WEALTH OF IDEAS

Business as usual at the Gulf in Harare. This place confused me at first; my sister took me to this place. We were looking for a mobile phone. I wasn't surprised by the crowds or the merchandise. But being at the gulf can be overwhelming; it was. In Zimbabwe, I took thousands of photos, some selective, others random, a lot clear, a few fuzzy. I was having fun with my point-and-click GE digital camera. I have always liked to carry a camera around, have always been a photographer in the making; and I remember in the 90s when I was a temporary teacher in Glen View, how I supplemented my income with photography, or back home in Mazvihwa, where people would see my camera and say, "Do you take?" and when I said, "Yes, I take", they would say, "Take me with my daughter." And I would take and take, take mothers and daughters, take fathers and sons, sisters and sisters; also, lots of solo shoots.  It was fun, even though I had a cheap 35 mm camera wit...

August 20th, last day in Harare. I had arrived in the city on August 4th, had spent a week, had proceeded to Zvishavane, where I spent another week,  and had returned to Harare to spend the four remaining days of my visit to Zimbabwe. I had paused to ponder why moments like this--of return, of reconnecting--had not been possible sooner, earlier, but I would end up with not much time to reflect, aware that soon I would be returning to the United States, so I had tried to utilize each moment, to pile up certain experiences that would, perhaps, be handy for some purpose later, maybe a short story (because I write those), or a whole book of poetry... And as each day passed so too did pure wonderment, and concrete had taken over, living now with the little aches of being in a physical place in real time. There had been much walking in Mazvihwa, and I had caught a cold, had visited a local clinic, (thinking, this is a rural clinic, I can't believe this, thinking, but I used ...

I am excited about this October 7 event that is going to feature Ngugi wa Thiongo and his son Mukoma wa Ngugi discussing African literature at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. Sunday October 7, 2012 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm A Co-Presentation by Museum of the African Diaspora and Litquake Acclaimed, Nobel-nominated Kenyan author and activist Ngugi wa Thiong’o in conversation on politics, aesthetics, writing, and more, with his son, novelist, poet, and Cornell professor, Mukoma Wa Ngugi . Moderated by author and professor Sarah Ladipo Manyika . Conversation followed by audience Q&A. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is is a novelist, essayist, playwright, journalist, editor, academic and social activist from Kenya. The Kenya of his birth and youth was a British settler colony (1895-1963). As an adolescent, he lived through the Mau Mau War of Independence (1952-1962), the central historical episode in the making of modern Kenya and a major theme in his early works. He wa...

This is a publication the Sacramento Literary Community has been waiting. It is an eclectic anthology of poems by 117 local poets, and at over 200 pages, it's a  big book, quite a treat for the seeking to get a taste of Sacramento Valley's poetry. In October, there will be several launches and readings from the book. Below are details for some of the upcoming events. Rancho Cordova Library : Book Launch and Reading on Thursday, October 18, 6PM. Free event. Copies on Sale: $20.00. All proceeds go to thge Sacramento  Poetry Center. Antiquite Maison Privee : Contributing Poets read from book  on Saturday, October 20, 6:30 PM. This venue is located at 2114 P. Street, in dowtown Sacramento, CA 95816. I am planning to show up as one of the readers. CSUS Library Gallery:   Thursday, November 4, 4PM. Reading. My poem "Teach Me African" is one of the pieces in this anthology.

When I started writing this post, I intended to talk about how bad I felt about having missed the Zimbabwe International Book Fair, but as the piece developed, it morphed into other areas: it got stuck, like I was, in Nairobi, revealed some Kenya Airways passengers' discussion of the Chinese presence in Africa, and it  touched on what I imagined would be the nature of my arrival in Harare, and how long I would stay there before proceeding to Zvishavane. I had also thought I would find time to travel to other places: Chimanimani, for the Arts festival; Chiredzi, to visit a family friend;  Chivi, to visit the place they say I was born; Bulawayo, to see Sizinda, a place in Tshabalala, which is the setting of one of my stories; and  Mozambique, for reasons I am not yet qualified to write about on this blog. But when I arrived, I would discover that I didn't have that much time to be dreaming about visiting these places, and that I should have known this, that whe...

  My short story "Call Centre" has found a home. It is actually the first story in this new collection (October 1)  edited by Rohini Chowdhury and Zukiswa Wanner. Here is a press release:   MEDIA RELEASE : BEHIND THE SHADOWS E-Launch Date: October 1, 2012  Behind the Shadows , the anthology of African and Asian short stories will be launched electronically on Amazon at 12 GMT. The anthology is an idea born out of a meeting facilitated by the British Council at the London Book Fair in 2010 between Indian and South African writers, Rohini Chowdhury and Zukiswa Wanner. In March 2011, Chowdhury and Wanner, with the objective of bringing together the two continents of Africa and Asia, sent out a call for short stories with the theme outcast , to be interpreted by the writers as they pleased. The writers could be from Africa or Asia, or in the Diaspora, but it was necessary that their stories deal with the theme as experienced by Africans and/or Asians. ...

Approaching Harare on [what used to be] Second Street. This was a guided "tour" back to the airport, so I didn't have to worry about getting lost yet. I would be lost on the Monday I used a Kombi for the first time, from Borrowdale West to Copacabana. Some fellow Zimbabweans in Sacramento had warned me that I would be lost in Zimbabwe because I had lived out of the country for too long, but I had told them that I would not be lost; in fact, I had taken offense to the implication that I could be lost in a country I grew up in, and especially in Harare, a city I had known inside out.  And as for Mototi, down or up there in Mazvihwa, there was no way I would be lost in a village I lived in for the first seventeen years of my life. Villages don't change fast. In the city I would just follow the streets, look for familiar landscapes. There was no way I would be lost in Zimbabwe. But even as I got on the plane to Amstedam at San Francisco,...