a product of the British Empire. He is of the same stock as so many people around the world; Kenyans, Indians, Australians. He comes from a family of settlers with a father who gave his life to Africa. This is not his story as much as that of all the people who have made him and his family what they are.

The beauty of this book is the way in which Hartley discovers himself and that other Hartley-Aidan’s father-as he follows the story of a man who was his father’s best friend. He goes out on a limb seeking to understand this man about whom he is father rarely spoke and finds out a lot about his family and the nature of the British Empire.

aside 15 May

Poetry: Diplomacy Today

By Sonya Kassam

Today yesterday tomorrow,
Diplomacy is, was, will be hollow;
Say it like it is
What’s with the “excuse me please?”

aside 14 May

Q&A Monday: Benard Ng’ang’a Maranda (Ng’ang’alito)

Benard Ng’ang’a Maranda, more popularly known as Ng’ang’alito is a production assistant for Citizen TVs Power Breakfast Show.

He was the 1st runners up in the hit  reality show Tusker Project Fame and most importantly he the father of a beautiful daughter called Celine and a part time musician.

We had a few questions for him as we watched the auditions for Tusker Project Fame 5 and this is what he had to say

aside 9 May

The Stockholm Syndrome

By – Amare Poeta

When I was young, a snake came to my house. I took a stick and killed it. My father at the peak of pride said I am now a like a son. A promotion, I concluded.

Some people came and said girls should also go to school. So I went. I studied hard and I was the first in the school. The chief said I should have been a boy. An accolade, presume.

aside 8 May

Poetry: Eccentric Excitement

By – Aisha Salim

I feel eccentric excitement
When I hear Literature
As if I dine with Zeus or Aphrodite
As I delight in poetry.

aside 7 May

Book Review: I Know This Much Is True – By Wally Lamb

By – Nyambura Mutanyi

Family is the one thing many of us feel we can depend wholly on. What happens, then, when that family falls apart at the seams and is revealed to be a world away from what we think it to be? I Know This Much Is True tackles the breakdown of a family and its redemption over the lifetimes of three generations of a family. Spanning the twentieth century, it investigates the themes of love, loss and belonging in a poignant and unforgettable way.

aside 7 May

Q&A Monday: Patricia Kihoro (@MissKihoro)

Patricia Wangechi Kihoro

Patricia Wangechi Kihoro is a singer, actress, radio news anchor and sporadic blogger living and working in Nairobi. She loves to take pictures, long drives and is slowly making Bikram yoga a way of life. Slowly.

She dreams in HD, although she recently learnt that her dreams are actually astral travels, which she is trying to be more conscious and in control of.

She blogs here and here.

aside 1 May

Book Review: God’s Bits of Wood – By Sembene Ousmane

By - Nyambura Mutanyi

As we celebrate Labour Day, this is quite the apt book to review.  It deals with the events that surround the strike called after World War 2 by railway workers in what was then French West Africa. In a lot of senses, it’s a tribute to a time that is lost but also to the enduring nature of people and the strength derived from camaraderie.

As the book starts, it may seem that the goal of the men who go on strike is conditions that are the same as those of the white railway workers but as time progresses, the truly overarching goal emerges-equality. Equal pay for equal work, so to speak.  The curious conditions of these men-illiteracy, an ignorance of the greater world- make their goal singularly self-driven. For most of them, not having been exposed to Marx or any of the other greats in Communist thought does not subtract from their motivations and goals.

aside 30 Apr

Q&A Monday: Zama (@JoziGoddess)

Zama spends most of her work week working as a customer operations management consultant mostly in the telecommunications and public services industries in South Africa. She is also one of the founding directors for Youth Lab, a newly-formed think tank focused on creating platforms for youth-led socio-economic, policy and political discussions. Between studying towards Honours in Public Administration at the University of Stellenbosch, and writing for Mail and Guardian’s Thought Leader, and freelancing; she tweets under the handle @JoziGoddess. She is also politically active and the organisational development executive for the youth political branch in her area.

aside 27 Apr

Where is the world progressing towards? – Part 1

By – The Count

About 1000 grandfathers ago, the entire human race probably numbered less than 5 million and where mostly involved in hunting and gathering.

Such a short time, yet we have come so far. We have built a society where the poorest in the most socially developed country has more going for him than a King had in the middle ages. Unfortunately, the lower bar hasn’t moved much for most of the world.