New anthology gives tales of femicide and other slices of life

Kenyan women match along the streets of Nairobi to protest against rising femicide cases in Kenya. (Collins oduor, Standard) A girl goes to a party, without her mother's permission, where she meets a boy and there is a 'connection'. One thing leads to the other and the boy asks the girl to join him in his car. A day later, the mother is worried sick about the whereabouts of her daughter. Her phone is switched off and none of her friends knows where she is. Presently, the girl comes back home and assures her mother that she is okay and that she was only at a party. This sounds reassuring, right? Wrong. It turns out that the mother cannot even see her daughter. Spooky? We cut into another scene where the girl is conversing with her father, but wait a minute, "Didn't you die and didn't we bury you last year?" the girl asks her father. Now, this is getting quite confusing. As if to add to the confusion, the father tells the daughter that she is also dead. The boy she met at the party..."he did terrible things to you before dumping your body in a river later last night," the father replies. Welcome to the creative and imaginative world of comic artists. The piece under review is titled Reflex, by Bella Kilonzo. The artist, or rather, the father, explains to his daughter that the reason her mother can't feel her presence is due to the fact that she is in state called reflex. Away from the artist's interesting style, the piece raises a very pertinent issue currently happening in our society; that of femicide. Since the beginning of this year, there have been numerous cases of unexplained deaths of young women in the hands of men, the latest being the taxi driver at the coast, who was allegedly murdered by a supposed client. The girl in Kilonzo's story is yet another sad statistic. Now, Kilonzo is not new to the cartooning world. When Young Nation, in the Sunday Nation, was introduced, he had a popular cartoon strip called Belzo, that featured a young man with a gigantic box hair style. Reflex is featured in a new comic book titled Kenyan Comics Anthology 2024, featuring also a number of cartoonists and comic artists. Funded under the French government's Creation Africa Project, it features a fine blend of the old and the new, across genders. In fact, some of the artists featured in this anthology were either not born, or were mere toddlers when Kilonzo's Belzo strip ran in the Young Nation, in the mid-90s. This is not forgetting industry veterans like Maddo (Paul Kelemba), who has illustrated the cartoon feature, It's a Madd Madd World, that has been running in the Saturday Standar for the last 35 years now. Another industry veteran featured in the anthology is James Kamawira (Kham), who has been in the game for over 37 years. His cartoon strips Bongoman and Babu still run in the Standard and Sunday Standard, respectively. Maddo's piece in the anthology is titled Muujiza App. Seen through the life of Halisi, a young college graduate. The piece counsels the youth against falling into the allure of easy soft life, as advertised on social media. Kham's piece is titled Kham in the Concrete Jungle. It takes a look at the not-so-rosy side of the city, filled with pickpockets and other social misfits. Other notable figures whose works are featured in the Kenyan Comics Anthology are Celeste Wamiru, Kenya's first female editorial cartoonist and Victor Ndula, the editorial cartoonist at the Daily Nation. The contributions revolve around a broad story concept of a "slice of life." The artists were free to create story ideas that depicted various angles and approaches around this idea. Each of the participating artist has three pages to articulate their ideas. What makes this anthology unique is that, unlike writers who use words to prosecute their ideas, comic artists use their illustrations and very few words, on a limited platform - in this case, three pages - to pass their message and for it to make sense to the audience. Msanii Kimani wa Wanjiru who coordinated the project under his outfit REVEAL! Comics Conversations EA, told Maisha Yetu that the publication was conceptualised as a book that would provide a window into the Kenyan comic scene by developing a publication that showcased the young and old comic artists. Launched Wednesday "This is a platform that would also showcase the awesome work being done by women comic artists in a field that has been largely male dominated," he added. A lot of planning went into the making of the anthology. "It started with the feedback we got from hosting a roundtable meeting for various stakeholders in the comic and graphic novels ecosystem." Msanii explained, adding: "They identified that there is a gap in comics that would give a glimpse into the scene. There was a gap at many levels- age, style, thematic concerns etc." REVEAL! Comics Conversations EA is part of the International Comics Exchange (ICEx), a gathering of event organisers, associations and collectives who thrive at building promotional and creative opportunities for comic artists and professionals, which is moderated by the Belgian Comic Strip Centre, the Lakes International Comic Art Festival (UK) and Quebec BD. The Kenyan Comics Anthology was launched on Wednesday October 30 at the Alliance Francaise auditorium.

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