Are you between 18 and 24 years old and have done something to make an  impact in the world? Do you fancy the opportunity to come to the UK and  meet some of the great minds of our time?

If so, apply by March 19 to Google’s youth challenge, Zeitgeist Young  Minds, by uploading a short video telling your story, what matters to you  and how you?re making a positive impact on your world. We want to find the  most exceptional and inspiring young people who are helping others through  science, the arts, education, leadership or innovation.

Winners will meet the leaders attending 2012 Zeitgeist. Previous Zeitgeist  speakers have included Archbishop Desmond Tutu, The Black Eyed Peas?  will.I.am, Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts, and Google CEO Larry Page.

The inaugural ?Young Minds? competition rewarded a series of pathbreakers,  ranging from a student who launched free hip-hop dance classes for  high-risk youth to a South African AIDS activist to a student who founded  an organization offering IT education. A full list of last year’s winning  projects are found here.

Events agency Livity is managing the contest and will pick the winners.  Zeitgeist Young Minds is open to all young people ages 18-24 who are  residents of South Africa, Algeria, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Egypt,  Spain, France, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria,  Uganda, Holland, Poland, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Russia , Sweden,  Tunisia, and Yemen.

Posted by Elizabeth Dupuy, Event Manager, External Relations

Written by Clifton Gachagua

Sitawa Namwalie and Yusef Kumunyakaa at the American Embassy tent, Storymoja Hay Festival, 2011

The session was moderated by Njeri Wangari of ‘Mines and Mind Fields’. The discussion focused on the meanings of slam poetry, spoken word and poetry in general. Njeri asked whether slam poetry is necessary at all, and what competitions do to the psyche of the poets who don’t win. Beth Lisick started writing poetry by reading it out to people in bars and cafes in San Francisco just when the slam movement was beginning in the 90s. She said that performance was a great way to meet other writers and hear voices from across America. Slam poets are restricted to three minutes on stage so they end up with perfectly honed poems like pop songs. There are great poets who slam and are fine if they loose. Marc Smith, the man who started slam poetry in Chicago, said the point is the poetry not the poet.

Yusef’s thought on written versus spoken poetry; he took a class from Indiana University and the young poets there came back to class with the question ‘why doesn’t the best poem win?’ Yusef said “Perhaps it takes us back to the oral tradition where poetry comes from, but I do think that the poem has to live on the page as well, it has to deal with that silence. And in living on the page the poem beckons, it invites the reader to experience the poem in a different way. The reader is also co-creator of meaning; the poem isn’t an ad for an emotion but the poem can live in different ways again and again, and there is a kind of passion and trust in language. The image is also important. I don’t think the image is as important in slam poetry as statement. The statement can evaporate with time. The image is rather subversive, and that way, perhaps, the poem that lives on the page may be more political; we are talking about time and endurance.”

Wamathai who runs Wamathai.com, an online platform for poets, started blogging by accident. He had been writing for a long time when facebook came and he decided to share a short story. He got overwhelming response and shared more poetry and stories until facebook became a limiting platform. He decided to open his own site. “The internet is amazing,” he said. “You can be unpublished offline but published online.”  People from all over the world can come to your blog or website and read your work. He gets 500,000 hits per month.

Wamathai reading a poem off his phone

Tony Mochama shared different thoughts on publishing. There are still unsold copies his first book of poetry while there are no copies of his second book of fiction ‘The Road To Eldoret’. People approach poetry as if it is an easy thing, he said. “I always feel so fiercely defensive of poetry because I feel like it is that beautiful lastborn child, the one you feel protective about, as opposed to the big bully novel.” Mochama said. He admits that there are many charlatans in the Kenyan open mic scene, people who go there to pour out their souls and get laid.

Ngwatilo Mawiyoo of ‘Blue Mothertongue’ said that the open mic space prefers a certain kind of performance, which is limiting when you want to experiment with different forms. She started her own projects.

Samo Bryton also insisted on it being about the poem rather than the poet. The numerous blogs, open mic sessions in the city offer spaces to be competitive which takes the attention to the poet rather than the poem. So the question is, are you really growing as a poet? “Poetry has to be interactive. Like when Beth Lisick performed with a band behind her,” Samo added.

The session was punctuated with amazing performances from all the poets and it was amazing to see how their diverse cultures and experiences all spoke with the same intended and unintended meanings.

From left; a member of the audience, Tony Mochama, Wamathai, Samo Bryton and Njeri Wangari

Written by Elizabeth Ombati

Dayan Masinde had a lovely session with kids from Kibera Mpira Mtaani at the Publish your Own Book tent.

Excitement rent the air as the children took to their sitting positions readying themselves to publish their own books. “So far we have just written compositions in the classroom setting,” some could be heard whispering.

A Publish Your Own Book session led by Dayan Masinde

When Dayan asked if they loved to read, all hands were held up as they listed books they loved. They mentioned The River Between by Ngugi wa Thiongo, Kifo Kisimani by Kithaka wa Mberia, The Magic Calabash as among those they had enjoyed to read.

“What makes a good story?” The children felt that a good story should be captivating by having good drama. They listed Machachari on Citizen TV, XYZ on Kiss TV, Tahidi High and Papa Shirandula as among stories with a good drama going on. The Daily Nation’s cartoon by Gado, Tingatinga tales were also said to be good illustrations.

Dayan said a nice story also has to have a good title and cover. He introduced illustrators who would help the children to make good covers for their stories. They were Melitas Ogallo, Joel Siaga and Ndinda as the writer to help the kids to give colour to the stories.

The children were then engaged in a lively discussion to come up with ideas on a fictitious story. The title of the story was to be ‘The Most Embarrassing Toment…’

Before suggesting story ideas the children gave accounts of their most embarrassing moments.

“When I was in Form 1, I joined a group of girls who were noisemakers. Once the teacher found us making noise, took us to the staffroom and gagged our mouths with cello tape. We were lined up and other students were told ‘Socialize with them at your own risk’” said one of the children as the others laughed.

The children then came up with fictitious characters for a common start to a story. Afterwards each of the children was to give their own endings.

The children decided to write a story about Akulu. Her father was presenting a gift during her brother’s wedding ceremony aired in all TV channels only for Akulu to realize that his zip was open. What happened next?

The children’s common beginning went…

MY MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT!

One day, my father and I were attending a wedding at Uhuru Park. My brother Otongolo was getting married. The wedding was being broadcast live on many TV channels; even in the very famous Magoti TV. My brother is a very famous man, so many people had attended this wedding. His bride, Nyaboke looked very spectacular in her white gown.

When people started giving the newlyweds gifts, my father Mr. Odhiek stood in haste to gift the couple some dried fish he had travelled with from Ugenya.

I was sitting next to Maria, a friend of mine from Katumbo Primary School. When my father was just about to speak, Maria nudged me with her elbow, telling me that my father’s zip was wide open.

I was in dismay. I didn’t know what to do, or what to say. The camera men were focusing on my father, unaware of his zip situation. I tried to signal him, but I was too hidden in the crowd to get his attention.

I was still trying to compose myself as fast as I could. I quickly strode to the dais despite the dense atmosphere.

“EXCUSE ME BABA, YOUR ZIP IS WIDE OPEN,” the speakers blared all over Uhuru Park! I had forgotten that the microphone was on.

The whole crowd went silent. Everyone stopped murmuring, staring at my dad……………

Written by Clifton Gachagua

The session was moderated by Keguro Macharia. “It’s rare that I get to introduce living poets because my academic work focuses on the late 19^th and 20^th century,” Macharia jested. “It’s wonderful to be in the presence of live poets.”

Sitawa Namwalie and Yusef Kumunyakaa at the American Embassy tent, Storymoja Hay Festival, 2011

From the late 1970s through the present Yusef has in many ways redefined poetry in the US and indeed in the world. One of the things he is most noted form is giving a form, a voice, and a language to Vietnam; a war about which much is still not known and less is said. In many poems he has written over the years he has given us names, voices, scenes, intimacies; he has taught us to think about Vietnam in terms of love and lust, in terms of real bodies and emotions; he has given us memories and histories that we did not have access to, for which is an immeasurable, uncountable gift. But he has also taught to listen to poetry, he is renowned as one of the foremost jazz poets, someone who works in the blues…which has meant for many of us about the form of poetry, what we hear and where we hear it; thinking about scenes and sets of making and unmaking, of becoming and unbecoming.”

Sitawa Namwalie has helped to change the scene of Kenyan poetry, perhaps by public and visible, by having the courage to speak about the post-election violence in ways that many of us wanted to avoid to speak, by giving voice to rage, by giving voice to anger, but also by giving voice to tenderness.    When I first read ‘Cut Off My Tongue’ I though to myself about the juxtaposition of immense violence in that collection and immense love. In her more recent work ‘Homecoming’ Sitawa continues to explore questions of identity spanning beyond Kenya.

Keguro continues the introduction: “In one of the poems called unnatural state of the unicorn Yusef writes:

Introduce me first as a man.

Don’t mention superficial laurels

The dead heap up on the living.

I want to introduce them as people, and perhaps I have done a bad job so I will let the poets introduce themselves.”

Yusef read from Requiem, which tries to capture from a distance, in a way, a kind of embedded experience in his psyche pertaining to hurricane Katrina.

One of Sitawa’s original awakenings was meeting an African-American girl from Louisiana called Patrice when she was 12. To her Louisiana became a fairytale; a mythical, beautiful place and she can never quite accept the devastations and what Yusef writes about in Requiem. She started writing poetry in 2007. Sitawa reminisced on the good times during 2002 when Kenyans were the most optimistic people in the world. She read we thought we had arrived written this year but which talks about 2007.

Keguro asked about sound in poetry -the sound of now and the spaces we inhabit, seeing that Yusef is associated with jazz and the blues and Sitawa so often incorporates music in her performance.

Yusef believes that a person hears the voice and his body is the resonator. “Music has always been important to me. Just the fact that one breathes has a lot to do with music,” he said. “I grew up with music in the background and we sort of internalized sound, we remember sound. For me, also, silence is a part of sound. We do not have music without silence, so there is a kind of merged relation that takes place. The body sorts of keeps us harnessed to sound. I don’t think of myself as a jazz poet, I do know that there are some jazz poets out there… I just happen to write a few related jazz-blues poems. A poem that tends to capture a certain element of sound maybe a poem such as The Performance.

the knee gotta be

so deep words can’t

answer simple questions

all night long notes

stumble off the tongue

& color the air indigo

so deep fragments of gut

& flesh cling to the song…

Sitawa’s poetry makes use of rhythm and music in a way that she is not entirely aware of. It is sort of an unknown undercurrent that takes over her poems. She read the poem Would you?

Concerning the risk that poets take to write emotionally difficult poems, Yusef talked about the different kinds of music in poetry, and especially that of meditation in Sitawa’s Would you? There is a kind of music that challenges one in a different way. “I think of the longer line as the line that, in a way, challenges the reader for a moment of meditation, and the shorter line as a kind of vertical plunge; this music of contemporary confrontation.” To underscore the meaning of the music of meditation Yusef read a prose poem called Warhorses.

Sitawa feels honored to be able to express some feelings in the poem, not just for herself but for others. When the poem resonates with other people they find an avenue to express the difficult emotions they carry, so it is a kind of relief.  Sitawa’s Carcass of the House is an example of a difficult poem. Written in September 2009, it is about the peculiar feelings she felt driving through a highway and seeing half-burnt, broken down houses in a place that is still of the most incredible beauty in the world.

Thinking about memory and the place of memory in monument Yusef read Facing It, a poem that returns to that idea of what one see, what one remembers and how one remembers. Yusef never planned to write about his experience and observations in Vietnam but once when he was renovating a house he found himself writing about Vietnam. It took him about 14 years to write about these experiences. What one experiences, often silence, is part of that emotional, psychological equation.

Written by Elizabeth Ombati

On the third day of the festival, students from Precious Blood Riruta and Kibera Mpira Mtaani interacted with Moroccan-Dutch writer, journalist and long-distance runner Abdelkader Benali, who has been described as one of Netherlands’ leading writers with 20 books to his name.

Having travelled to many African countries including Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Egypt, Tunis, Tanzania and of course Kenyas, he shared his thoughts toward football in the continent and beyond.

Love football first…

Mpira Mtaani

“The love of football has to surpass that of winning or losing,” he told the children. “To make a decision about football, there is need to love it first. Then good decisions will be made to benefit footballers, managers and the country at large.”

The rivalry between Netherlands and Germany…

The children wished to know the history of the football rivalry existing between Netherlands and Germany. Benali said that it all started with the occupation of Netherlands by Germans in the Second World War and the fact that Netherlands lost to Germany in 1974 World Cup. “In the Netherlands, it does not matter who you play for as long as you win against Germany,” he said to the children.

Football is about surprises…

Benali did not have a ready answer to a child who asked if he could predict the winner of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. He however spoke of his love for Lionel Messi who he said makes football look like a child’s game. “Even Kenya can make it to the finals,” he said to the smiling audience.

Taking the blame…

“Who is to blame when a game is lost?” the question was posed. Benali said that it is hard to lay entire blame on either the players or the coach as football is unpredictable. He added that there should exist team spirit in the team.

Football and showbiz…

Benali mentioned that it is important for football players to be humble and disciplined. “There are those who will spend time clubbing instead of practicing; others will go to the car dealers to look for the latest cars.” He said that money and fame should not blind the footballers’ souls but rather they should maintain balance and discipline in their work.

African players I admire…

Roger Milla and Didier Drogba. Drogba is a good professional and also disciplined while Roger Milla, apart from leading his team into the World Cup quarter finals in 1990, he is a good dancer!

Give footballers an education…

Benali said that footballers should learn languages, get an education because there is life before and after football. “Life is actually longer after football,” he quipped. Benali said that education is important so as to avoid vulnerabilities like not being able to make decisions as far as contracts and managing money is concerned.

I would go crazy…

“If I ever stopped running I would go crazy as it keeps me sane and healthy,’ Benali said. He told a young girl who sought to find out if he always finishes his races that at one point in time even kids finished a running race before him and he felt humbled.

If my favourite team is beaten…

“I used to be depressed for three days,” Benali said. “I would send them emails asking, why did you lose, would even throw away the jersey, only to buy another after a day!.” Benali made the kids laugh at this comment. However he said that with time he handles loses in a less drastic manner.

Memories from Kenya

“Running in Uhuru park,” Benali said. However Benali found it amusing that people actually stopped to stare at him as he ran! “But Kenyans are great people,” he said.

Written by Elizabeth Ombati

Members of Kuruka Maisha juggling at the Storyhippo village

The Storyhippo Village was a beehive of activity as more children kept trooping in to sample events specially meant for them.

The weather was been warm since the Festival started. This, coupled with the lively atmosphere at the Storyhippo Village and the colorful decorations donning every tent, transformed the the Village into one big party. Activities lined for the second day included a storytelling session, funky science experiments, reading, drawing, a musical puppet show and an awards ceremony for the schools that participated in the Reading Revolution.

At the Kenya National Library Services pupils continued with reading sessions, loosing themselves to the magic world of words. Sarah Otieno, a manager at KNLS said “The children are slowly finding it hard to stop reading.” Agnes and Daniella, both from Embakasi Secondary school in Nairobi, said that the Hay Festival had not only given them a chance to meet renowned authors but that it had given them a chance to learn writing skills in addition to building on their vocabulary through reading sessions at the KNLS.

Ogutu Muraya, performer, writer, playwright and storyteller kept the storytelling fire burning with a powerful narration to pupils aged 9 and 10 years from Kilimani Primary School. “Seeing these kids’ happy faces and their youthful energy motivates me to keep telling these stories; and the fact that they have so much to learn,” he said.

At the BIC tent, children both in primary and secondary schools spent the day drawing and writing as the final day for the winning piece drew near. Already more than 500 kids have passed through the tent to draw and paint. The drawings hang near the entrance to the tent and it is amazing the talent exhibited in the pieces.

Participating students at the BIC tent, Storymoja Hay Festival, 2011

Among drawings of interest was a portrait of Ben Okri, a Nigerian poet and author present at the Festival who must have impressed the kids so much as to warrant their drawing him!

Master of Mine, a pencil portrait of Nigerian writer Ben Okri drawn by a primary school pupil in Nairobi

“I didn’t know I could draw this beautifully,” said Everline Awour, of Embakasi Girls Sec School flanked by Whitney Daniels who exclaimed, “We didn’t expect this. We don’t even want to leave.”

At the Scotland Yard, funky science experiments to instill the love of sciences in the kids also hit their second day with the kids being shown how a volcano erupts, making a windmill and the science behind the telephone.

Fun with Science tent

Utawala it is…

On June 16^th this year, Kenya set a National record in reading.  84,300 children from across Kenya read a story titled ‘Lydia’s Gift’ aloud to commemorate the Day of the African child. Pupils were also required to provide their own endings to the story.

Utawala Academy emerged winner as the school with the highest number of submissions. As Florence Odhiambo, the headmistress walked to the podium to pick the trophy from Emily Gumba, the Programme and Business Development manager at British Council, the packed tent broke into song and dance.

“We are privileged to have emerged tops,” said Florence, and indeed, it is evident to see why the school took home the trophy. Mrs. Florence brought together 380 pupils in Classes 6,7 and 8 and encouraged them to send their pieces.

“For 40 minutes during their preps time I watched over them as they wrote the stories. I’m glad the effort has paid off,” she said. Ms Gumba told the pupils in attendance that as inspiration to write come from reading, they should read as many books as possible. “If you have an idea, let it flourish,” she told them.

Dorothy Amayo, an English teacher at Utawala Academy, noted that the Storymoja program is motivating and inspiring to Kenyan children. “It has helped them to love to write and their composition writing has greatly improved.”

Ms Gumba said that over 100 schools participated in the Reading Revolution and added that commitment and dedication shown from individual schools will keep the event running. She said, “Children used to make journeys to administrative offices like the District Commissioner’s offices to celebrate the Day of the African Child. However the reading revolution has brought a new dimension to the children and has given them an opportunity to look at education in a different way… and not walk all the way to the chief’s office to celebrate!”

In the same event, 19 year old Mikha’elah Zeigler launched her book, To steal a Mummy and encouraged more children to write.

Music Puppet Show

Acrobatic dancers from the Kuruka Maisha Foundation spent the afternoon entertaining kids and parents with well-coordinated and eye-catching acrobatic dancing moves, skipping rope and juggling. As the dances went on, voices of children reading from Gamba the Gecko wants to Drum could be heard in the background.

Members of Kuruka Maisha juggling at the Storyhippo village

The jugglers were dressed in white fitting T-shirts and black sporty trousers while the girls had pink skin tights and white wrap-arounds and white T-shirts.

Kaboge, the team leader and in charge of the drums gave a brief history of the drums. The Baboombombo drums are played in the Giriama community and they represent the ocean. They are used for bass and rhythm.

Drummer Kaboge doing what he does best, drumming

The Bunde are from the Luo community and also shared with the Kamba and Luhya. The Jembe drum is from West Africa while the Isikuti drums are from the Western province. Another drum, a long one is from Meru and Chuka. All the drums produced different sounds that guided the acrobatics in their dances.

Kuruka Maisha Foundation consists of former street children taken off the streets and given different skills in acrobatic dance, music, drumming, poetry and fine arts by the Foundation.

Abram Ochieng, the youngest and tiniest of them at 16 says that initially he used to be idle in the streets but since he was taken in by Kuruka Maisha, life has more meaning. Being the tiniest in the group, he could be seen balancing high up on the air lifted by the heavier boys. “Performing for kids in such a festival gives me stage confidence and am excited to see small children have expressions of awe when they see us perform,” he said.

Their take

As the clock ticked to 5pm, children could be seen trooping out of the Festival grounds, animated voices, new friends on tag and faces that said, “I had the time of my life.” We caught up with teachers and pupils from Baba Dogo Primary School in Nairobi who had so much to say about the day.

“Some of these children have never been to Nairobi city centre, it was amazing the look on their faces as they saw the tall buildings in the city centre,” said Teacher Hellen Kasyi who had brought a group of 50 to the festival. “Today they have been exposed to different ways of learning like publishing their own stories and they have made new friends too,” she said.

“I feel encouraged to pursue my interest in writing,” said Erick who had just attended a writing workshop, “Through interaction with different pupils I have been encouraged to work especially hard as I am in my final year of primary school.

Michael said he had played a lot and even painted a house, while Lavender who wants to be a doctor enjoyed reading In the land of the Kitchen, a children’s book published under Storymoja Africa.

Dayan Masinde, a well known illustrator and hosting Publish Your Own Book in Two Hours for the second year was inspired by the good work the group of 32 students did. “By these exercises we want to foster creativity and inspire future writers,” he said.

Dayan Masinde, standing, a well known illustrator and host of Publish Your Own Book, PYOB

The theme for the day was ‘The Most Embarrassing Moment’. It was a story about Mr. Makuti who was addressing a children’s assembly in the presence of the head of the Ministry of Education. Suddenly Mr.Makuti farts! From this embarrassing moment the children came up with own a personalized endings.

“Children should know that it is not when they are all grown up that they should start to write. They can do it in their young age,” noted Dayan.

Written by Linda Musita

From left: Mary Nakhumitsa, record holder in javelin, short put and discus, British High Commissioner to Kenya Rob Macaire and Abdelkader Benali, marathoner and one of Netherlands' leading writers.

Two athletes, Mary Nakhumitsa and Abdelkader Benali sat with the British High Commissioner to Kenya and discussed their triumphs on and off the track. Nakhumitsa is a paralympics champion. The twenty year record holder in javelin, short put and throwing the discus is very proud of her achievements and on Saturday, she wore her 30 medals around her neck. She has won 12 gold medals, 11 silver medals and 6 bronze medals. She also received an OGW Award from former president Moi and she prides herself in being the only paralympic champion in East Africa. Nakhumitsa got into sports when she was ten years old, with the help and encouragement of her father who is her trainer/coach to date.

She talked about disabled people and how sports makes them stronger. However, she conveyed her worries about the others who cannot do sport. They are educated, they have good grades and good papers, but no one will hire them. This, according to Mary, affects them emotionally and she sees it as a form of discrimination that should be snipped at its base.

Benali pointed out that in the athletics world there is no such thing as ‘abled’ or ‘disabled’. All of them have respect for each other and as human beings they are aware that they all have weaknesses. They all strive and struggle to fight and overcome these weaknesses. They all train rigorously and share the same ‘setbacks and problems’ experiences. “The more disadvantages you have, the further you go in life because you know that you have no choice but to overcome them,” he added.

Abdelkader Benali was born in a remote village in Morocco, a place where electricity and the luxuries of the city were non existent. When he was four years old, his family moved to Netherlands. It was a different world where everyone seemed perfect. He did not feel at home at first. Fitting in was a problem. He spoke of a time in school when the students in his class ‘reminded’ him that he was from Morocco and asked if he was going back home soon. “I told them, no, I am here to stay.”  One day he was watching Tv, still in that state of feeling out of place and without purpose, on screen an athletics race was about to start. “Skinny, almost half naked men” were lined up and the commentator mentioned that one of the runners, a Moroccan, was definitely going to win the race. He, Benali, thought that that could be him as well and as the running began he felt like he was running with the other Moroccan and his connection to Africa was resurrected. For the first time in his life, he had a hero. Later he went and bought running shoes, that did  not fit and his reaction to the pinch of the shoes was, “Oh wow! Running shoes hurt!”

The marathoner said that over the years he has developed great respect for Kenyan runners. His sense of humor kicks in again when he explains how Kenyan runners are either training or sleeping. It is always one or the other. If they are not training they are sleeping, even on a twenty minute bus ride. The sleeping, it turns out, rejuvinates and rests the body. He also commended them on their attitude. “With Kenyan athletes, it doesn’t matter how hot or cold the waether is, they will run,” Benali said, “They refer to the tracks in Europe as Persian tapestry compared to the terrain they run in Kenya.” Nakhumitsa chipped in that the success of the Kenyan athletete is atrributed to discipline, training and rest. “They wake up at 5am and start training, rest and then go back to train “.

When Mary is not training, she is relaxing in bed. Benali loves to cook, read and watch football when he is not training or writing. His advice to athletes, “Work hard, rest hard.” Benali is a leadning novelist whose recent work incluses The Museum of Loved Ones.

“Learn how to sleep like an  African.”
–ABDELKADER BENALI

Written by Clifton Gachagua

Ben Okri reading one of his poems at the British Council tent, Storymoja Hay festival 2011. To the far left is panelist Daniel Waweru and to the near right is panelist Milton Obote. The session was at the British Council tent. An enthusiastic crowd had gathered, filling the tent to capacity.

Ben Okri started off by saying it was a pleasure to be in Kenya. This was his first visit. He felt in retrospect that he should have left his home country Nigeria in his 20s and visited the whole of Africa with only a notebook and some biros. He termed the Storymoja Hay festival as one of the most important festivals in Africa with stimulates literature, the sharing of ideas and the meeting of minds and spirits.

He started off by reading My Mother Sleeps. Then he read The Difficulty of Seeing. While explaining the latter poem, he said that one of his biggest interests was the paradox of seeing. That seeing is not just opening one’s eyes. The he read The Rhino. A poem made of four lines.

At one time, school children in UK had approached him to propose to them a list of ten great books they should read before they finished school. Like most of the other writers who had been approached to do the same, he found difficulty in listing only ten books, so he came up with what he calls Ten and a Half Inclinations published in his book, A Time for New Dreams.

1. Read the books your parents hate
2. Read the books your parents love
3. have one or two authors that speak to you and make their work your secret passion
4. read widely for fun, for stimulation, for escape
5. don’t read what everyone else is reading, check them out later, cautiously
6. read the books you are not supposed to read
7. read for your own liberation and mental freedom
8. Books are like mirrors, don’t just read the words, go into the mirror, that’s where the real secrets are, inside, behind. That’s where the gods dream, where our realities are born.

10.5 Read the world. Read the world. It is the most mysterious book of all.

On being asked if he classified himself as an African writer, Okri’s reply was “It is a huge debate. A writer is a huge responsive being of undercurrents and overcurrents, of dreams, futures and histories. Writers are listeners. They don’t even know what they are listening to. Their ears are like the roots of a tree, that grow downwards, upwards and sideways. Writers are writers. Writers should write with no boundaries. There is no this is what you are supposed to write about.”  He mentioned that the danger of him classifying himself as an African writer would be than he could further be inclined to say that he is a Nigerian writer, then further that he is a Lagos writer, and then further that he is a writer from the specific street he grew up in.

Another set of aphorisms; hearing the African rhythm.

1. Heart shaped Africa is the feeling centre of the world
2. Continents are metaphors
3. A people are spiritual states of humanity as distinguishable in what they represent as roses, lions and stars.
4. Have we forgotten what Africa is?
5.  Africa is our dreamland, our spiritual homeland
6. There is a realm inside everyone that is Africa. We all have an Africa within.
7. When the Africa outside is sick with troubles, the Africa inside us makes us sick with neurosis.
8. The sheer quantity of inexplicable psychic illness in the world is possibly  indirectly connected to the troubles in Africa.
9. We have to heal the Africa in us if we are going to be whole again.
10. We have to heal the Africa outside us if the human race is going to be at peace again in a new dynamic way
11. There is a relationship between the troubles in a people and the troubles in the atmosphere of the world.
12. The troubles of Africa contribute immensely to the sheer weight and size of world suffering.
13. And this world suffering affects everyone on the planet, affects children and their health, affects our sleep, our anxiety and our unknown suffering.
14.  For it is possible to suffer without knowing it.
15. We have to heal the Africa within. We have to rediscover the true Africa. The Africa of laughter, of joy, of improvisation, of originality, the Africa of myths and legends, storytelling, playfulness, the Africa of generosity, of hospitality, of compassion, the Africa of wisdom, aesthitism and divination, the Africa of paradox, proverbs, and surprise; the Africa of magic, faith, patience and endurance; the Africa of a fourth dimensional attitude to time; the Africa of a profound knowledge of nature’s ways and the secret cycles of destiny.
16. We have to rediscover Africa. The first encounter of Africa by Europe was the wrong one. It was not an encounter, it was an appropriation, what they saw and bequithed to the future ages was in fact a misperception. They did not see Africa. This wrong seeing of Africa is part of the problems of today. Africa was seen through greed and what could be got from her. This justified all kinds of injustice.
17. What you see is what you make. What you see in people is what you eventually create in them.
18. It is now time for a new seeing, it is now time to flare the darkness on the eyes of the world.
19. The world should now begin to see the light in Africa, its possibilities, its beauties, its jeers
20. If we see it, it will be revealed. We always see what we are prepared to see. Only what we see anew is revealed to us.
21. Africa has been waiting for centuries to be discovered with the eyes of love, with the eyes of a lover.
22. There is no true theme without love.
23. We have to learn to love the Africa in us if humanity is going to begin to know true happiness in this world.
24. We love the America in us, the Europe in us, the Asia in us we are beginning to respect. Only the Africa in us is unloved, unseen, unappreciated.
25. The first step towards the exoneration of humanity is making whole again all these great continents within us.
26. We are the sum total of humanity.
27. Every individual is all humanity.
28. It is Africa’s time to smile
29. That would be the loveliest gift of the 21^st century, to make Africa smile again.
30. Then humanity can begin to think about the universe, even the remote stars as its true home.

Ben Okri has been quiet a big influence in the Storymoja Hay festival. At the Bic tent for children, several portraits of the writer are on display.

Master of Mine, a pencil portrait of Nigerian writer Ben Okri drawn by a primary school pupil in Nairobi

Ben Okri signing an autograph for a fan at the Savani’s Bookshop tent

Written by Linda Musita

There is a tent at the Railways Club grounds; the PMBC Library tent. Sharon Omangi, Raphael Kariuki and Stephen Mwangi are the creative brains behind the Pods Must Be Crazy (PMBC). The Pods Must be Crazy, are what the name implies; out of the ordinary, eccentric podcasts about anything and everything including unique music and remixes that are posted on http://pmbc.co.ke/ twice every month(mid-month and end month).

Sharon Omangi

Sharon Omangi confesses that PMBC Library is a way of directing people to the podcasts but more importantly it seeks to promote the reading culture in Nairobi. How does the library work, you wonder? Well, Omangi, Kariuki and Mwangi each ‘donate’ three books every month, making that a total of nine books. They then drop the books around the city in and at places where they can be seen. They leave them, strategically placed, in restaurants, bars, park benches and they ensure that the books are also safe from the elements; the elements here being, rain, wind (very strong gusts) and dirt. Interesting bit is that the books seduce you with the “Pick Me Up” sticker on the covers. Once you open it you find the ‘Return/Borrowing’ sheet that library books have and on it is a short introduction to the concept and a request to go on the PMBC Library Facebook page, pmbc/library and leave feedback on the book. All three PMBC ‘librarians’ will have read at least three of the books and a hence readers are guaranteed an informed discussion or critique on the books.

Raphael Kariuki of PMBC

Mwangi Ichungwa of PMBC

Soon, Omangi says, they will be having a monthly book swap event where readers can borrow books monthly and exchange them after a month. Yes, coming soon to an event friendly venue near you.

Aside from ‘donating the books’ the three also get their books from street book vendors within the CBD.

The PMBC Library was launched today, Saturday the 17^th at the Storymoja Hay Festival. They will be there tomorrow with good music, their not so ordinary podcasts and free books for you, yes FREE. They are also selling Stephen Mwangi’s fiction on CD at Kshs. 100.Stop by their tent

Written by Linda Musita

“Poets are criminals. They want to fuck with your mind”

-BEN OKRI-

George I of Great Britain said, “I hate all Boets and Bainters.” Ben Okri believes that poets and painters have a lot in common. Both groups of creative people have to encounter the unknown when they face a blank sheet of paper or canvas. They have to create something out of nothing. “Poetry is not what you want to say or write but what you shape by what you say or write. Passive reaction shaped into active reaction.” Great words. They make one wonder why George the First hated ‘Boets’ and ‘Bainters’ in the first place.

During the poetry master class at the Storymoja Hay Festival, Okri defined a poet as, “not necessarily a writer but a person who sees life in a certain way.” Okri acknowledged although many people write poetry, they not all of them are poets and that is the reason there are more bad poems than there are good poems. Poetry to him is not an unusual distinctive form or something far from normal. It is something that combines the ordinary and the extraordinary and it is impossible to distinguish the extraordinary from the ordinary without extraordinary consciousness.

Consciousness: The word was used many times by Okri through the duration of the workshop. Probably, his favorite word in the dictionary, who knows? Consciousness on the part of the doer/writer/poet and consciousness on the part of the receiver/reader are important for a poem. The poet is a creative aspect of the process but the reader, when reading the poem, also becomes a poet. Therefore it is important for a poet to understand the psychology of consciousness, the psychology of the mind and the psychology of reading. When this understanding is attained, the reader of a poem has the opportunity to enjoy poetry and to read it intensely and not passively. This way, the poem is not a clown on a page.

Back to consciousness, Okri explained that poetry is scratched in the conscious mind. How? Through words, sounds, letters and syllables. The appearance of a letter carries a lot more an ordinary eye perceives. The shapes affect the reader. It carries sound, various intentions and hidden meanings. For instance the letter O has a looooong sound, it is endless. It could signify an entire world or universe. He referred to the image of a Maasai man holding a spear and then linked that image to the letter I, something coming from the bottom to the top or vice versa. The letter H represents two separate points that are linked not at the bottom or at the top but in the middle. To demonstrate this very interesting perspective on the alphabet, he read Heaven’s Gate, a poem from Chris Okigbo’s book, Labyrinths. He animatedly moved to the rhythm of the words ‘before’, ’presence’, ’lost’, ’legend’ while at the same time emphasizing the sounds ‘b’, ’p’,’t’ and ‘d’, and explained the implications of the sounds.

Aside from consciousness, play is also important in poetry. Play of the mind, the spirit, sound and yes, play with consciousness are crucial. Surprise should be included, and sometimes meaningless but beautiful poetry is allowed. The poet can and should play with words and sound. “Poets are magicians. They fold a lot of things into small things”, Okri made the second comparison to drive his point home.

So, then, what is a good poem? “A good poem is capable of many interpretations. It is not static. The more you look at it the better it gets. It is infinitely or perpetually suggestive. A good poet says more, suggests more and gives more to the reader.” Okri went on to say that poetry is about mental sex. The teenage participants giggled at that ‘parental advisory’ comment and Okri continued to tickle their ribs and the adults’ as well by adding, “Mental pregnancies come out of it. Let’s not mess around.” Very interesting and humorous because when you think about it, you have to ‘mess around’ to …you know…get pregnant.

Going back to the definition of a good poem, Okri acknowledged that writing a good poem is no mean task, it takes time and attention to details of sound, beat and of course, consciousness and magic.

Reading poetry on the other hand, requires no skills at all. All a reader has to do is hear the poetry in the mind. “Read it out loud and create familiarity with the sounds and movement,” Okri advised.

On whether or not a poet should always have a reader in mind when writing, Okri quoted Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who said, “Poetry is a response to commission.” Yes, a poet can write poetry for his or her own pleasure but it is also good to write for an audience because if left to themselves, poets can get lost.

Finally, he read one of his poems, a commissioned one titled, To an English Friend in Africa. The poem is more or less a complete guide to life, love and interaction with people. Lines of note,

…Live while you are alive

Learn the ways of silence and wisdom…”

Ben Okri at the British Council tent, Storymoja Hay Festival 2011, explaining a point to participants

“Can you use the words of a bad poem to make a good poem?”

-BEN OKRI-