East and Central Africa

Abstract

Introduction

The bilingual essay collection Guidance (uwongozi) by Sheikh Al-Amin Mazrui: Selections from the First Swahili Islamic Newspaper: A Swahili-English Edition (see Studies on Individual Writers) offers researchers a glance into the thought and discourse at the Swahili coast of Kenya in the 1930s as seen through the prism of cultural Islamic moralities interfaced with British colonial sensibilities at play in Kenya. The essays were first published in a local Swahili language newspaper and this collection makes the material available not only to Kiswahili studies scholars, but also to scholars of the East African littoral without command of the Kiswahili language. The collection will be of interest to scholars of print cultures in colonial Kenya as well as scholars working in the fast-growing field of Indian Ocean Studies which is yet to fully reckon with the Swahili language archive, in part owing to its largely Anglophone accent. On the same topic, Duncan Omanga and Kipkosgei Arap Buigutt’s essay “Marx in Campus: Print Cultures, Nationalism and Student Activism in the Late 1970s Kenya” is more than a biography of a student newspaper at the University of Nairobi in the 1970s. By carefully tracing the newspaper’s “life story” and its interface with an increasingly repressive political moment in Kenya, the authors paint a fascinating portrait of the role of print cultures and particularly The Anvil (a student newspaper at the University of Nairobi) in shaping public imaginaries at a time of deepening disillusionment with the trajectory of postcolonial Kenya. In important ways, the authors argue, the newspaper tapped into key debates at the time to mediate students’ social and political identities, which included the appropriation and endorsement of a symbolic Marxist discourse perceived to resonate with the challenges of the day. The paper’s insights are enriched by one of the authors’ (Kipkosgei Arap Buigutt’s) close involvement in the student newspaper as a former editor. To some extent, this legacy of attempts to appropriate a refashioned Marxist discourse was to die hard as the university remained an important political agent in Kenyan public discourse for decades afterwards, often much to the establishment’s rage but, in recent years, with increasing overtures towards courting “the university vote”.

Before the growth of digital platforms as sites of creative production in East Africa, print media was a major agent of literary production, with a good number of writers not only starting off their writing careers as journalists but, with some like Yussuf Dawood and Wahome Mutahi, enjoying long stints with regular short fiction by-lines in local newspapers. Wahome Mutahi’s long-running satirical column in the local newspapers, “Whispers” forms the core of George Ogola’s book Popular Media in Kenyan History: Fiction and Newspapers as Political Actors (see Studies on Individual Writers). While Mutahi is also a novelist with several novels to his name, his most widely known legacy throughout the country is the “Whispers” column. This astute satirical column weathered the storms of the repressive 1990s through a deceptively apolitical use of fictionalised accounts of the author’s satirised family sketch and a remarkable attentiveness to elements of the Kenyan quotidian. Ogola’s magisterial study goes beyond Mutahi’s short fiction to locate the celebrated novelist and columnist within a wider canvas of debates on popular fiction, with an attentive ear for the local textures of the debate in Kenya and the tensions and overlaps with wider academic debates on popular fiction in Africa. Like many other parts of the continent, popular fiction in Kenya has had mixed fortunes in the academy, despite its powerful resonance for readerships. This book’s assured reading of this complicated genre (whose unconventional modes of critique and strategies of escaping censure have sparked strongly-held views in different camps of the Kenyan academy over the years) is bound to become an important classic in African popular cultural studies broadly, and Eastern African literary debates specifically.

An unusual title in life writing this year is South African writer Sisonke Msimang’s memoir Always Another Country (see Letters and Auto/biography). The title, though strictly speaking an exile biography, is included here for its insights into the South African community in exile in East Africa, which makes for an interesting return to exile literature, ordinarily associated with a senior generation of South African writers such as E’skia Mphahlele and Keorapetse Kgositsile, both of whom spent time in exile in Kenya, roughly overlapping with Sisonke Msimang’s childhood in the region. Msimang’s memoir is listed for different reasons: while it is widely known that Tanzania was a major ally of the anti-apartheid movement and hosted a significant segment of the African National Congress in exile, Kenya’s foreign policy choices after independence largely precluded such allyship. In fact, in one instance cited by W.O. Maloba in his book The Anatomy of Neo-Colonialism in Kenya: British Imperialism and Kenyatta, 1973–1978 (2017), Kenya actively went against the majority position of the African member countries of the Commonwealth and supported British sale of arms to apartheid South Africa, despite a UN arms embargo being in place. In view of this dubious location on the wrong side of history, Msimang’s reflections on her family’s life in Nairobi in the early 1980s is a fascinating read that complicates these metahistories. Her reflections on life in Kenya draw our attention to the ways in which forms of expatriate professional mobilities complicated official state policy on the ANC as ANC cadres who happened to be professionals were able to access Kenya and, to some extent, facilitate the organisation’s activities, even as the state lived up to its “official policy”. At the same time, precisely because her family was part of the budding African elite, Msimang’s memoir offers important insights into class formation and upward mobility in Kenya in the 1980s as seen through South African eyes. That the country robustly embraced its neoliberal economic path producing untold precarity is represented in the memoir through the figure of a street urchin’s attempt to steal the pre-teen Msimang’s bicycle. As contemporary Kenyan public life illustrates, precarity remains a mass malaise still financed by neoliberal policies with little of the symbolic Marxist critique of the 1980s.

Harry Garuba and Okot Benge revisit the Ugandan classic epic poem Song of Lawino in their essay “Lateral Texts and Circuits of Value: Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino and Wer pa Lawino” (see Studies on Individual Authors) with far-reaching implications for translation studies as well as ongoing debates about literary value. Building on Garuba’s concept of lateral textuality, the authors argue that some postcolonial texts resist conceptions of translation as a vertical transfer of value from a source text and propose that we should think of such texts in terms of a relationship of lateral textuality, where each text is defined by different circuits of value. This essay’s engagement with the complex biography of this classic – composed in Acholi as Wer pa Lawino, but first published as Song of Lawino, before the Acholi version saw print, effectively following in the footprints of the widely-circulated English version – raises riveting debates that stretch conventional assumptions about translation, circulation and literary value in important directions. This essay has interesting methodological implications in its implicit invitation for us to reframe foundational debates on African literary criticism, conceptions of literary value, the language debate and the place of translation. It would be interesting to see in what directions scholars of African literatures take the ground-breaking provocations ventured by Garuba and Okot.

One of the best-known texts about the Mau Mau resistance in Kiswahili is PM Kareithi’s Kaburi bila Msalaba: Hadithi ya Vita Vya Mau Mau (EAEP, 1969) has now been made available in English by Chege Githiora, translated as Unmarked Grave: A Story of the Mau Mau War (see Translations). This Mau Mau fiction classic should appeal to scholars interested in translation studies as well as Mau Mau literature alike. In a context where there is an older history of material being translated from English into Kiswahili, it is remarkable to see this reverse movement. More importantly, bilingual East Africanists might find it fascinating to explore reader interactions with this text at this temporal juncture, when new scholarship on Mau Mau draws our attention to the entanglements and complexities that played out during and after the resistance among different stakeholders. What does it mean to revisit these debates now? What will the encounter be like for readers who first read the novel in Kiswahili? The latter question is important for reasons that have not received full scholarly attention in Kenya. Swahili literary imaginaries and scholarship seems to tap into a different orbit from Anglophone imaginaries, even when they comment on the same concerns. In some respects, the two languages have evolved distinct literary histories, registers and grammars, both in their respective imaginative and scholarly realms. Translations from Kiswahili into English, particularly those separated by historical temporalities, offer unique opportunities to convene these conversations in potentially productive ways.

A regular subject of both fictional and autobiographical writing about Kenya in recent years have been the country’s refugee camps, Daadab and Kakuma. Owing to the desperate conditions at these camps and the ongoing crisis of displaced Somali citizens forced to survive in these camps, a growing body of life stories about this community’s experiences has become part of literary Kenya in recent years, most of it written by non-East Africans. Catherine-Lune Grayson’s Children of the Camp: The Lives of Somali Youth Raised in Kakuma Refugee Camp zooms in on the life stories of young people who have had to call home the Kakuma refugee camp in Northern Kenya (see Letters and Auto/biography: Kenya). The title’s nod to a documentary film that follows the lives of American children of Japanese descent who were placed in US camps during World War II appears to deliberately tap into the heart-breaking vulnerability shared by these children who bear the brunt of adult conflicts that mark them for life. Tracing the life-stories of young adults who have grown up at the Kakuma refugee camp, the book threads together these young people’s complicated relationships to their lost country, the senses of cultural and psychological displacement, the yearning for ever-receding futures and the hunger for stability, cruelly embodied by unfulfilled promises of emigration to the United States. That we now have refugee camp literature as a subcategory of East/African writing in the 21^st century is a tragic indictment on our failure to resolve conflict and crises of fragile nationalisms.

Returning to the Mau Mau question and its biggest icons is the collection Dedan Kimathi on Trial: Colonial Justice and Popular Memory in Kenya’s Mau Mau Rebellion (see Criticism: General Studies: Kenya) and a biography of his wife, Mukami Kimathi: Mau Mau Freedom Fighter (see Letters and Auto/Biography). The two texts continue the debate about the brutalities of the British imperial project in Kenya and the contributions of two Mau Mau icons to the anti-colonial resistance. In her introduction to the Dedan Kimathi volume, Julie MacArthur poignantly writes: “Kimathi came to symbolize many of the contradictions that Mau Mau, and indeed Kenyan anticolonialism and nationalism writ large, represented: rebel statesman, educated peasant, modern traditionalist” (3). Featuring a rich collection of archival documents on the trial of Kimathi as well as critical essays by literary scholars and historians who have worked extensively on the histories and textual imaginaries of the Mau Mau movement, this is an important addition to the library of literary and cultural studies on the Mau Mau resistance, and more broadly, to debates on imperialism, memorialisation, life writing and social imaginaries, among other concerns.

The historical novel retains its place in the region’s imaginary, represented on the list by, among others, Kenyan Peter Kimani’s Dance of the Jakaranda (see Fiction: Kenya) and the award-winning Ugandan novel Kintu by Jennifer Nansumbuga Makumbi (see Fiction: Uganda). Dance of the Jakaranda intertwines the missionary project in Kenya with histories of Indian indentured labour in East Africa and the building of the railway through the three men linked to the railway: railway technician Babu Salim, Reverend Richard Turnbull and colonial administrator Ian MacDonald. The novel’s use of oral storytelling, particularly through the protagonist Rajan’s retellings of the stories told by his grandfather, resonates with a similar emphasis on storytelling as part of the cross-generational memory-work embodied in the work of East African Asian writers such as M.G. Vassanji and Bahadur Tejani. But what is unique is the manner in which Kimani interweaves these narratives with recognisably Black folklore and oral tropes regarding early encounters with modernity, broadly, and the railway in East Africa, more specifically.

Given current debates about literary value and circulation of African writing, two texts on this year’s list speak to this phenomenon through their initial publication in Africa and subsequent re-issuing, to much greater interest, by publishers in the global north. The two texts are Kenyan Stanley Gazemba’s Forbidden Fruit (see Fiction: Kenya) and award-winning Ugandan novelist Jennifer Nansumbuga Makumbi’s Kintu (see Fiction: Uganda). First published in 2002 by a small Kenyan publisher, Acacia Books, The Stone Hills of Maragoli won the prestigious Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature in 2003. The book was reissued under the same title with a different cover – still featuring the rocky landscape of Maragoli in Western Kenya, where the novel is set – in 2010 by Kwani Trust. The book has now been reissued under a new title and new cover, by New York based Mantle Books, who, according to Gazemba, felt the original title would not resonate with American readerships. The new title, Forbidden Fruit, is accompanied by a new cover designed by celebrated Kenyan artist Michael Soi in his signature gender iconography, featuring a stylish-looking woman donning a large afro, trendy sunglasses and striking red lipstick – a far cry from the countryside covers of the two earlier editions of the novel. The novel, which appears to go against the trend of the urban African novel (much of the action is set in a rural landscape in Western Kenya) has had an unusual life cycle for such a contemporary text, particularly its journey to US publication, given the place of Africa-based writers in the landscapes of global literary production and circulation. A similar story seems to be unfolding for Makumbi’s much-celebrated novel, Kintu, which was first published in 2014 by Kwani Trust as the inaugural winner of Kwani Manuscript Project. Soon, word got around about this riveting historical novel: it opens in 2004, then journeys back to the 18^th-century Buganda kingdom, revisiting the mythical figure of the Buganda origin story Kintu, but assigning him and his descendants a richly current and textured narrative that meditates on what it means to be Ugandan in the 21^st century. The novel was reissued in 2017 by UK-Based Transit Books and won the prestigious Windham Campbell Prize in March 2018. As in the case of Stanley Gazemba’s Forbidden Fruit/The Stonehills of Maragoli, the networks of circulation and literary value opened up by Northern-based publishers are remarkable; more so when preceded by a refusal by Northern publishers to be the first to invest in either of these titles. These are no doubt success stories for the authors. However, they also invite us to think about the marketing challenges confronted by local publishers who take the initial risk in investing in these manuscripts. This relationship produces a potentially predatory outsourcing of risk to small local publishers, turning them into risk-testing initiatives, before multinational publishers can invest in local writing, instead of a collaborative co-publishing arrangement from the start, which might be to all stakeholders’ advantage.

Several scholarly titles on Tanzania convene fascinating biographical dialogues on Tanzanian intellectual histories and the country’s complicated interactions with different sets of ideas, institutions and practices. Stuart Laing’s Tippu Tip: Ivory, Slavery and Discovery in the Scramble for Africa (see Letters and Auto/biography: Tanzania) revisits Hamad bin Muhammad bin Juma bin Said el Murgebi, popularly known as Tippu Tip, a historical figure whose exploits as an ivory and slave trader in Eastern Africa and a business and political figure in Zanzibar are central to our understanding of Indian Ocean Worlds and its interactions with the unfolding of European empire-building in the late 19^th century. Emily Callaci’s Street Archives and City Life in Tanzania (see Criticism: General Studies: Tanzania) is a remarkable exploration of the formation of public discourse and ideas on everyday Dar es Salaam by young people who navigated their way between the ruling party’s politics and the attendant Ujamaa philosophy of the state through an eclectic consumption and exploration of a range of popular texts, including pulp fiction, newspaper columns, song lyrics and Christian literature, to fashion their own understandings of the world and their historical milieu. At a historical moment often associated with Ujamaa’s villagisation programme, which placed the limelight on the rural landscape, Callaci shows that the state’s and Ujamaa’s grip on the national psyche remained incomplete as young people articulated a different, urbane understanding of their worlds. Meantime, Seth Markle’s A Motorcycle on Hell Run: Tanzania, Black Power, and the Uncertain Future of Pan-Africanism, 1964-1974 (see General Studies: Tanzania) zooms in on a decade of intellectual, political and activist engagements between African American and Caribbean intellectuals and Nyerere’s Tanzania at a time when Tanzania was perceived as espousing an important model of African liberation in Africa and the world. A related study is Monique Bedasse’s Jah Kingdom: Rastafarians, Tanzania, and Pan-Africanism in the Age of Decolonization (see Letters and Auto/biography: Tanzania). It examines Tanzania’s collaborative engagement with a group of Rastarians led by Ras Bupe Karudi to facilitate the community’s return to Africa. While the initiative was unsuccessful, this biographical meditation is a rich portrait of that moment and the intellectual and cultural ideas that gave it impetus. Lastly, an exciting addition to this year’s list is Abdulrazak Gurnah’s latest addition to his celebrated oeuvre, Gravel Heart (see Fiction: Tanzania). Set in Zanzibar and Britain, the novel interweaves intimate familial narratives sketched against the backdrop of Zanzibar’s national history in the build up to and the aftermath of the revolution.

Overall, the region’s writing and scholarship continues the process of organically consolidating its particular flavours of narrative interests and insights, even as it interacts with broader continental and world trends.

References

Lavince, Patrick Lust of My Ink: A Poetry Anthology That Stirs Solutions in Your Heart 200pp The Writers Centre (Nairobi).

Nyambura, Monica Chronicles of Life and Love: Expressions from Deep Within 108pp CLC Christian BookLink (Nairobi).

Ongogo, Evelyne Dichol and Other Poems 101pp Royalite Publishers (Nairobi).

Kiguli, Susan N. and Hilda Twongyeirwe Wondering and Wandering of Hearts: Poems from Uganda FEMRITE (Kampala).

Makoha, Nick Kingdom of Gravity 82pp Peepol (Leeds).

Foot, Newton L. Fishers of Hope Taweret 62pp Junkets (Cape Town).

Plastow, Jane, Martin Banham, Rose Mbowa, Robert Serumaga, Manyazewal Endeshaw, Ola Rotimi, Femi Osofisan and Moussa Diagana Six Plays from East & West Africa 321pp James Currey (Suffolk).

Bull, Bartle The White Rhino Hotel 404pp Speaking Volumes (Naples, Florida) [1992].

Dobrin, Arthur Kwamboka’s Inquiry: A Novel 150pp Nsemia Inc (Nairobi).

10.

Gazemba, Stanley Forbidden Fruit 280pp The Mantle (New York) [2002].

11.

Jameson, Ron Leopard’s Lair: The Life and Loves of a Wartime Pilot 368pp Matador (Leicestershire).

12.

Kilimo, Rose and Peter K. Ngeny The Undamaged Fruits 180pp EAEP (Nairobi).

13.

Kimani, Peter Dance of the Jakaranda 342pp Akashic Books (New York).

14.

Kincaid, Chris L. Where the Sky Meets the Sand 300pp Ambassador International (Greenville, SC).

15.

Lansky, Steven P. A Black Bird Fell out of the Sky: A Novella 163pp Seaweed Sideshow Circus (Jackson, WI).

16.

Likimani, Muthoni G. and Margaret Kenyatta My Blood Not for Sale 160pp Noni’s Publicity (Nairobi).

17.

Mabura, Lily and John Mugubi The Warm Heart of Africa and Other Stories 211pp Longhorn (Nairobi).

18.

McGhie, John White Highlands 420pp Little Brown (London).

19.

McKenzie-Vincent, Ian To the Mara with Love 268pp EAEP (Nairobi).

20.

McVeigh, Jennifer Leopard at the Door 392pp GP Putnam (New York).

21.

Musonye, Miriam M. Flower of a Stump 124pp Oxford UP (Nairobi).

22.

Mwangi, Meja Baba Pesa: Striving for the Wind 300pp HM Books (Birmingham, AL).

23.

Ngesa, Mildred Black-tipped Nipples 56pp Empiris Creative (Nairobi).

24.

Niemann, Michael Illicit Trade 231pp Coffeetown Press (Seattle, Washington).

25.

Ooko, Okang’a Businesswoman’s Fault: Seven Stories Not So Short 372pp Oba Kunta Octopus (Nairobi).

26.

Ooko, Okang’a When You Sing to the Fishes 396pp Oba Kunta Octopus (Nairobi).

27.

Pearson, Ridley White Bone 403pp Putnam & Sons (New York) [2016].

28.

Saitoti, Felix The Status Quo 281pp Aura Publishers (Nairobi).

29.

Shariff-Zia, Shelina Nairobi Days 325pp Dog Ear Publishing (Indianapolis, IN).

30.

Smith, Wilbur A. and David Churchill War Cry 496pp William Morrow (New York).

31.

St John, S. Mad Mischief: A Novel 440pp MCP Books (Maitland, FL).

32.

St John, Lauren The Snow Angel 120pp Head of Zeus (London).

33.

Wa Kyendo Muli King Kamaliza 60pp Syokimau Cultural Centre (Nairobi).

34.

Wa Thiong’o, Ngũgĩ Devil on the Cross 219pp Penguin (New York) [1982].

35.

K, John E. Inside Our Dark World 204pp Deluxe (Kampala).

36.

Kingsbury, Karen Brush of Wings 326pp Howard Books (New York).

37.

Makumbi, Jennifer N. Kintu 443pp Transit Books (Oakland, CA) [2014].

38.

Masembe, Ronald The Perfection Act 242pp Age Books (Kampala).

39.

Mulumba, Ivan M. The Honking 311pp Mattville (Kampala).

40.

Sherez, Stav A Dark Redemption 420pp Thorpe (Leicester).

41.

Williams, Jenny D. The Atlas of Forgotten Places 361pp Thomas Dunn Books; St Martin’s Press (New York).

42.

Attar, Leylah Mists of the Serengeti 351pp Pitch73 Publishing (Lexington, KY).

43.

Munro, Donna The Zanzibar Moon 268pp Warm Witty Publishing (Elanora, QLD).

44.

Eriksen, Curt A Place of Timeless Harmony 90pp Texas Review Press (Huntsville, Texas).

45.

Greenfield, Ellen J. White Roses 356pp 3Ring (Brooklyn, NY).

46.

Gurnah, Abdulrazak Gravel Heart 261pp Bloomsbury (New York).

47.

Hirji, Karim F. The Banana Girls 133pp Mkuki na Nyota (Dar es Salaam).

48.

McNeil, Jean The Dhow House 327pp ECW Press (Toronto).

49.

Rodriguez, Deborah The Zanzibar Wife 301pp Penguin Random House (North Sydney).

50.

Scholes, Katherine The Rain Queen 608pp Randomhouse Penguin (Victoria).

51.

Thornton, Mark R. Kid Moses: A Novel 163pp Arcade Publishing (New York).

52.

Banda, Tito Old Nyaviyuyi in Performance: Seven Tales from Northern Malawi as Told by a Master Performer of the Oral Narrative 102pp Mzuni Press (Mzuzu).

53.

Chisala, Upile Soft Magic 122pp Chisala Upile (US) [2015].

54.

Trataris Cotton, Eleni Bertha the Swiss Trader’s Daughter: Love, War and Conspiracy in the Turbulent Past of Malawi … the Little Jewel of Africa 344pp New Generation Publishing (London).

55.

Adut, Deng T. and Ben Mckelvey Songs of a War Boy 300pp ReadHowYouWant (Strawberry Hills, NSW).

56.

Aduwo, Barack Daylight Robbers: Recollection of a Kenyan District Commissioner 307pp Aura Publishers (Nairobi).

57.

Awori, Moody Riding on a Tiger: An Autobiography 443pp Moran Publishers (Nairobi).

58.

Bagley, Desmond Windfall 352pp HarperCollins (London) [1982].

59.

Benuzzi, Felice No Picnic on Mount Kenya 292pp MacLehose Press (New York) [1947].

60.

Boge, Paul H. Hannah’s Hope: A Mully Children’s Rescue Story 269pp Castle Quay (Lagoon City, Ontario).

61.

Cockar, Mohamed S. The First Road to Nairobi 80pp Old Africa Books (Naivasha).

62.

Corbett, Jim The Jim Corbett Omnibus II 277pp Rupa (New Delhi).

63.

Fernandes, Cyprian S. Yesterday in Paradise: The Life and Times of a Goan Journalist in Africa 249pp Goa Book Club (Goa).

64.

Gakunju, Jagi and Lynne Mansure Living on the Edge: Adventures in Business and the Wild: An Autobiography 279pp Wajee Nature Park (Nairobi).

65.

Garrow, David J. Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama 1460pp William Morrow (New York).

66.

Gathogo, Julius Beyond Mount Kenya Region: 40 Years of Theological & Practical Education at St. Andrew’s College, Kabare (1977-2017) 202pp Evangelical Publishing (Nairobi).

67.

Gettleman, Jeffrey Love, Africa 325pp Harper Collins Publishers (New York).

68.

Gormley, Beatrice Barack Obama: Our Forty-Fourth President 266pp Aladdin (New York) [2015].

69.

Grant, Peter Letters from the Forest 350pp Peter Grant Publications (London) [2016].

70.

Grayson, Catherine-Lune Children of the Camp: The Lives of Somali Youth Raised in Kakuma Refugee Camp 233pp Berghahn (New York).

71.

Hopkins, George A. One More Turn of the Page 237pp Mill City Press (Maitland, FL).

72.

Johansson, Paul and Gloria Johansson Faith on Assignment: The Johansson Journey 158pp New York School of Urban Ministry (New York).

73.

King, Kenneth The Endeavourist: How One Man Tried to Beat Extreme Poverty in Kenya 320pp RedDoor (Burgess Hill).

74.

Lewis, Rhona Forever Forward 318pp Tfutza Publications (Beitar Illit).

75.

Msimang, Sisonke Always Another Country: A Memoir of Exile and Home 311pp Jonathan Ball Publishers (Johannesburg).

76.

Nabwera, Burudi Burudi Nabwera: How It Happened: The Story of a Kenyan Leader Who Witnessed Many a Historical Event in the World 272pp Fasiri Communications (Nairobi).

77.

Nazareth, John L. A Passage to Kenya: A Historical Collage of a Unique Time and Place 216pp CreateSpace (North Charleston, SC).

78.

Nderitũ, Wairimũ Mũkami Kĩmathi: Mau Mau Freedom Fighter 307pp Mdahalo Bridging Divides (Nairobi).

79.

Newton, Babior The Raila Conspiracy: The Secrets behind Denying Him the Kenyan Presidency Scholar Feed Publishers (Nairobi).

80.

Njoya, Timothy M. We the People: Thinking Heavenly, Acting Kenyanly: Timothy Njoya: A Memoir 400pp WorldAlive Publishers (Nairobi).

81.

Ojiambo, Peter O. Kenyan Youth Education in Colonial and Post-Colonial Times: Joseph Kamiru Gikubu’s Impact 190pp Palgrave Macmillan (Cham, Switzerland).

82.

Okello, Sam and Gitobu Imanyara Raila Odinga: Racing with Destiny: The Battles, Tears and Triumphs of a Patriot 208pp Sahel Publishing (Nairobi).

83.

Ooko, Okang’a Kisumu 519pp Oba Kunta Octopus (Nairobi).

84.

Osusa, Tabu and Bill Odidi Shades of Benga: The Story of Popular Music in Kenya: 1946-2016 645pp Ketebul Music (Nairobi).

85.

Panwalker, Anand The Place of Cold Water: A Memoir 405pp CreateSpace (New York).

86.

Patterson, Bruce D. The Lions of Tsavo: Exploring the Legacy of Africa’s Notorious Man-Eaters 231pp Echo Point Books (Vermont).

87.

Perpetua Wanjiru Macharia Foundation Perpetua Wanjiru Macharia: An Educational Ambassador CUEA Press (Nairobi).

88.

Rawlence, Ben City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp 384pp Picador (New York) [2016].

89.

Roscher, Ellie Play like a Girl: How a Soccer School in Kenya’s Slums Started a Revolution 206pp Viva Editions (Jersey City, NJ).

90.

Sagar, Dekow D. Life in Exile: The Untold Story of Civil War and Refugee Life 200pp Concierge (Omaha, NE)

91.

Sempele, Lorna The Colourful Bead Necklace of My Mother Tongue 55pp Empiris (Nairobi).

92.

Sharma, Rajinder A Life Post-1939 298pp Austin Macauley Publishers (London).

93.

Smith, Lynley Zainabu’s Story 211pp Zaccmedia (Preston).

94.

Strong, Joyce Hope Rising: The True Story of a Place in Kenya Where God Dreams and Miracles Happen! 198pp Xulon Press (Maitland, FL).

95.

Swift, Robyn A Kenya Beginning Jabiru Publishing 381pp (Smithfield, QLD).

96.

Topps, Tim Umzindusi Letter 94pp Matador (SI).

97.

Walton, Christopher Making Things Happen 260pp Grosvenor House (SI).

98.

wa Thiong’o, Ngugi Birth of a Dream Weaver: A Writer’s Awakening 238pp London (Vintage) [2016].

99.

Weiss, Brett H. Just Give Them a Hug and the Rest Will Be Easy: How One Person Can Make the World a Better Place, One Child at a Time 235pp iUniverse (Bloomington, IN).

100.

Wylie, Jill Barefoot & Pawprint: A Kenya Childhood 163pp Netsoka Books (Cape Town).

101.

Acan, Grace Not Yet Sunset: A Story of Survival and Perseverance in LRA Captivity 188pp Fountain Pub (Kampala).

102.

Bonneur, Christine Losing Six Kids: My Failed Adoption Story 201pp iUniverse (Bloomington, IN).

103.

Cakaj, Ledio and Roméo Dallaire When the Walking Defeats You 402pp HSRC (Cape Town).

104.

David, Saul Operation Thunderbolt: Flight 139 and the Raid on Entebbe Airport, the Most Audacious Hostage Rescue Mission in History 446pp Back Bay Books (New York).

105.

Kabali-Kagwa, Philippa N. Flame and Song: A Memoir 189pp Sooo Many Stories (Kampala).

106.

Kalenzi, Patrick and Alisa Geiser Tears Run Dry: A Story of Courage in the Face of Poverty, Tribalism and Racism 487pp Patrick Kalenzi (Boulder) [2015].

107.

Letangule, Thomas Trailblazer 310pp Thomas Letangule (Nairobi).

108.

Majors, Katie D. and Ann Voskamp Daring to Hope: Finding God’s Goodness in the Broken and the Beautiful 209pp Multnomer (New York).

109.

Mak’Oloo, Omondi Oh Uganda!: The Life and Times of Dr. James Rwanyarare: Doyen of Ugandan Politics: Authorised Biography 590pp Panama Books (Kampala).

110.

Marara, Noble Behind the Presidential Curtain: Inside out of Real Paul Kagame from His Former Bodyguard 288pp CreateSpace (North Charleston, NC).

111.

Muhima, Edward B. Triumph of Faith: Uganda’s Experience under Idi Amin 186pp Fountain (Kampala) [2014].

112.

Mungai, Evelyn K. From Glass Ceilings to Open Skies 381pp Evelyn Mungai (Nairobi).

113.

Mwakyusa, John It Can’t Be True: A Story from Uganda-the Pearl of Africa 142pp S.l (Patridge, India).

114.

Nyamwija, Doreen Never Give Up: My Life Story from Uganda to Iona 118pp Cloister House Press (London).

115.

Rosenthal, Gabriele and Artur Bogner Biographies in the Global South: Life Stories Embedded in Figurations and Discourses 312pp Campus Verlag (Frankfurt).

116.

Thomas, Elizabeth M. Warrior Herdsmen 214pp Eland (London) [1966].

117.

Vanstone, Helen Africa, Birthright and Calling: The Story of Helen Vanstone, a Head Teacher Whom God Called to Uganda 114pp Onwards and Upwards (UK).

118.

Wachanga, D.N. Growing up in a Shrinking World: How Politics, Culture and the Nuclear Age Defined the Biography of Ali A. Mazrui 323pp Africa World Press (Trenton, NJ).

119.

Yu, Jessica Garden of the Lost and Abandoned: The Extraordinary Story of One Ordinary Woman and the Children She Saves 372pp Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Boston).

120.

Alloo, Fatma, Edda Sanga and Gurnam A. Singh 30 Years of Tanzania Media Women’s Association (tamwa) 225pp Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: Tanzania Media Women’s Association.

121.

Bartelme, Tony and Catharina Hoek-Ellegala A Surgeon in the Village: An American Doctor Teaches Brain Surgery in Africa 274pp Beacon Press (Boston).

122.

Bedasse, Monique Jah Kingdom: Rastafarians, Tanzania, and Pan-Africanism in the Age of Decolonization 254pp University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill).

123.

Benge, Janet and Geoff Benge Charles Mulli: We Are Family 186pp YWAM (Seattle).

124.

Bjerk, Paul Julius Nyerere 167pp Ohio University Press (Athens).

125.

Finlay, Barry and Chris Finlay Kilimanjaro and Beyond: A Life-Changing Journey 264pp Keep On Climbing (Ontario).

126.

Ladha, Mansoor Memoirs of a Muhindi: Fleeing East Africa for the West 252pp Univ of Regina Press (Saskatchewan).

127.

Laing, Stuart Tippu Tip: Ivory, Slavery and Discovery in the Scramble for Africa 330pp Medina Publishing (Surrey).

128.

Lawson, Margaeret A. and Dayspring MacLeod New Jungle, Same Old Monkeys: My Missionary Meanderings 176pp RoperPenberthy (Biggar).

129.

Markle, Seth M. A Motorcycle on Hell Run: Tanzania, Black Power, and the Uncertain Future of Pan-Africanism, 1964-1974 265pp Michigan State University Press (East Lansing, Mich).

130.

McMillin, Mary J. The Njombe Road: A Memoir 224pp Quitab Editions (Glenview, IL).

131.

Mleke, Kenny S. The Barefoot Boy and Gift of Shoes 150pp S.I (Bagamoyo).

132.

Nhambu, Maria America’s Daughter: A Memoir 308pp Dancing Twiga Press (Delray Beach, Florida).

133.

Roth, Bennett A. A Snake in My Shoe!: An Autobiography 395ppThe Book Guild (Kibworth, Leicestershire).

134.

Rubagumya, Casmir M. A Son of Two Countries: The Education of a Refugee from Nyarubuye 126pp Mkuki na Nyota (Dar es Salaam).

135.

Bwalya, Kelly The Life of Dr. Wyson Moses Kauzobafa Jele: Missionary to Zambia 56pp Mzuni Press (Mzuzu).

136.

Fiedler, Rachel N. A History of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, 1989-2007 197pp Mzuni Press (Mzuzu).

137.

Frye, Sandra L. African Dreams: A Memoir of Service and Salvation 182pp Hamilton Book (Lanham, Md).

138.

Rankin, William Life of Service: Jones Laviwa, Refugees, Relief, and Aids in Rural Malawi 248pp Lulu (S.I).

139.

Attree, Lizzy The Goddess of Mtwara and Other Stories: The Caine Prize for African Writing 2017 271pp Interlink Books (Northampton, MA).

140.

Scheub, Harold and Matthew H. Brown The African Storyteller 216pp Kendall Hunt Publishing (Dubuque, IA).

141.

Muli, wa K. The Crows Will Tell: A Collection of Ngewa – Fables – From the Akamba of Kenya 80pp Syokimau Cultural Centre (Nairobi).

142.

Kareithi, P.M. Unmarked Grave: A Story of the Mau Mau War trans Chege Githiora 110pp Phoenix (Nairobi).

143.

Africa and the Indian Ocean Region Timothy Doyle and Dennis Rumley 114pp Routledge (New York).

144.

Applied Theatre: Performing Health and Wellbeing Veronica Baxter and Katharine E. Low 215pp Bloomsbury Methuen Drama (London).

145.

African Women under Fire: Literary Discourses in War and Conflict Pauline A. Uwakweh ed 199pp Lexington Books (Lanham, Maryland).

146.

“Constructing the African City through Hip-Hop in ‘Nai Ni Ya Who?’ by Muthoni the Drummer Queen” Nikitta Dede Adjirakor Research in African Literatures 48(1) pp116–134.

147.

“‘Discord Melted Away’: Metaphors of Emotions in Swahili Literary Texts” Rosanna Tramutoli Research in African Literatures 48(1) pp62–76.

148.

“Leaving Parched Gardens and Discussing Narration with the Reader: Metatextualities in the Contemporary Swahili Novel” Lutz Diegner Research in African Literatures 48(1) pp24–43.

149.

“Sci-Fi and Afrofuturism in the Afrophone Novel: Writing the Future and the Possible in Swahili and in Shona” Alena Rettova Research in African Literatures 48 (1) pp158–182.

150.

The Anatomy of Neo-Colonialism in Kenya: British Imperialism and Kenyatta, 1963-1978 Wunyabari O. Maloba 393pp Palgrave Macmillan (Cham, Switzerland).

151.

Dedan Kimathi on Trial: Colonial Justice and Popular Memory in Kenya’s Mau Mau Rebellion Julie MacArthur, Willy Mutunga, Micere G. Mugo and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 406pp Ohio Univ Press (Athens).

152.

Germans on the Kenyan Coast: Land, Charity, and Romance Nina Berman 268pp Indiana Univ Press (Bloomington).

153.

“Kenyan Women in Androcentric Political Culture: From Julia Auma Ojiambo to Affirmative Action” Marciana Nafula Were (2017) Social Dynamics 43(3) pp487-504.

154.

Land, Freedom and Fiction: History and Ideology in Kenya David Maughan-Brown and Stephen Clingman 284pp Zed Books (London) [1985].

155.

Liberating Minds, Restoring Kenyan History: Anti-imperialist Resistance by Progressive South Asian Kenyans, 1884-1965 Nazmi Durrani 202pp Vita Books (Nairobi).

156.

“The Lifelike Dead: Staging the Nonhuman in Colonial Nairobi” Joshua Williams Theatre Journal 69(3) pp321-337.

157.

“Love and Diamonds at a Risk: Sara Lidman in Postcolonial Kenya” Raoul J. Granqvist Research in African Literatures 48(2) pp185–199.

158.

“Lyric of Protest: Music and Political Communication in Kenya” Nancy Gakahu in Music as a Platform for Political Communication ed Uche Onyebadi pp257-273 Information Service Reference (Harvey, PA).

159.

“Magdalene A. Odundo: Pathways to Path Maker” Elsbeth Court Critical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture 11 pp77-104.

160.

“Marx in Campus: Print Cultures, Nationalism and Student Activism in the Late 1970s Kenya” Duncan Omanga and Kipkosgei Arap Buigutt Journal of Eastern African Studies 11(4) pp571-589.

161.

Matatu: A History of Popular Transportation in Nairobi Kenda Mutongi University of Chicago Press (Chicago).

162.

The Mau Mau Rebellion: The Emergency in Kenya 1952-1956 Nicholas Van der Bijl 250pp Pen and Sword Military (Barnsley, South Yorkshire).

163.

“Nai Ni Who?: Exploring Urban Identity, Place, and Social (Re)construction in Nairobi” Joy Mboya and G. Oluoch-Olunya Critical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture 11 pp58-72.

164.

“Photography as Travel Memoir: Itinerancy, Movement” Neelika Jayawardane Recent Histories: Contemporary African Photography and Video Art ed Onabanjo Oluremi Steidl (Gottingen) pp289-294.

165.

“Positioning and Making Citizenship through Obama K’Ogelo Cultural Festivals in Siaya County, Kenya” Steve Ouma Akoth Journal of African Cultural Studies 29(2) pp194-210.

166.

The Protection of Traditional Cultural Expressions in Africa Enyinna S Nwauche 223pp Springer (Cham, Switzerland).

167.

“Pumzi: The Labyrinth of Futures” Shirin Assa Journal of the African Literature Association 11(1) pp58-69.

168.

“Inventing Women: Female Voice in Kenyan Television Drama” Charles Kebaya Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 3(2-4) pp131-149.

169.

“Romancing the Nation, Effacing History: Reading Kenya through Patriotic Choral Music” Ernest Patrick Monte Social Dynamics 43(3) pp451-469.

170.

The Souls of White Folk: White Settlers in Kenya, 1900s-1920s Brett L Shadle 180pp Manchester Univ Press (Manchester).

171.

An Uncertain Age: The Politics of Manhood in Kenya Paul Ocobock 356pp Ohio UP (Athens).

172.

The White Spaces of Kenyan Settler Writing: A Polemical Bibliography Terrence L Craig 201pp Brill (Leiden) [2016].

173.

Women’s Voices from the Margins: Diaries from Kibera, Kenya Elizabeth Swart 258pp Women’s Press (Toronto).

174.

Poetry and Thinking of the Chagga: Contributions to East African Ethnology Bruno Gutmann, Ilona G Drivdal and Shelby Tucker 219pp Signal Books (Oxford).

175.

Fair, Laura Reel Pleasures: Cinema Audiences and Entrepreneurs in Twentieth-Century Urban Tanzania 427pp Ohio Univ Press (Athens).

176.

Shakespeare in Swahililand: Adventures with the Ever-Living Poet Edward Wilson-Lee 288pp William Collins (London) [2016].

177.

Street Archives and City Life: Popular Intellectuals in Postcolonial Tanzania 286pp Emily Callaci, Duke Univ Press (Durham).

178.

“A Critical Analysis of Life Imprisonment in Malawi” Esther Gumboh Journal of African Law 61(3) pp443-466.

179.

“Dancing for Our Mother: Performance, Maternalism, and Joyce Banda’s Brief Presidency in Malawi” Lisa Gilman Africa Today 64(2) pp28-52.

180.

“Writing the Possible and the Future: Style in Malawian Speculative Fiction” Rodney Lukaku and Joanna Woods Journal of Humanities 25(2) pp1-25.

181.

Abdalla, Abdilatif “‘What Is There in My Speaking’: Re-Explorations of Language in Abdilatif Abdalla’s Anthology of Prison Poetry, Sauti Ya Dhiki” Clarissa Vierke Research in African Literatures 48(1) pp135–157.

182.

Gurnah, Abdulrazak “‘The Spice of Life’: Trade, Storytelling and Movement in Paradise and By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah” Social Dynamics 43(2) pp274-285.

183.

Gurnah, Abdulrazak “Travel, Marginality and Migrant Subjectivities in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s By the Sea and Caryl Phillips’s The Atlantic Sound” James Ocita Social Dynamics 43(2) pp298-311.

184.

Isegawa, Moses “‘Celibacy is certainly not for me!’: Transgressive Sexualities in Male Children in Moses Isegawa’s Abyssinian Chronicles” Asante Lucy Mtenje Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 3(2-4) pp73-90.

185.

Kyomuhendo, Goretti “Reading the Trauma of Internally Displaced Identities in Goretti Kyomuhendo’s Waiting” Nick Mdika Tembo Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 3 (2-4) pp91-106.

186.

Maathai, Wangari “Wangari Maathai – Saviour of Kenya’s Green Belt” Supriya Vani and Kailash Satyarthi Battling Injustice: 16 Nobel Peace Laureates 512pp HarperCollins (Uttar, Pradesh).

187.

Mazrui, Ali Critical Perspectives on Culture and Globalisation: The Intellectual Legacy of Ali Mazrui eds Kimani Njogu and Seifudein Adem 267pp Twaweza Communications (Nairobi).

188.

Mazrui, Sheikh al-Amin Mazrui Guidance (uwongozi) by Sheikh Al-Amin Mazrui: Selections from the First Swahili Islamic Newspaper: A Swahili-English Edition Al-Amin B. A, Kai Kresse, and Hassan Mwakimako 181pp Brill (Boston).

189.

Musila, Grace A. “Another Death in Kenya” Luise White Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 3(2-4) pp206-208.

190.

Musila, Grace A. “Cold Case: The Elusive Story of Julie Ward’s Murder” Lynda Gichanda Spencer Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 3 (2-4) pp200-205.

191.

Musila, Grace A. “Contested Modernities: Reading Musila’s A Death Retold” Dina Ligaga Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 3(2-4) pp209-216.

192.

Musila, Grace A. “Game Reserves, Murder, Afterlives: Grace A. Musila’s A Death Retold in Truth and Rumour” Brendon Nicholls Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 3(2-4) pp184-199.

193.

Musila, Grace A. “Land, Law, Rumour and Research” Ambreena Manji Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 3(2-4) pp73-176.

194.

Musila, Grace A. “This Death Lives: Grace Musila as a Biographer” Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 3(2-4) pp177-183.

195.

Mutahi, Wahome Popular Media in Kenyan History: Fiction and Newspapers as Political Actors George Ogola 180pp Palgrave Macmillan (Cham, Switzerland).

196.

P’Bitek, Okot “Lateral Texts and Circuits of Value: Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino and Wer pa Lawino” Harry Garuba and Benge Okot Social Dynamics 43(3) pp312-327.

197.

Wa Thiong’o, Ngugi Non-native Speaker: Selected and Sundry Essays Charles Cantalupo 239pp Africa World Press (Trenton, NJ).

198.

Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 3(1) special issue: Rethinking Culture in North East Africa eds Abebe Zegeye and Girma A Demeke 21pp.

199.

Patel, Zarina, and Zahid Rajan Citizenship, Identity and Belonging in Kenya: 2016 University of Nairobi & Samosa-Festival Colloquium 192pp Daraja Press (Montreal).

200.

“Kenya Colony and the Kenya Novel: The East African Heritage of ‘A Very Fine Negress’ in A Room of One’s Own” Jeanne Dubino pp162-167 in Jane deGay, Tom Breckin and Anne Reus eds Virginia Woolf and Heritage: Selected Papers from the Twenty-Sixth Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf Clemson Univ Press (Clemson, S.C).

201.

Grace A. Musila’s A Death Retold in Truth and Rumour: Kenya, Britain and the Julie Ward Murder ed Carli Coetzee Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 3(2-4) 46pp.