As we evolve and define, reassess, re-evaluate and re-define our identity as a nation, the thing called Kenya (46 years old this December and therefore relatively young), it is crucial that we grapple with our contradictions and influences, both ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ that may be internal and/or external both on a micro and macro level, on an individual and collective basis. That we stand up to speak for ourselves and share our stories, first, with each other and the world at large. It is up to us Africans to address Africa’s image in the global psyche. But to do so, first, we need to know who we are.

Screen shot of Nairobi at dusk from 24 Nairobi by Allan Gichigi (please dont sue me)

This is why I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the wonderful ongoing initiatives that combine LOCAL writers and LOCAL photographers, like Kwani Trust, Story Moja, Generation Kenya, Wajibu, heck even True Love, and more recently 24 Nairobi (hat tips Kenyan Pundit via JKE via Ntwiga). The latter is a pilot project of Kwani Trust for greater scope: 24 Kenya. This is also being addressed on a wider Pan-African scale, e.g. Chimurenga Magazine’s African Cities Reader.

The fantastic thing about the marriage of words and images taken from multiple sources and therefore presenting multilateral points of view is that they do not lie. They can not. They present the real, unadulterated thing by juxtaposing diametric opposites, as well as those sometimes intangible or undefinable  bits in between, or bits that we take for granted about who we are and what we represent – the good with the bad, the pretty with the ugly, the pristine with the grotty, the mediocre and mundane with the drama. They explore us in our totality, they validate us, they remind us who we are, they remind us we are not alone. More importantly, they prompt us to question who we are and what we’re about. Granted, the online documentations, books and magazines are not accessible across the board and beyond literary circles. But it is a start, a thread in the web, and it does not preclude their proliferation through word of mouth. Because in places like Nairobi, word gets around. Fast. Nairobians, people in other metropolises dotted around Kenya and smaller localities alike get around too, carrying their internalised stories. So if people read the stories and it triggers a conversation in Maralal, Mwingi or Moyale, then that’s just brilliant.

Screen shot of Nairobi at dusk from 24 Nairobi by Allan Gichigi (please dont sue me)

Special treatment because Nairobi is a place dear to my heart:

24 Nairobi brings together local, regional and international creative professionals to interact and work to evolve powerful, realistic images and narratives that would reflect the life, diversity, cultures, energy and dimensions of a city in Africa. The team will develop, create, produce, showcase, publish, distribute and archive a body of artistic work that portrays the immense dynamism and depths of facets of Nairobi’s life.
24 Nairobi will display the work of contemporary image and story creators, who will portray, interrogate and communicate the immense dimensions and varieties of life, expression, meaning and being in Nairobi in gritty, realistic imaginative and stimulating ways. The project uses the work time formula to reveal Nairobi and its distinct urban character. It is the first stage of an image and narrative project that shall engage artists and others to explore, subvert, challenge and transcend prevailing image and narrative stereotypes.

In relation, the time is here that we go to mainstream bookshops (read: Text Book Centre and Books First) and have the shelves of the Africa section packed with fiction and non-fiction books by Kenyan (and other African) authors as opposed to the obligatory coffee table photography books of Tribes and Wildlife in Forests and Savannah that only fuel the uni-dimensional, stereotypical image of Kenya Safari and Diani Beach. I’m not convinced by the counter-argument that it is simply an issue of supply and demand when the option of catering for a wider clientele is not glaringly evident. Of course Kenya is strikingly beautiful and diverse and has all those wonderful things (Biased? Who me?) and yes, our GDP partly relies on the revenue brought in through the foreign tourist industry. But do the prospective readers whose fingers gently stroke the spines of these books wonder who are these people called Kenyans? What do they think, what are they passionate about, what is important to them and why?  Ya basta, enough already with the ‘I-came-to-Africa-on-holiday-and-married-a-Maasai Warrior’ and ‘Why-Africa-is-so-corrupt’ and ‘Tribal Feuds Explained’ Euro-American authored books. Now is the time for the Ngugi wa Thiong’os, Grace Ogots, David Maillus, Francis Imbugas of our generation to rise up and be visible. But more importantly with these non-elitist initiatives (because frankly writing / writers can be elitist), it is time for whosoever from whatever walk of life who has a story to tell to be visible and to be listened to. Then they stand a chance of being heard.

Exciting times.