A Kenyan Reading List

Kenya is a fascinating country, sadly under-represented in literature. These are a few eclectic picks that make interesting reading for anyone wanting to know more about this place and its history.

The Flame Trees of Thika, by Elspeth Huxley is a fascinating memoir from a child who arrived in Kenya with her settler parents in 1912, describing their struggles to farm the land near Thika and the impact of the First World War on white settlers in Kenya. The writing is beautiful and the reader is certainly transported to the time and place. And for anyone who knows Kenya now, the comparison in lifestyles and culture between then and now is very interesting. This was written in the 1950s and there are times when it seems a little dated, but it is an enchanting read and I would certainly recommend it.

It's Our Turn to Eat, by Michaela Wrong is a non-fiction account of  a Kenyan whistleblower who started out as the anti-corruption tsar to the government. I found this book dense and heavy-going but very rewarding as an invaluable background guide to tribal effects on politics in Kenya. Really interesting and so useful to an outsider living in Kenya. A fascinating attempt to answer the decades old questions of why corruption is so rife in Africa, and when Africans might start to put wider national interests ahead of narrower tribal ones. Definitely worth ploughing through.

Circling the Sun, by Paula McLain is one of my favourite books in a long time. It is a fictionalised account of the life of Beryl Markham, the famous aviator, in particular her early life in Kenya before she became an aviator. I was utterly transfixed by it. It is a read-in-one-sitting, get completely transported  to another place kind of book. I did not want it to end. For me the magic of this book is in the setting description - the parts of Kenya that I know now are brought to life, but life 70 years earlier! Enchanting.

Leopard at the door, by Jennifer McVeigh is a relatively recently published novel describing the Mau Mau emergency through the eyes of an 18 year old girl returning home to her father's farm after 6 years at school in England to find everything changed almost beyond recognition. It is a coming of age novel that also documents the Mau Mau emergency in detail, attempting to show both sides of the story. I enjoyed it and while I did learn things about this period of Kenyan history I felt the novel was guilty of projecting modern values onto these characters from 60 years ago, with the result that the  characters and their actions were not always believable. Also, I never felt that the Africa being described was the real Africa. Overall though this is an enjoyable novel with a compelling plot and something to teach the reader about a part of history that is little documented in fiction.

Weep not, Child, by Ngugi Wa  Thiong'o is in many ways similar to Leopard at the Door, being a coming of age novel describing life at the time of the Mau Mau emergency. However, this novel is written from the viewpoint of a young Kikuyu boy trying desperately to continue with his education as his family becomes ever more deeply involved with the Mau Mau. Insightful, personal, and a well-written page turner, this really is a must-read.

The Constant Gardener, by John LeCarre is another favourite of mine. John Le Carre is not an author I would usually pick up, but I was hooked by the film and wanted to read the book and I wasn't disappointed. As is so often the case, the book was even better than the film! Tessa, the young wife of a British diplomat in Nairobi, becomes obsessed with uncovering pharmaceutical company wrongdoing pedalling untested drugs in Kenyan slums, and is killed as a result of what she discovers. Her grieving husband picks up the cause on her behalf and travels the globe on the run, trying to expose the issue. I love the depth of relationship between Justin and Tessa and the way their love for each other shines from the page, even though their relationship is unconventional and makes many people uncomfortable. I wouldn't have expected someone known for writing spy thrillers to be a great emotional writer but the way he captures human emotions in this novel (particularly love and grief) is outstanding. Alongside this huge emotional involvement for the reader is also a fast paced thriller and some superbly evocative descriptions of Kenya. 

A Change in Altitude, by Anita Shreve tells of a young newlywed couple who embark on the adventure of spending a year living and working in Kenya. Once there they are befriended by a British couple and undertake an expedition to climb Mt Kenya with them. During the ascent an horrific accident occurs and all 4 lives are changed forever. A compelling study of how we cope with tragedy and how difficult it can be to forgive. 

Promises to Keep: A British Vet in Africa, by Hugh Cran is the light-hearted memoir of a vet living and working in Nakuru for over forty years. It is anecdotal in tone and highly entertaining, whilst also providing some social commentary. Cran has a great knack for describing the sights, sounds and people of Kenya and this book is highly recommended. Very enjoyable.

Do you have any books you would add to this list?

Book Review: Stay With Me, by Ayobami Adebayo

This is the only book I have read (so far) from the shortlist of this year's Baileys Prize for Women's Fiction, and is the debut novel of this young Nigerian author. 

Set against the backdrop of social and political upheaval in 1980s Nigeria (with occasional flashes forwards to the early 21st Century) this novel tells the story of the marriage of Yejide and Akin, two young people who meet and marry at university. Despite being deeply in love their marriage is not blessed with a child and pressure is mounting on Yejide, from her in-laws,to provide them with a grandchild. Wider pressure from society grows too and their marriage comes under increasing strain. 

Although Yejide is the main character the story alternates between chapters from her viewpoint and that of her husband, Akin, and it is Akin's chapters that reveal the most surprises to the reader. His chapters are important for the plot and moving the story forward, whereas Yejide's chapters are important for character development and the emotional involvement of the reader. And this is certainly an emotional book. Yejide is a likeable character and the reader is drawn completely into her world and her head. We share in her love, her hope, her disappointment and her grief, and these powerful emotions are explored over and over again throughout the novel. 

The setting in Nigeria in the 1980s and present day provides interesting insights into Nigerian life, particularly the contrast between contemporary Western lifestyles and values and more traditional Nigerian lifestyles and the way in which these two can mix. There is also some interesting information about the political background of Nigeria but the real joy of this novel is Yejide's story and the emotions it evokes in the reader - a meditation on love, grief and the role / value of women in society. Powerful and emotional it is definitely worth a read. It will stay with you (and, as an added bonus, the hardback edition of the book is really beautiful too - I especially love the yellow pages!).

Book Review: Running The Rift, by Naomi Benaron

Genocide is a difficult subject to write about, but Benaron has done a good job here.

The story starts with Jean Patrick, a young Rwandan boy, deciding that he will become a runner and his goal is to represent his country at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. However, Jean Patrick is a Tutsi (the minority ethnic group in Rwanda), so the way ahead will never be smooth. We follow him through secondary school and university as he gets ever closer to his dream, running Olympic qualifying times with ease and meeting the Rwandan president. At the same time through other characters we hear of the growing unrest in the country and the underlying tensions between Hutus and Tutsis which are continually threatening to bubble to the surface. Jean Patrick, however, is content to bury his head in the sand when it comes to politics and focus on his Olympic goal. He believes that if he can just keep running and represent Rwanda in the Olympics he will have done his bit for national unity and everything will be ok. Then there comes a day in April 1994 when the Rwandan president dies and hell is unleashed within the country. Genocide (the systematic slaughter of Tutsis by their Hutu neighbours) begins and Jean Patrick and everyone he has ever cared about are caught right in the middle of it.

Obviously, with such a stark and harrowing subject matter this is not an easy book to read, but it is a rewarding one. There is a huge amount of background information, about the events in both immediate and colonial and pre-colonial history which eventually led to the genocide in Rwanda, woven into the story and I was very grateful for this insight. I knew about the Genocide and how it unfolded prior to reading this, but not the reasons why it happened. Mercifully for the reader, the section describing the genocide is relatively short but Benaron does not shy away from describing what happened and makes it very clear that people were being killed by people they had previously considered neighbours and even friends. The subject matter is dealt with with humanity and compassion without ever seeking to sanitize what happened. 

The novel ends 4 years after the genocide, with some of the main characters attempting to come to terms with what happened and move forward with their lives. There is a real sense of hope as the novel draws to a close, although the reader is left deeply affected and desperately hoping that lessons have been learnt from this bleak period in recent history.

This is a novel about genocide, yes, but it is also a novel about humanity (finding the humanity in every person), forgiveness, identity and ethnicity, and about love. I think Naomi Benaron has achieved a lot with this novel. She writes beautifully and really manages to transport the reader to the Rwandan hillsides she describes, as well as making the reader feel at home with Rwandan culture and customs. She uses two American characters to continually question the validity of her writing and even her right to write about Rwandan society as an outsider looking in. Susanne, the American woman, often makes naive statements and assumptions about Rwanda that make the Rwandans bristle as in the following exchange:

"Aren't they sweet? They go to primary school near my project slopes, when they're not too busy helping in the fields. I wish I could adopt everyone of them,"

Bea stiffened. "Probably they are happy where they are." Susanne had stumbled into another sin, but she didn't seem to notice.

The interview with the author, in my edition of the book, is particularly interesting and she explains this when asked if it gave her pause to assume the perspective of another culture:

It gave me pause everyday while I was working on the novel and it continues to give me pause today. The situation is particularly complicated because it is not just one person assuming the perspective of another. It is, in fact, a political question, because it involves the appropriation of a colonised culture by someone who stands for the coloniser. As much as I would like to refuse this label, I could not be honest with myself if I did not come to terms with it. This meant that I had to approach Rwandan culture with humility, respect and honesty; I had to be vigilant to avoid stereotypes and false representation.

Also contained within my edition is an essay by the author entitled "Fiction and Social Responsibility: Where do they intersect?" which addresses the idea of whether fiction is even a suitable medium to be discussing such huge issues as genocide, or whether it in fact demeans them. This is a very interesting and insightful read and the message of it rings true with me as a reader. We cannot turn away from these powerful, brutal and often unpalatable issues, but fiction makes more people able to grasp the reality of events such as the Rwandan genocide and therefore be affected by and act upon the injustices they read about. To quote Naomi Benaron one last time:  The literature of social justice changes the world one reader at a time.

This is a powerful, affecting and unsettling book, but you should read it.

5 incredible books about Africa (non-fiction)

I have always been fascinated by Africa. I first visited the continent on honeymoon 14 years ago, have visited a total of 7 African countries to date and have now been living in Kenya for nearly 3 years. 

I was attracted by the wild beauty of many of the countries, the vast swathes of empty space and of course the iconic wildlife. As I grew older and a social and political consciousness began to kick in I became interested in the development of the nations on the continent,  their move from colonialism to independence and their current economic situation. I also began thinking about the history and the future of Europeans in Africa - a difficult, emotive and politically sensitive area. 

The books I have chosen below touch on all these areas and have all moved me and left a lasting impression on me. I am not normally a lover of non-fiction but these books are all very readable - in fact more than that they are highly addictive and totally unputdownable. Please read them. You will want to talk about them (and the issues they raise) with everyone you know once you have finished!

And if you have read any other great non-fiction books about Africa, please comment and recommend them - I am always looking for more to read!

Blood River, by Tim Butcher

It is a few years now since I read this book, but I still think about it. It tells of the author's journey through the Democratic Republic of Congo, a journey that he was warned was madness to attempt as the country was in an on-off state of civil war and one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Alongside this journey the reader also learns the story of the intrepid Victorian explorers who first travelled the length of the Congo River, and of the heartbreaking history of the country. Butcher's journey is contrasted by details of a journey along the river that his mother took in the 1950s. The comparison between the Congo of the 1950s and the Congo of the early 21st century were the most fascinating and eye opening parts of the story for me. The idea of the jungle claiming back all the previous development is a powerful one, and one that has certainly stayed with me.

The story of Butcher's journey is gripping and he does not shy away from acknowledging his fear and vulnerability when reflecting on the dangers he may face. He describes his interactions with the ordinary Congolese with warmth and empathy and the reader is left really feeling for these people who are forced to go about their every day lives under immense hardship.

Of course the reader is forced to think about colonialism and its impact on the state of the nation today and is left wondering what can be done to help these ordinary Congolese people. It is certainly bleak at times but if you like a book to get you thinking and inspire you to find out more then you will really enjoy this book.

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfuless, by Alexandra Fuller

Alexandra Fuller is my absolutely favourite discovery of the last year. I just love her writing - the warmth, humour and love that infuse her prose and make you feel as if you are really there alongside her, seeing and feeling the things she describes. Her family begin to feel like old friends and I was very sad to finish both of these books, knowing I would actually miss the people in them!

These books are both memoirs. The first deals with Alexandra's childhood growing up in war-torn Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and her memories of this period are so sharp and her childhood voice completely authentic, even though she is writing many years after the events. Some truly shocking events are described and I could not believe that all this was such recent history and yet I had no real idea of the war fought as Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, let alone how people on both sides of the conflict were affected. After I finished I was left with the feeling that I simply must find out more about the history of Rhodesia and Zimbabwe. It is perhaps the only book I can think of that I have read more than once in the space of a year. I am just totally in love with the author's writing and her voice. I really feel as if she is an old friend I have known all my life. That explains why upon finishing I had to immediately embark upon the second of these memoirs "Cocktail Hour Under The Tree of Forgetfulness".

This book concentrates much more on the author's mother, and complements the first book brilliantly as many of the same events are described, but this time from the adult perspective of her mother instead of her own childhood voice. Again the beautiful writing is incredibly evocative of time and place and the sights, sounds, people and scenery of central Africa just come alive for the reader. This is a desperately sad book but also full of humour, and most of all, love. Fuller's love for Africa and her parents, and their love for each other are the real stars of this book. It is much more reflective in tone than "Don't let's go to the dogs tonight " and as such I found myself examining my own conscience and attitudes much more, particularly as a white person currently living in Africa.

Very powerful and thought provoking books. Please read them. Then you will want to tell everyone you know about them too!

The Last Resort, by Douglas Rogers

I devoured this book in one sitting - completely hooked from the very first page. This is an account of the author's parents struggle to stay on their farm in Zimbabwe in the first decade of the 21st Century amid Robert Mugabe's land reform policies. It is utterly gripping as there are many times in the book where real danger is faced by the author and his family, particularly as they go on the election campaign trail with the opposition party; exchange money on the black market; try to secure a new passport on the black market when his mother's passport is cancelled by the government, effectively rendering her stateless; and never knowing whether their farm will be the next one to be forcibly seized.

It is a powerful example of ordinary life continuing in extraordinary circumstances. And the circumstances certainly are extraordinary! At times it is hard to believe that these things were (and still are) actually happening and the documentation of the economic decline of Zimbabwe is terrifying. There is much food for thought here, particularly surrounding identity and whether these white farmers who have lived in Africa for generations really have the right to call themselves African. I would urge everyone to read it... and then discuss it. 

The Shadow of the Sun, by Ryszard Kapuscinski

Ryszard Kapuscinki, a Polish foreign correspondent with forty years experience of Africa has written an engaging, atmospheric and insightful book consisting of a series of snapshots from his time on the continent. We travel with him from Ghana at the dawn of independence through places as diverse as Uganda, Tanzania, Liberia, Mali and many others, trying to understand the essence of Africa, whilst also pointing out that trying to think of "Africa" and "Africans" is an unhelpful generalisation. All the time, the emphasis is on the small details, the everyday struggles of life for the average citizen, coping with poverty, corruption and  revolution. His incredible writing make the people and places leap off the page and the reader truly becomes immersed in Africa and all its vibrant, noisy and colourful details. It is obvious that the author feels a real affection for the continent. The reportage is good but his analysis is what sets this book apart and really got me thinking and questioning my assumptions as a reader. Never, have I underlined so many passages and made so many notes in a book!

Here are a couple of quotes that really sum up the book for me. First describing how the world often views this continent:

Today, as in the past, Africa is regarded as an object, as the stomping ground of colonisers, merchants, missionaries, ethnographers, large charitable organisations...

And secondly the author's observations about the little things:

The world of the average African is different indeed. It is a lean world, of the very simplest, most elementary sort, reduced to several objects: a single shirt, a single bowl, a handful of grain, a sip of water.

There is so much food for thought in this book and so much to gain from reading it - not least you will be completely transported to the Africa Kapuscinki describes. Read it and savour it.

I wanted to end with this quote from another book by Alexandra Fuller: "Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier", which sums up for me how my vision of Africa will always be different to the majority of Africans and reminds me that although I live here, my views and opinions will always be those of a privileged outsider.

It was a land of almost breathtaking beauty or of savage poverty; a land of screaming ghosts or of sun-flung possibilities; a land of inviting warmth or of desperate drought. How you see a country depends on whether you are driving through it or living in it. How you see a country depends on whether or not you can leave it, if you have to.

Book Review: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

This novel is epic in scale - spanning seven generations of one family. Beginning in the 18th century, in the African Gold Coast (now Ghana) two sisters suffer very different fates - one is sold into slavery and the other becomes the wife of a slave trader.  What follows shows the consequences for subsequent generations and how the slave trade of the 18th and 19th centuries is still affecting people today. Though each chapter covers just a small snapshot in the life of each character, you still feel you get to know those characters. Sometimes the things that happen to them to shape both their lives and the lives of future generations are truly shocking and the book becomes more harrowing and thought provoking as it moves on through the generations and the reader begins to realise the impact of the slave trade on those subsequent generations. There is much for the reader to learn from this book, both in terms of history (the book as a whole tells us about the history of Ghana and it's struggle for independence; and slavery, emancipation and the civil rights movement in the USA) and the more subtle themes of race and identity and the way our history affects us all.

A very powerful and thought provoking read that I would highly recommend.