Top10Tuesday- Nairobi’s Top 10 Male Writers

Unless you have been living under a rock, a reading revolution is taking place. These days, its not enough to say you’ve read you some Ngugi wa Thiong’o or Chinua Achebe, you must confess an intimate acquaintance with the works (works, not books) of Noviolet Bulawayo, Chika Unigwe or Antje Krogg to namedrop but a few. But even as we talk about what’s happening within the continent, we take the opportunity this Tuesday to list down our top 10 favourite male writers in Kenya’s contemporary writing scene.

1. Binyavanga Wainaina- How many ways to love Binyavanga? We can try. For starters, he founded Kwani, which gave birth to a whole new crop of Kenyan writers and still continues to enrich the scene. His Facebook rants are referred to by news-makers around the world as credible sources of information and points of activism (most recently leading to the Kenyan Ministry of Culture’s taking steps to get back the hijacked Kenyan pavilion at the Venice Biennale in Italy). Binya’s work is studied in university course lists around the world and his ‘coming out’ video lambasting the hypocritical middle class was pure rapture. Even while he has written and published numerous essays and a memoir, we especially love his travel pieces (look for the many that dot the internet), they make paper come to life.

 

2. Oyunga Pala- Oyunga had us all dashing for the Saturday Nation in the late 90s, when he made his debut on the scene. He had women carrying rocks in their handbags on the off-chance that they would see him and fling them at him as payback for the havoc he wreaked on their egos every Saturday morning. We credit Oyunga Pala with beginning the movement to dethrone women off the illusionary pedestal they stood on, imagining that the sun rose and fell on their feet. Oyunga has been writing for Crazy Monday in recent years and we still read him, but we must make a demand: Bring back the vitriol! And put it into a book!

3. Philip Mwaniki- Philip Mwaniki is not just tall, dark and handsome, his writing voice is also strong and distinct. A distant cousin of the Oyunga Pala style of ‘putting people in their place’, his writing has been attempting to panel beat the arts and entertainment industry into shape. We love the ‘tough love’ dose he dispenses in his pages and would be first in line at the bookstore if he ever penned his memoirs of his encounters in the media, entertainment and arts industry, a sector he has straddled since the early 2000s when the local entertainment world was barely anything.

4. Tony Mochama- Tony is our favorite local trouble maker and no matter what scrapes he gets into, still has our love. He could probably be credited with injecting gonzo into Kenyan journalism and making a generation that had no interest in reading, sit up and take notice. From drunken weekend jaunts to getting banned from Russia, not to forget his love affair with Vodoski, his writing ushered soul into the straitjacketed media space in a way it had not been seen before. Tony is also quite the prolific one, having published numerous poetry books, essays and fiction.

5. Ian Arunga- Tall, gangly and often seen wearing the cutest bow-ties ever, Ian Arunga as many know, is the guy behind My Dear Doris. We’d heard the hype and as a result were quite sceptical (the masses as you know, are never right), but when we visited his page, were so blown away we had to sit down. Ian brilliantly captures the voice of a zany man besotted by an imaginary ‘Doris’ who he writes letters to narrating the events of his day. Ian manages to capture Nairobi in all its varied flavours, colours and sounds.

6. James Wamathai and Magunga Williams- Another of the younger generation of writers, we love these two because of their writing, yes, but also very significantly for the platform they offer to other writers on their various sites www.wamathai.com and www.magunga.com. Featuring poetry, short stories and other genres, they are midwives for the city’s new voice.

8. Billy Kahora- We are not fooled by Billy Kahora’s gruff mien, we know that in truth, he is a teddy bear inside. Look at that cute face with its soft cheeks, wide innocent eyes and half open lips. But this is not why we like him. Obviously, Nairobi Half Life is the Greatest Movie that has ever come off these shores, and it was Billy Kahora alongside Charles Matathia, Samuel Munene and Serah Mwihaki, that were the scribes behind it. Read Billy’s short stories, some of which have been nominated for the Caine Prize and you will see a deft mind. But it is when you sit in a literary space with him and hear him expounding on the role of writing and literature in the unfolding of Kenya’s psyche that your jaw drops. It’s a saint, it’s a prophet, no, its Billy Kahora.

9. Alexander Ikawah- One of our favorite socially conscious writers, we like where Alex’s imagination goes, exploring science fiction and otherworldly realms. Part of the coterie of Jalada writers, Alex recently made the news with being shortlisted for the second time for the Commonwealth Short Story prize this year. Having being nominated before in 2013, he reminds us that the Kenyan story is of significance even outside its borders.

 

10. Biko Zulu- We will be stoned if we do not include Biko Zulu here. Not only does he command a cultic following around the city, his readers wait with bated breath for his next post. Biko’s writing is also very real and grounded, the kind that causes you to stop for thought, to introspect.