QWANI'S 1ST ISSUE ANTHOLOGY

 

I don’t know why the word “mashakura” comes with a -ve connotation. Who said Mashakuru cannot be in itself tantalizing?  Just imagine, if for a moment we do not judge a fish by its capability to climb a tree but to swim. Now that’s what I am talking about. Now, have you ever heard of Qwani? If you have then you are a G, if you haven’t, no worries, that’s why you know me then. So basically Qwani trust is a collective of diverse writers, but this thread is not about them, rather it is about their 1^st issue anthology. I finally found myself in good feet to finish reading it after postponing for a couple of months now. In summary, I would term it as one of the most delicious Mashakura you will ever have. You will get to know why, by the end of this read.

The anthology is fattened by close to 64 pieces of works. Ranging from poetry, essays, short stories, flash fiction, plays, music, painting and film reviews. I cannot manage to talk about each and every piece, so I will be biased in selecting a few from those that I found intriguing and or fun. Honestly, there are some works that were quite unpalatable. The anthology opens up with a flash fiction from Ann Isika Museo titled These Violent Delights .It is a feminine read touching on the subject of consent in romantic relationships. As a reader I get to empathize with the main character as she fails to be understood not only by the patriarchs but also fellow women. Meaning(less) is a philosophical essay that I had a liking to. It is penned by Dave Nguyai, he touches on the question of existentialism. From reading this I am inspired to conclude that we never get to the point where we know the absolute purpose of our being. That it is a journey we get to travel in tandem with our intake of oxygen. This marries with another article in the same anthology by Naomi Nyakinyua titled Eye-dentity.

There is a short story by Yvonne Mwangi titled The Last Days of My Grandmother. This is definitely one of my favourites in the anthology. Just as the titled suggests, it is about that. But it is more of the storytelling technique, the vivid description and how she manages to appeal to the emotions of the reader. It is quite an introspective piece, touching on love, spirituality and grief. Ann Museo appears again with an article titled Confronting the Inevitable. She talks of us humans being an extension of the highest deity and about fate. I like this piece majorly for the reason that it ends with one of my believes, that we do have an active role to play in our fate and we are not just pawns being moved here and there.

On pg 67 you get to read a short story titled Diaries of A Strong Boy. It sis penned by one Lewis- Miller Kaphira, let me tell you Maina, this guy is a superb writer. It is like he was born to pen. This piece of his is another of my favourites. It has to be in the big three. The main character is a youth in this consuming city called Nairobi. He touches on struggles of trying to make a leaving out of hustling,  as a bodaboda, construction site worker and also as the writer puts it nyongolo jobs, at the same time, attempting to be in love, in Nairobi. Kingsley Taabu serves another short story titled Aluta Continua, This is also a fave. The penmanship here is top notch. I think the writer’s biggest asset is the use of vivid description.

On pg 86, Keith Angana does a review of Nyashinski’s album Lucky You, and to be honest, as a certified Nyashinski fan (especially when it comes to hiphop), I don’t think he did justice to it. Frankline Were comes in with a poem titled maPENzi, and don’t I love it! it is the playfulness in it, with the words and the connotated meaning, I also like how it ends, “/could you lend me your pen? / Mine just ran out of ink/” . Amanda Nechesa comes at pg 145 with a flash fiction titled The Cat and The Man, this has to be a fave too. It tackles  serious subject; freedom yet she does it in quite a humorous write up that I kept giggling , smiling and ended up in a pensive mood. The 59^th piece is titled Madonna’s Daughter by Anisa, such a well penned short story. I loved it. it talks about beauty, femininity, insecurities and grief. Amanda comes again with a flash fiction tittled My Ribs. A well penned story, I laugh at some point while reading and also takes a moment to think through. It talks about finding love and also self-sabotage in receiving love. The anthology ends with a short story from Keith Ang’ana titled Siku Nililala Ndani, it is written in sheng. I loved every bit of this story. This also has to be in the big 3. The storyline is of a young man who sees police officers making an arrest, he decides to take a video so he can tweet about it, unfortunately one of the officers’ spots him and that’s how he gets arrested, the reason for arrest keeps morphing as time passes but none comes close to him recording a video. He ends up sleeping in the cell for a day.

And that’s the anthology for you. Fun fact, I was sitting somewhere in a shop along moi avenue waiting for my gadget to be repaired when I decided to continuate my readership of this book as I while time away. Then I noticed through the peripheral of my eye, someone standing next to me reading through the book alongside me. I just remained calm till he broke the silence and went on to ask about the book and how he can get a copy cause he liked some of the work in it.