Why ask our writers to carry the yoke for historians?

Last week, on these pages, writer Abenea Ndago went on a long lament. He blamed local authors for not capturing history in literature such as the exile of the Nandi Orokoiyot’s Talai clan, the Abagusii’s suffering in the first decade of the 20th century under the Abasongo (white bastards), and demanded why no Taita has written a gripping work of art about Mekatilili wa Menza.

Other than being a terribly prescriptive discourse, I wondered why Mr Ndago did not place this question squarely on the table of the numerous historians who hang around academic corridors like mounted heads from big game trophy hunting. Other than Prof Bethuel Ogot and the late Ali Mazrui, we Kenyan writers have little detailed historical material to work, even on the web, for those much needed historical novels. This argument is at best a case of putting the cart before the horse, and at worst a case of asking the Kenya Rugby Sevens team (writers) to be subs and score tries in a game featuring misfiring Harambee Stars (Historians).