1 Minute Book Review: Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire

Name of the book: Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth 

Author:    Warsan Shire

Publisher:  flipped eye publishing limited

What's the book about? 

The various female personae in Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth confront identity against a background of war, nationalism, and the conflicting claims of religion (Islam) and gender.

Why am I reading the book? I met Warsan Shire at the Yardstick Festival and was struck by the contradictions (Black British/ Somali/ Female/ Moslem) and the sensuality of her verse.

Quote from the book: 

Beauty

My older sister soaps between her legs, her hair

a prayer of curls. When she was my age, she stole

the neighbour's husband, burnt his name into her skin.

For weeks she smelt of cheap perfume and dying flesh.

It's 4 a.m. and she winks at me, bending over the sink,

her small breasts bruised from sucking

She smiles, pops her gum before saying

boys are haram, don't ever forget that.

Some nights i hear her in her room screaming.

We play Surah Al-Baqarah to drown her out.

Anything that leaves her mouth sounds like sex.

Our mother has banned her from saying God's name.

Where to buy: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1905233299

Warsan Shire is a Kenyan-born Somali poet and writer who is based in London. Born in 1988, she has read her work internationally, more recently in South Africa, Italy and Germany. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Writing. The artist and activist uses her work to document stories of journey and trauma. She curates and teaches workshops around the art of healing through narrative.

***

I've modified this format from One Minute Book Reviews: http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/

***

1 Minute Book Review: Nairobi Heat by Mukoma Wa Nguigi

Name of the book: Nairobi Heat

Author:   Mukoma Wa Nguigi

Publisher:  Melville International Crime

What's the book about? 

A cop from Wisconsin pursues a killer through the terrifying slums of Nairobi and the memories of genocide

IN MADISON, WISCONSIN, it’s a big deal when African peace activist Joshua Hakizimana—who saved hundreds of people from the Rwandan genocide—accepts a position at the university to teach about “genocide and testimony.” Then a young woman is found murdered on his doorstep.

Local police Detective Ishmael—an African-American in an “extremely white” town—suspects the crime is racially motivated; the Ku Klux Klan still holds rallies there, after all. But then he gets a mysterious phone call: “If you want the truth, you must go to its source. The truth is in the past. Come to Nairobi.”

It’s the beginning of a journey that will take him to a place still vibrating from the genocide that happened around its borders, where violence is a part of everyday life, where big-oil money rules and where the local cops shoot first and ask questions later—a place, in short, where knowing the truth about history can get you killed.


Why am I reading the book? I met Mukoma Wa Ngugi at the Yardstick Festival and heard him read from Nairobi Heat at one of the afternoon panels. Coming from Miami where crime novels are de rigeur, I thought it was an interesting concept of having an African-American and African cop partnered in Kenya to solve the mystery of a dead blonde girl found on the doorsteps of a renowned African peace activist who lives in Madison, Wisconsin. I read Nairobi Heat the next day. I was not disappointed.


Quote from the book: "Were we manipulating race? The calculation was simple: one million lives did not move the world, African countries included, to intervene, but the death of one beautiful blonde girll would. We did not create that equation--we found it as it was. And we would use it to get justice."

Where to buy: http://www.amazon.com/Nairobi-Heat-Melville-International-Crime/dp/1935554646

Novelist, poet, and literary scholar, Mukoma Wa Ngugi is the author of Black Star Nairobi (Melville, 2013), Nairobi Heat (Penguin, SA 2009, Melville House Publishing, 2011), an anthology of poetry titled Hurling Words at Consciousness (AWP, 2006) and is a columnist for Ebony.com and a regular contributor to Kenya Yetu Magazine.  He was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2009.  In 2010, he was shortlisted for the Penguin Prize for African Writing for his novel manuscript, The First and Second Books of Transition.  Mukoma holds a PHD in English from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, an MA in Creative Writing from Boston University and a BA in English and Political Science from Albright College. He is an Assistant Professor of English at Cornell University.


Source: http://www.mukomawangugi.com/

***

I've modified this format from One Minute Book Reviews: http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/

Marcus and the Amazons in Kenya!

A deep joy comes into my heart when I see children enjoying my books. I had an even greater joy when I saw children at the G-Rockers Center in Kawangware, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Kenya, reading from Marcus and the Amazons.

I hope the teachers will take the time to teach the children about the namesake of the hero, Marcus Garvey, whose life was livicated, according to his son, Dr. Julius Garvey to these principles: "A sense of identity, self-reliance, unity/nationhood, entrepreneurship, education in the physical and psychological sciences, and spirituality based on the Father/Motherhood of God and the brother/sisterhood of woman/man. The principles that Garvey outlined in was a philosophy, theology, psychology and social action plan that could be applied by all people in any location." 


Marcus Garvey understood poverty and worked his whole life to eradicate this evil from the lives of Africans and New World Africans. His writings in "African Fundamentalism," Course of African Philosophy, and The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey as Mwariama Kamau has stated, "through reasoned arguments and a methodical examination of our condition, offers an inspiring worldview and compelling prescription for empowerment."

Give thanks to the organizers of the Anancy Festival, Andrea Shaw and Xavier Murphy, and especially to Zubair Mohammed of G-Rockers Center for bringing not only Anancy, but also Marcus, home.

"Never let the children cry, or you got to tell Jah-Jah why"~Bob Marley,"Trench Town Rock."

***

***
Blog Disclosure Policy


Geoffrey Philp’s Blog Spot receives a percentage of the purchase price on anything you buy through links to Amazon, Shambala Books, Hay House, or any of the Google ads or Google Custom Search.









***

Disclaimer of Endorsement


The documents posted on this Web site may contain hypertext links or pointers to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. These links and pointers are provided for visitors' convenience. I do not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of any linked information. Further, the inclusion of links or pointers to other Web sites or agencies is not intended to assign importance to those sites and the information contained therein, nor is it intended to endorse, recommend, or favor any views expressed, or commercial products or services offered on these outside sites, or the organizations sponsoring the sites, by trade name, trademark, manufacture, or otherwise.


Reference in this Web site to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the site's visitors, and does not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by this blog.