Nairobi Fair Did Well to Celebrate Poetry [Kenya]:
The recently-concluded Nairobi International Book Fair recognised the centrality of poetry in our lives and put this art at the centre of its programmes this year. Key poets such as Marjorie O. Macgoye, Stephen Partington, and Jack Mapanje participated, while Jared Angira and David Rudadiri each launched a new book of poetry in the one-week event. The books are published by the East African Educational Publishers. [...]
Our earlier poetry valorised traditional culture against westernisation. The writers wanted to sing into existence a new nation independent from Western cultural and political colonialism. [...]
From the late 1960s, our poets started singing of the disillusionment that became our lot after independence. They abandoned the earlier empty nationalism and became critical of the new political leadership which was little different from colonial rule despite declaration of flag freedom. [...]
All this happened while the poets weaved universal themes such as love, guilt, nature, communication into poems about alienation, urbanisation and politics. The trend continues, but it is marked by a higher celebration of hybridity and simplicity of delivery. [...]
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on Tuesday, October 12, 2004 at 1:11 PM.
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