Poems of war as East meets West

By Kiundu Waweru

Whether by design or fate, two poets who live thousands of miles apart met at a tent in Railways Club Grounds and both recited war poems last weekend.

While Sitawa Namwalie’s poetry is inspired by the post-election violence, Yusef Komunyakaa, from Bogalusa, Louisiana, writes from his firsthand experience of the Vietnam War.

The two were among poets who shared a forum last Saturday at the Storymoja Hay Festival with British Council .

Pulitzer prize winner, Yusef, was one of the international poets and authors gracing the now annual event.

"A poem is defined by confrontation and celebration," said the former US Army officer, renowned for works like Neon Vernacular.

Yusef, who also likes to "surprise himself" by working on three collections side by side feels, that the listener is a co-creator of the meaning (of poetry).

Sitawa on the other hand says she writes to make meaning of the madness around her.

On December 30, 2003, remembers Sitawa, a poll was released that showed Kenyans were the most optimistic people in the world.

Five years later, the optimistic nation was engulfed in one of the most violent events in its history. Sitawa penned a poem that wonders what went wrong.

The four-day festival comprised discussion panels and interactive sessions.

On Sunday, at the British Council tent, Ben Okri, a Booker Prize winner for his novel, The Famished Road, was the man of the moment.

He read from his poetry and also recited extracts from his magical realism book on which he was taken to task over what inspired such work loved by many, but also considered abstract by several others.

Four-day festival

"Your novel is complex, yet Africa has been accused of churning simple literary works," charged Keguro Macharia, the moderator of the session.

Never one to shy away from a challenge, Okri answered: "People who say it’s simple (Africa) don’t know Africa." Okri is a Nigerian who spent his early years in London.

He described his artistic vision as having great sophistication and expressing it with great simplicity. "I am in perpetual toil to do just that."

The four-day Festival, a collaboration between Storymoja Publishers and Hay Festival that originated in Hay-on-Wye in the UK and replicated in many countries, is geared towards creating a forum for celebrating poetry and other literary works.

The festival is in its third season and saw writers, travellers, storytellers, artists and innovators from around the world share stories and ideas.

There were also workshops on creative writing, poetry and storytelling.

Other renowned guests included Beth Lissick and Arline Klattel, San Francisco’s Porchlight Storytellers, comedian James Campbell and Jane Bussman, who wrote a book on children soldiers in Northern Uganda, The Worst date Ever.

The UK’s Telegraph documented each day’s events in a special publication, The Hayly Telegraph.

That Kenyans don’t like reading, now a clichÈ, was disapproved by the festival.

On Saturday night, a group of young Kenyans assembled in one of the tents to discuss the books they have read.

Moderated by Kimani wa Wanjiru and Raphael Kaume, it emerged that many Kenyans read widely. Ben Carson’s Gifted Hands, Dayo Fosters’ Reading the Ceiling and The Arusha Declaration by Julius Nyerere and Niccolo Machiavelli political treatise, The Prince, emerged as some of the popular titles among Kenya’s "reading class." Muthoni Garland, the Storymoja managing director, thinks it’s too soon to tell whether the festival has had any impact in Kenya.

She says Hay Festival in the UK took about 15 years to break through.

To Muthoni, the highlight of the festival was the presence of school children. A high school student won the "your expression" competition.

And Ben Okri sums up the festival: "The Storymoja Hay Festival is extraordinary. Put it into the power of six. (Tell six people about it)."