Seven years on, ‘Literary Gangster’ shoots down critics

By Chris Mwiti | 9yrs ago | 3 min read

Standard group Tony mochama speaks to children at the story moja festival.PHOTO BY GEORGE NJUNGE

On the last Saturday of November, 2007, a controversial poetry anthology What If I am a Literary Gangster? Was launched at the Goethe Institute.

Its writer, Tony Mochama, has since gone on to publish other books, prose titles as Princess Adhis (2011), ‘The Road to Eldoret’ ( 2009), Meet the Omtitas ( 2013) and his latest, a book of nocturnal essays Nairobi – A Night Runner’s Guide.

But it is this debut poetry book that attracted huge negative as well as positive criticism, even prompting Joseph Ngunjiri, a renowned critic, to call Mochama the ‘Taban lo Liyong of his generation.’

Mochama’s poetry divided critics down the middle, with the ‘New School’ maintaining that it should be encouraged, and the ‘Old School’ critics like Egara Kabaji and Chris Wanjala (who has since come round) trashing the work.

Kabaji described it as ‘rebellious scribblings and musings’ and ‘not the conventional neatly trimmed lines rich in meaning and social concern, in the vein of Okot p’Bitek’s or Jared Angira.’

Although this may be true, Kabaji ought to have realised that literary reputations and what is valued as great literature changes over time and in the eyes of the reader.

The current so-called ‘bling bling’ and Generation XX for ‘XaXa’ may not even appreciate the p’Bitek or Angira works that Kabaji praised to the high heavens then.

Ironically, the disparaged Clementina in p’Bitek’s ‘Song of Lawino’ may well be viewed as a heroine and role-model by this new generation, for daring to wear her lipstick boldly and walk around in the village in her mini-skirt.

In the literary blogospheres like maisha.yetu, critics that November and early December of 2007 (before the PEV took minds off poetry wars) tore into each other over Mochama’s poetry.

The late Otieno Otieno called it ‘exhibitionist verse’ while Munene wa Mumbi wrote, ‘it is not so often that literary clowns like Mochama enjoy such unflattering reviews.’

Yet a new generation of critics and poetry lovers have come to view Tony Mochama’s works positively, and the poetry anthology has even wound its way into a few local university masters’ programs for study.

Apart from fellow performance poets, critics like Otieno Amisi, Dr Tom Odhiambo, Jennifer Muchiri, Joseph Ngunjiri and John Mwazemba have hailed Tony’s experimentation with language, with his type of approach being hailed as a new dawn on Kenya’s poetry scene.

According to Ngunjiri, @ www.jngunjiri.wordpress.com, Mochama’s poetry is refreshingly real and could only come from someone who has been through a lot.

In an article appearing in The Sunday Standard of September 7, 2008, titled “The Kwani? Generartion’s Dilution of Literature,’ Munene wa Mumbi accuses Mochama and his ilk of being journalistic in their literary attempts.

According to wa Mumbi, Mochama and other ‘Kwanists’ have deliberately taken journalistic methods to appeal to their audience, hence substituting literariness and subtlety with sensationalism and “unrefined rebellion while purporting to think outside the box,” (a fire Kabaji recently attempted to re-light when he referred to Mochama as the ‘cult leader of the literary crude bolejas’).

Wa Mumbi took issue with Tony’s Pattni poem ‘I had a dream of Mountains Of Gold’ that appeared in Kwani’s third issue, calling it a ‘Letter to the Editor’ and went on to castigate this generation of writers for trivializing serious issues while trying to make great works from ‘matatu inspired poetry.’

In making these assertions, wa Mumbi ignores the fact that good poetry can be created or composed on anything, including what he refers to as the trivial.

For example, a matatu-inspired poem by the likes of Mochama may bring in street touts as stripping squads or ‘the mini-skirt police,’ thus commenting on a serious social issue.

It is this dexterity, creativity and ingenuity involved in transforming the ordinary to delight (and often deeply shock) his ‘spoken word’ audiences that the ‘Literary Gangsta’ has been employing these past seven years.