Kenya @ 50: Trends, Identities and the Politics of Belonging
Michael Odhiambo examines Kenya @ 50: Trends, Identities, and the Politics of Belonging, by Joyce Nyairo.
Kenya at 50 is a collection of petit recit (little stories) from post-Independence Kenya, which interrogate what it means to be Kenyan.
I am a student of the Kenya project, and the heady times that we are in call for some intellectual introspection. Is the Kenya project dead as opined by Prof. B.A. Ogot many moons ago? Are we ripe for divorce as recently posited by David Ndii? Tuko pamoja?
The book is a collection of essays in which the author explores what it means to be a Kenyan. It is a book about remembering who we are, as well as the “deliberate institutionalization of amnesia” to use the authors words. Historical events, music, popular culture, and everyday life, are all explicated towards this end. All in all A – a great book from a substantive scholar.
Michael Odhiambo is a trained lawyer who describes himself as just a guy…