Meja Mwangi: Reclusive novelist who took readers across the world

If there is one thing that amazes keen readers about Meja Mwangi writing, it was his ability to immerse his imagination into vastly different settings. The immensely influential writer, who died on December 11, could vividly capture the lives and struggles of urban working-class poor folk as he does in Going Down River Road.

He could equally transport readers to the perilous world of poachers and those who combat them, as seen in Weapon of Hunger (1989). His skill was not only in painting images. He could effortlessly transform historical figures into symbolic icons, as he does with the South African legend Shaka Zulu in The Return of Shaka.

For me, Meja exemplified how writers can serve as society’s most sensitive needles, almost like prophets. This prophetic streak shines through in his subtle warnings about the type of societies post-colonial Africa was shaping.

In Carcase for Hounds, beneath the veneer of the struggle for freedom, Meja signals that the problems of Africa did not end with independence, as oppression merely changed hands.

Similarly, Striving for the Wind cautions against the widening gap between rich and poor, perhaps more graphically than even the recent Oxfam report that revealed that Kenya’s richest 125 individuals own more wealth than 42.6 million Kenyans combined. As far back as 1990, when Striving for the Wind was published, he had warned us about the very world Oxfam described.

In the novel, he exposes the futility of the primitive accumulation of wealth amidst rampant poverty. Baba Pesa, a wealthy man who loses sleep coveting even the little his poor neighbours own, helplessly watches as his son, Juda, succumbs to alcoholism, finding solace only in his dog, humorously named Confucius. Meja’s satire of greed is as biting as it is insightful.

Born in Nanyuki in 1948, Meja grew up near vast ranches and wildlife reserves, a setting that clearly influenced his writing. In Weapon of Hunger, he portrays communities living on the fringes of forests and reserves, caught between poachers, corrupt officials and the daily struggle to survive. Poaching in his works becomes more than illegal hunting. It is a metaphor for moral decay, exploitation and the hunger generated by systemic inequality. This theme continues in The Bush Trackers, which also explores the treacherous co-existence between humans and wildlife, alongside corruption and greed.

Kiarie Kamau, CEO of East African Educational Publishers (EAEP) and current chairman of the Kenya Publishers Association, recalls first encountering Mwangi when he was in Form One.

“We had an unofficial book club where we eagerly read novellas and novels, then randomly gathered during break time to analyse them. The club’s momentum changed dramatically when we read Kill Me Quick, which became the first book to win the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature. The book was so gripping that our discussions spilled from break time into the classroom, earning us the label of ‘noise-makers’.

“Our animated retelling of the story drew in many classmates, swelling the club’s ranks. Inspired by one of the characters, Meja, we even nicknamed one of our friends ‘Meja.’ The name stuck so firmly that later in life, even our parents referred to him that way, fully aware it was a nickname.”

Kiarie later met Mwangi when he was editorial manager at EAEP.

“I met Meja Mwangi in person in 2006 during the launch of his novella The Boy Gift. My chairman had warned me that Meja was publicity-shy and avoided the media and photo opportunities. However, we capitalised on his excitement at seeing his newly published work and managed to take several photographs. These remain the only photos we have of him in the company, as it later became nearly impossible to persuade him to pose for photos or speak to the media. Even when I occasionally ran into him at a members’ club in Nairobi, he would politely decline a selfie. Meja was a reclusive author, and we respected his chosen lifestyle.”

Despite being media-shy, three of the books he published with EAEP won literary prizes: Kill Me Quick, The Last Plague, and The Boy Gift.

“He vividly captured urban life in all its hope and harshness, its beauty and its sleaze,” says Kiarie. He adds that Mwangi was equally at home in children’s literature. “He published Mountain of Bones, a children’s reader, with EAEP.”

It was the same media-shy figure that this writer encountered in late 2005. One morning, EAEP chairman Henry Chakava popped his head around the office door and told me that Meja Mwangi was in town. He shared Mwangi’s number and the following day I had an appointment to see  the man who rarely handled his works personally, but only through his literary agent, Anne-Marie Friendli in Switzerland.

At Lenana Mount Hotel in Kilimani, I announced that I was here to see Mwangi. Soon he arrived at the counter wearing his signature soft, round navy-blue beret and a beige overcoat. He answered questions patiently, true to his reputation as a self-effacing writer. We discussed his works, including his film projects. Mwangi shared two scripts, which I later initiated for publishing. This involved tabling the proposal in an editorial board meeting, where a group of senior editors, marketing managers, financial controllers, and others had the power to approve or reject any idea on the spot.

The next year, EAEP published The Boy Gift, a humorous story of Muti, a man who, after a long season of waiting, is gifted a son, as predicted by a witchdoctor, but who turns out to be white, leading to comical complications. They also published The Big Chiefs, which explores the genocide that rocked Rwanda in the 1990s. A master’s thesis by Jacob Odeny titled ‘Generational Tension and Democratic Transformation in Meja Mwangi’s The Big Chiefs’ highlights a prophetic “Gen-Z” twist to the themes explored in the work.

Perhaps Mwangi’s most prophetic book, at least for me, is The Last Plague. Though it tackles HIV/AIDS, it eerily prefigures the panic that gripped Kenya and the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. He captures the fear, superstitions and even religious fanaticism that the mysterious disease provoked.

Media-shy thought he was, his children’s stories, young adult novellas, and full-length novels will outlive his life on earth.