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Hurling Words at
Consciousness
Africa Worlds Press, 2006 |
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“By turns soothingly tender or implacably harsh, Hurling Words at
Consciousness is an unflinching meditation on our globalized
inequities. It is thoughtful and richly rewarding.” --Tejumola
Olaniyan, University of Wisconsin-Madison
“Mukoma wa Ngugi is a poet of
extraordinary expressive gifts. This impressive volume casts a critical
yet forgiving eye on closely-observed episodes from life in the United
States, with knowing glances towards poets as diverse as Le'opold
Se'dar Senghor and Matthew Arnold. The social concerns of an African
poet in sympathy with political struggles throughout the Third World
here jostle up against and defamiliarize the details of North American
everyday life, which then suddenly take on new significance.”
--Nicholas Brown, University of Illinois at Chicago |
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Conversing with Africa: Politics of
Change
Kimaathi Publishing, 2003 |
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The narrative of this book is an effort to engage the past from the
present, to stand witness to present times, and to communicate the
need to restore a radical dialogue in Africa. The author speaks to a
new generation of activists who are trying to answer Fanon's call of
'Each generation must out of relative obscurity find its mission -
fulfil it or betray it'. (from back cover) |
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The very title of Kenyan author Mukoma wa Ngugi's book makes the
case
for dialogue. Conversing with Africa is a wide-ranging investigation of
Africa's dilemmas and his analysis is bleak; 'abject poverty,
despotism, coups, ethnic cleansings--all under the rubric of
neo-colonialism, all structured under the debilitating conditions of
the World Bank and the IMF--continue to ravage the continent.' Ngugi's
aim is polemical and he has approached his task in the spirit of Walter
Rodney's groundbreaking How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. His aim is to
convince the reader of the imperative need for action; for Africans to
become their own agents of change. Conversing with Africa is a plea for
unity; Ngugi is proposing nothing less than a Pan-African solution to
the ills of the continent and although his argument is stronger on
passion than pragmatism, he could justifiably point to what pragmatism
has produced.
If Africa is to emerge from the colonial yoke and cast off the
neo-liberal shackles then it urgently needs to engage with honest
voices such as Mukoma wa Ngugi calling for radical reform. The price
for failing to do so is high.
- New Internationalist | | | |
“While treatinag the
reader to an expnsive range of themes - death, war, life, love,
nature, human relationships/encounters, personal reflections, art,
politics, history, social justice, revolution and others – Mukoma wa
Ngugi also succeeds in making a deeply profound, artistic statement. He
decorates his intensely reflective utterance with a lacework of images,
metaphors and other forms of figurative expression that reveal a keen
artist at his craft. With this first volume of poetry, Mukoma wa Ngugi
has clearly entered the world of published poets in style!” --Micere
Mugo Githae, Syracuse University “
Like his late mentors, Frantz Fanon
and Walter Rodney, Mukoma is a catalyst, a circuit board, a generator.
Through his writings and activism, he expresses the idea within which
many will think change, the dream within which many will envision
change, and the hope within which many will imagine change.” --Meredith
Terreta, |
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See also the following anthologies:
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