Destruction of water-catchement areas such as the Mau, excessive water use and droughts have combined to kill Lake Elementaita in Kenya. Or is it partially dead or seasonal?
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/819794/-/vnlfl7/-/index.html
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Author Joseph R. Alila
Author, Poet and Novelist Joseph R. Alila is a native of Kenya. JR Alila is a Chemist by training. JR Alila considers creative writing to be a natural consequence of the aging process. JR Alila has written extensively on his Luo people's marriage and other cultural practices, criticizing them where criticism is due, and shedding a sage's light so as to put meaning to old traditions. JR Alila's mournful caution against the practice of polygamy in the era of the AIDS virus comes in SUNSET ON POLYGAMY. JR has written extensively on pride, bigotry and prejudice in the spiritual/cultural novels, THE MILAYI CURSE, NOT ON MY SKIN, and SINS OF OUR HEARTS.
In his writings, JR treats each of his characters as "the total person"---a writing style that has made such works as WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART, SUNSET ON POLYGAMY, THE LUO DREAMERS' ODYSSEY: FROM THE SUDAN TO AMERICAN POWER, NOT ON MY SKIN, and THE WISE ONE OF RAMOGILAND, to be informative anthropological treatises on people and their physical, spiritual, political, cultural, and social circumstances.
When JR set out to write he had no voice or agenda. His objective was to tell stories about his Luo people and his experiences as a Christian, a Luo, an African, and a World Scholar uprooted from his home base to chase scientific dreams. But Eight Novels and two Epic Poems (RATENG' AND BRIDE and THIRTEEN CURSES ON MOTHER AFRICA) later, he finds himself speaking increasingly for the burdened and voiceless African women and widows (in THE THIRTEENTH WIDOW, SUNSET ON POLYGAMY, and WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART) whose yokes are the marital culture and practices whose original intentions were protective, but now turned spiritual death traps from which there is no escape.
JR has found his political voice in RATENG' AND BRIDE (Kenya's 2007 Presidential contest), THE LUO DREAMERS' ODYSSEY: FROM THE SUDAN TO AMERICAN POWER (A historical-cum-spiritual fictional march of the Luo into the world's only citadel of power---inspired by Obama Presidency), and THIRTEEN CURSES ON MOTHER AFRICA (An Epic Poem; theme: Africa is deluded with perilous crises, a lot of which are due to amnesia, poor leadership choices, greed, greedy friends and brother-on-brother conflicts, with Ebony the African Woman and her children bearing the brunt of their deadly consequences).
Eight novels and two epic poems later, in THE WISE ONE OF RAMOGILAND and THE LUO DREAMERS' ODYSSEY: FROM THE SUDAN TO AMERICAN POWER, JR Alila comes out as a sage's torch illuminating various aspects of the Luo journey, Luo cultural practices, Luo spirituality, and Luo thought.
Finally in the novel, NOT ON MY SKIN, JR Alila describes the American experience, consciousness and attitudes at street level, inside houses of worship and at the work place. This author has come of age.
These books are now available at Amazon AUTHOR CENTRAL, where this Author/Poet/Novelist from Nhiwa (Kenya) is proudly featured. This author has come of age, friends and fans.
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002QD5TDM
In his writings, JR treats each of his characters as "the total person"---a writing style that has made such works as WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART, SUNSET ON POLYGAMY, THE LUO DREAMERS' ODYSSEY: FROM THE SUDAN TO AMERICAN POWER, NOT ON MY SKIN, and THE WISE ONE OF RAMOGILAND, to be informative anthropological treatises on people and their physical, spiritual, political, cultural, and social circumstances.
When JR set out to write he had no voice or agenda. His objective was to tell stories about his Luo people and his experiences as a Christian, a Luo, an African, and a World Scholar uprooted from his home base to chase scientific dreams. But Eight Novels and two Epic Poems (RATENG' AND BRIDE and THIRTEEN CURSES ON MOTHER AFRICA) later, he finds himself speaking increasingly for the burdened and voiceless African women and widows (in THE THIRTEENTH WIDOW, SUNSET ON POLYGAMY, and WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART) whose yokes are the marital culture and practices whose original intentions were protective, but now turned spiritual death traps from which there is no escape.
JR has found his political voice in RATENG' AND BRIDE (Kenya's 2007 Presidential contest), THE LUO DREAMERS' ODYSSEY: FROM THE SUDAN TO AMERICAN POWER (A historical-cum-spiritual fictional march of the Luo into the world's only citadel of power---inspired by Obama Presidency), and THIRTEEN CURSES ON MOTHER AFRICA (An Epic Poem; theme: Africa is deluded with perilous crises, a lot of which are due to amnesia, poor leadership choices, greed, greedy friends and brother-on-brother conflicts, with Ebony the African Woman and her children bearing the brunt of their deadly consequences).
Eight novels and two epic poems later, in THE WISE ONE OF RAMOGILAND and THE LUO DREAMERS' ODYSSEY: FROM THE SUDAN TO AMERICAN POWER, JR Alila comes out as a sage's torch illuminating various aspects of the Luo journey, Luo cultural practices, Luo spirituality, and Luo thought.
Finally in the novel, NOT ON MY SKIN, JR Alila describes the American experience, consciousness and attitudes at street level, inside houses of worship and at the work place. This author has come of age.
These books are now available at Amazon AUTHOR CENTRAL, where this Author/Poet/Novelist from Nhiwa (Kenya) is proudly featured. This author has come of age, friends and fans.
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002QD5TDM
Sunday, September 27, 2009
SO THEY ARE GREEN? WHO ISN'T?
Newsweek Reports on green companies.
http://greenrankings.newsweek.com/?GT1=43002
Who isn't Green?
http://greenrankings.newsweek.com/?GT1=43002
Who isn't Green?
Friday, August 14, 2009
ARE YOU INSPIRED?
Literary inspiration comes in different shapes and shades and from different sources and places and moments in our daily lives: the screaming graffiti in the public washroom; the screaming mob on freedom square; the spider hanging delicately of on a near-invisible thread by it web waiting for an occasional catch; a weaver bird weaving a new nest before the eggs come; a roaring waterfall down a deep gorge; your first date at fourteen; that math teacher who made your day a nightmare in a middle school, but left you with and A-grade; the disease epidemic that shut down palaces, before sweeping clean small huts in your village; the policeman who stopped you on a deserted highway after midnight, then let you go with, “Madam, your break-lights are dead,” and left you wondering for how long he had been trailing you. All these are inspirational moments for a creative writer depending on what genre, theme or hero or heroin the writer is defining. Grab them when they are still hot.
The novel, “The Luo Dreamers’ Odyssey: From the Sudan to American Power ( https://www.createspace.com/3373494), was inspired by the improbable journey of the Luo as a people, their political struggles, and tragic events in their journey. Presidency Barack Obama’s march to the Presidency offered the background song as I, wearing my creative hat, chiseled historical events, liberally applying the creative fiction vanish, concocting tales and myths and chasing the little historical truth I could lay my hands on. What resulted was a mixture of history and fiction that some of my fans, who wear the right literary moods and have moments to spare, have not been able to put down from dusk to dawn. At the end of it all, the reader will have walked with the spiritual and psychological jungles of Luo history from fifteenth-century Sudan to twenty-first century America; you will have played Ajua with the protagonist at the citadel of world power; you will have met “Gor-like” (excuse me) character who is a woman one moment, and a man the next—charming his way through glass panes and police dragnets at will; you will have met extraordinary Luo men and women of courage and rare intelligence who have shaped the destiny of the Luo and Kenya, and the world.
The novel, “The Luo Dreamers’ Odyssey: From the Sudan to American Power ( https://www.createspace.com/3373494), was inspired by the improbable journey of the Luo as a people, their political struggles, and tragic events in their journey. Presidency Barack Obama’s march to the Presidency offered the background song as I, wearing my creative hat, chiseled historical events, liberally applying the creative fiction vanish, concocting tales and myths and chasing the little historical truth I could lay my hands on. What resulted was a mixture of history and fiction that some of my fans, who wear the right literary moods and have moments to spare, have not been able to put down from dusk to dawn. At the end of it all, the reader will have walked with the spiritual and psychological jungles of Luo history from fifteenth-century Sudan to twenty-first century America; you will have played Ajua with the protagonist at the citadel of world power; you will have met “Gor-like” (excuse me) character who is a woman one moment, and a man the next—charming his way through glass panes and police dragnets at will; you will have met extraordinary Luo men and women of courage and rare intelligence who have shaped the destiny of the Luo and Kenya, and the world.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
CHEVY VOLT
A vehicle that can go 230 miles on a gallon of gasoline. Waugh! That is something. It is understood that the car is initially powered with a Lithium-ion battery, whose range is augmented by gas-powered electrical motor power generation unit. As to going green, that is only half the story. The battery has to be charged off the grid! which still runs largely on coal, unless nuclear power is popularized by sorting out how to handle nuclear waste. But this is a huge step in green transportation, that should encourage investments in domestic solar and wind power generation. Congratulation GM before we know exactly how you did it.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/08/11/the-epa-gives-the-chevy-volt-a-230-mpg-rating/
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/08/11/the-epa-gives-the-chevy-volt-a-230-mpg-rating/
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
THE LUO DREAMERS' ODYSSEY: FROM THE SUDAN TO AMERICAN POWER
I am Author and Novelist Joseph R. Alila. In my seventh novel, THE LUO DREAMERS’ ODYSSEY: FROM THE SUDAN TO AMERICAN POWER, I present a narrative about a spiritual journey of the Luo of eastern Africa to President Obama’s White House. In this historical fiction, I have attempted to capture in spirit the perils of the Luo people in their spiritual journey from Egypt to the White House—a journey that takes 600 years against incredible odds and outlives many prophecies and dreams. In the carefully crafted narrative that starts with one Ajwang’ Opodho in the old Sudan to one Hassan Opodho in Kenya, onward to one President Hassan Ajwang’ in America, I visit (and inspired by) the spiritual events that surrounded the infamous Luo Bead of Passion that caused the great schism that scattered the Luo tribes throughout East and Central Africa.
In reading THE LUO DREAMERS’ ODYSSEY (https://www.createspace.com/3373494), I hope that the reader realizes that the timeless narrative in this historical novel is as much about a tortuous physical journey through time and space of the Luo peoples, as it is about their spiritual passage an earthly destination. This novel, like most of my novels, offers the reader an opportunity to glean into the Luo mind and complex anthropological space that include such practices as polygamy and widow inheritance.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
BOOK RELEASE
JR Alila's newest Novel, THE LUO DREAMERS' ODYSSEY (From the Sudan to American Power), is on sale from the Publishers, Createspace, https://www.createspace.com/3373494
The Novel is available from http://www.amazon.com shortly.
Join me in sharing in the incredible journey that has defined the people from Sudan to the Diaspora.
This book shed some light on some Questions: Who are the Luo? What is their Religion? What is the name of the Luo God? Why are the Luo so fearless? Who wields power in a polygamous Luo home? What caused the Luo to disperse from the Sudan? Did you know that the Luo are highly religious? What is the Luo bead of Passion? What role does a dog play in Luo worship? What does it mean if a Luo gave you a dog? Did you know that the oldest know Luo ancestor came from the river, or germinated from the soil? What is the role of prophets among the Luo? What is the role of Luo Council? What are the three pillars of Luo Leadership? Why is it essential that pillars be born by three different people? Did you know that the Present US President is a Luo? What is the role of Worship in Luo Leadership?
The Novel is available from http://www.amazon.com shortly.
Join me in sharing in the incredible journey that has defined the people from Sudan to the Diaspora.
This book shed some light on some Questions: Who are the Luo? What is their Religion? What is the name of the Luo God? Why are the Luo so fearless? Who wields power in a polygamous Luo home? What caused the Luo to disperse from the Sudan? Did you know that the Luo are highly religious? What is the Luo bead of Passion? What role does a dog play in Luo worship? What does it mean if a Luo gave you a dog? Did you know that the oldest know Luo ancestor came from the river, or germinated from the soil? What is the role of prophets among the Luo? What is the role of Luo Council? What are the three pillars of Luo Leadership? Why is it essential that pillars be born by three different people? Did you know that the Present US President is a Luo? What is the role of Worship in Luo Leadership?
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
WHAT AILS KENYA?
If you asked me where Kenya would be, politically, next month, my answer to you would be "I can't tell." Here is why. We have no properly constituted Electoral body, the contestants have become the referees in parliament. We have no Leader of Government Business because we have no properly elected government; what we have is "a coalition of the unwilling," that is sitting in wait for 2012, guzzling our shilling at a drunken pace, readying for battle.
Aren't we Unthankful?
We are a people linked to the current "Emperor and Guardian of the Citadel" by an umbilical chord. The President of the United States, who is a Kenyan through his father, could have chosen to be Kenyan at eighteen years, but decided to be an American. That is how close Kenyans are to the kill, yet we are starving.This man, President Barack Obama, must be grieving in shame. He has killed a Hippo, a very fat one, and has nowhere in Kenya to land with his kill because our so-called Kenyan leaders are feasting over a skeletal carcass of a poorly fed cow from somewhere in Nyanza.
How funny.
Amid the laughable spectre of public moral rot, our people are waiting for cereal imports, some of which are rotting in Mombasa---unfit to be consumed because of an explosion in the high-seas that generated lots of a toxic compound known as Aluminium phosphate. Now if you have some knowledge of chemistry like me, you may sleep easy on your empty stomach, knowing that, though you are hungry, some chemist at the Government Chemist in Nairobi has saved you from consuming bad corn! But you are not me, and you must be smelling corruption in the convoluted explanation of why you have no corn to buy. That the turmoil of early 2008 that displaced farmers to refugee camps from where they have been unable to escape back to their farms, gives you no reason hope at all! What do you smell?
Meanwhile your leaders are printing the "skeletal cow" known as the Kenyan Shilling in such huge numbers that the Minister for Finance cannot count it with modern computers, let alone budget and account for it, and his royalty is blaming computers made by man and typewriters attended to by man for the endemic typos in the budget!
Yes, a Kenyan has killed a hippo, and is willing to bring the fat carcass home, but has nowhere to land with his kill in Kenya because we are busy looting the Shilling which is 80 times skinnier than our adventurous son's American Dollar. Kenyan's, Ramogi must be turning in his grave, Ajuma must be turning in his grave, Kenyatta must be cursing everyone from the grave yonder. Watoto wa simba si simba, in our case!
The last I heard was the brave Kenyan hunter from the Citadel of wealth and Power has decided to land in Ghana, unload then proceed to the land of Cleopatra and Mark Antony. He could alternately have landed in Juba, Sudan, were it not for the turmoil there, and this mourning Kenyan's voice could have cheered, not because he is unpatriotic, but because listening to history is preferable to rewarding rot.
What shame on us Kenyans!
JR Alila
Aren't we Unthankful?
We are a people linked to the current "Emperor and Guardian of the Citadel" by an umbilical chord. The President of the United States, who is a Kenyan through his father, could have chosen to be Kenyan at eighteen years, but decided to be an American. That is how close Kenyans are to the kill, yet we are starving.This man, President Barack Obama, must be grieving in shame. He has killed a Hippo, a very fat one, and has nowhere in Kenya to land with his kill because our so-called Kenyan leaders are feasting over a skeletal carcass of a poorly fed cow from somewhere in Nyanza.
How funny.
Amid the laughable spectre of public moral rot, our people are waiting for cereal imports, some of which are rotting in Mombasa---unfit to be consumed because of an explosion in the high-seas that generated lots of a toxic compound known as Aluminium phosphate. Now if you have some knowledge of chemistry like me, you may sleep easy on your empty stomach, knowing that, though you are hungry, some chemist at the Government Chemist in Nairobi has saved you from consuming bad corn! But you are not me, and you must be smelling corruption in the convoluted explanation of why you have no corn to buy. That the turmoil of early 2008 that displaced farmers to refugee camps from where they have been unable to escape back to their farms, gives you no reason hope at all! What do you smell?
Meanwhile your leaders are printing the "skeletal cow" known as the Kenyan Shilling in such huge numbers that the Minister for Finance cannot count it with modern computers, let alone budget and account for it, and his royalty is blaming computers made by man and typewriters attended to by man for the endemic typos in the budget!
Yes, a Kenyan has killed a hippo, and is willing to bring the fat carcass home, but has nowhere to land with his kill in Kenya because we are busy looting the Shilling which is 80 times skinnier than our adventurous son's American Dollar. Kenyan's, Ramogi must be turning in his grave, Ajuma must be turning in his grave, Kenyatta must be cursing everyone from the grave yonder. Watoto wa simba si simba, in our case!
The last I heard was the brave Kenyan hunter from the Citadel of wealth and Power has decided to land in Ghana, unload then proceed to the land of Cleopatra and Mark Antony. He could alternately have landed in Juba, Sudan, were it not for the turmoil there, and this mourning Kenyan's voice could have cheered, not because he is unpatriotic, but because listening to history is preferable to rewarding rot.
What shame on us Kenyans!
JR Alila
Saturday, May 23, 2009
KENYA IN AMERICA'S CROSS AIRS
Kenya is in President Obama's cross airs. Obama will be visiting Africa (Egypt and Ghana) without stepping into Kenya, one of his ancestral homes, because Kenya is in political disorder. There are endless squabbles between Primiere Raila's ODM and President Kibaki's PNU. Once again President Kikwete is in the picture, receiving news from Washington to Nairobi. At issue is tackling rampant corruption, and completion of constitutional reforms mandated under Anna's watch early 2008. Both ODM and PNU are dancing around the matter with each side proposing dissimilar constitutional changes. ODM is pushing for a Parliamentary System of Government lead by a Prime Minister. PNU now prefers a hybrid in which the President is paramount, with the Prime Minister supervising the government. Because of PNU-ODM schism, Kenya has no Leader of Government Business---a role the Speaker of the National Assembly currently plays. Likewise Kenya has no permanent electoral body. In the background is a shaky Somalia that shares an unstable border with Kenya; something that worries world security experts, and Americans in particular.
Can President Obama's America push Kenyan leaders to embrace government reforms?
JR Alila
http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144014989&cid=4&ttl=Obama, Kikwete secret talks on Kenya
Can President Obama's America push Kenyan leaders to embrace government reforms?
JR Alila
http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144014989&cid=4&ttl=Obama, Kikwete secret talks on Kenya
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
KIBERA YOUTH PROJECT
A story of Kenyan youths benefiting from UN-Habitat to upgrade their slum city-within-a-city.
http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144008697&cid=4&ttl=Youths%20build%20their%20way%20out%20of%20poverty
http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144008697&cid=4&ttl=Youths%20build%20their%20way%20out%20of%20poverty
Monday, March 2, 2009
Greying or Graying? It is about Hydrogen Peroxide
If you are greying too early, blame yourself. Your body is producing too much hydrogen peroxide--a bleacher--and too little catalase to destroy it! That is the finding of Scientists in Britain.
IS KENYA A LOST CAUSE?
Kenya is a lost cause. 2012 will be worse than what we saw in 2007. There are reasons to make this assertion.
The tigers of freedom of yesterday have all been compromised. Raila and his ODM have been roped in then neutered. They are part of the system, not only in name, but also in action. Unchecked Corruption is not just a PNU thing. If an ODM minister is tainted and has not been sacked, it is because the PM who is from ODM finds him a political holy cow who cannot be touched.
Kenya is a lost cause: The ghosts of post election violence have not been appeased. Those implicated in various offences have skilfully employed Parliamentary Procedures to block the setting up of Local Tribunals to try suspects. Kenyans face the prospects of approaching the next General Election (in 2012) before the victims of the last elections are appeased.
It appears that there may be no New Constitution before the 2012 Elections. The opponents of Agenda 4 are forming ethnic alliances to fit an already evolving Transition Agenda, which can only work if the current President retains his absolute powers by election day. There may be a new referendum on the Constitution, and there may be another BOMAS, but their outcomes will be different because of new Constituencies and Districts!
Even getting a credible Kenyan to chair a transitory Electoral body has become a problem because of ethnicity and transition politics.
When will Kenyan be a Nation and not a union of tribes?
The tigers of freedom of yesterday have all been compromised. Raila and his ODM have been roped in then neutered. They are part of the system, not only in name, but also in action. Unchecked Corruption is not just a PNU thing. If an ODM minister is tainted and has not been sacked, it is because the PM who is from ODM finds him a political holy cow who cannot be touched.
Kenya is a lost cause: The ghosts of post election violence have not been appeased. Those implicated in various offences have skilfully employed Parliamentary Procedures to block the setting up of Local Tribunals to try suspects. Kenyans face the prospects of approaching the next General Election (in 2012) before the victims of the last elections are appeased.
It appears that there may be no New Constitution before the 2012 Elections. The opponents of Agenda 4 are forming ethnic alliances to fit an already evolving Transition Agenda, which can only work if the current President retains his absolute powers by election day. There may be a new referendum on the Constitution, and there may be another BOMAS, but their outcomes will be different because of new Constituencies and Districts!
Even getting a credible Kenyan to chair a transitory Electoral body has become a problem because of ethnicity and transition politics.
When will Kenyan be a Nation and not a union of tribes?
Friday, February 27, 2009
EARLY MAN WALKED UPRIGHT
Early Man, possibly our ancestor, walked upright. Footprints (over a million years old) left in Lake Turkana (Kenya) reveal.
http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144007726&cid=4&
http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144007726&cid=4&
Friday, February 13, 2009
BOOK RELEASE
COMING SOON
THE LUO DREAMERS' ODYSSEY:
from the Sudan to American Power
(A Novel)
By Joseph R. Alila
www.createspace.com
THE LUO DREAMERS' ODYSSEY:
from the Sudan to American Power
(A Novel)
By Joseph R. Alila
www.createspace.com
Friday, January 9, 2009
RATENG" AND BRIDE: CONFLICT, POWER AND CORRUPTION
In RATENG AND BRIDE, novelist and poet JR Alila revisits political commentary, humor and satire, and employs metaphors and imagery as he challenges the hero (Rateng') to abandon a lifelong ambition of reigning in a killer, illusive Bride. The poet warns that attempts to redeem our pride and personal honor in the persuit of power (the bride), often blind us and make us foreget our more important contributions to society. In RATENG' AND BRIDE, JR Alila revisits and mourns certain tragic political events in Kenya's short post-independence political history. Through the experiences of the hero RATENG' the author warns of the corrupting, material allure and deadly charms of unregulated power ( Rateng's illusive Bride—call her The Presidency). The poet tells us in song that power is dirty, is often over-glorified, and like a genie, its gains to the holder are brief and blissful. The poet reminds us that Power otherwise brings personal anguish and sacrifice to those (like Rateng') who seek it, and that power has the universal tendency to corrupt those with it and their cronies. Through Rateng', the author warns that, like a gem, unregulated Power (the Presidency) corrupts everybody it touches, and that its corrupting effects linger like the nauseating smell of a scared skunk. Casting his poetic net wide, Alila captures the essence Luo Oral tradition, as he pilots its literary vehicles in song (wer), self-praise (pakruok), satire (ageta), and proverbs (ngeche), and never shy to go Luo vernacular with proverbs specifically. In RATENG' AND BRIDE, poet Alila has managed to uplift the role of poetry and song in Kenya's post-independence political discourse, even as he must walk delicately with the reader into, and out of, a more recent, tragic and deadly political match between two powerful suitors (Rateng' and Milo) over one Bride (POWER), with one biased Referee in the ring, and their adversarial supporters fighting ringside.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
OF TWO WOMEN OF HOPE AMID REJECTION
I am Joseph R Alila, author of such novels as SUNSET ON POLYGAMY and THE MILAYI CURSE.
In one of my newest novels, WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART, I have employed a story about the trying times of two widows to lead my readers along an anthropological journey into some cultural aspects of marriage, kinship and inheritance among the Luo of Eastern Africa. WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART is an ansty cry of a strong-willed, unfortunate widow (Apiny) with the "spiritually-untouchable" tag hanging on her neck, who, together with her widowed mother-in-law (Awino) insist that they belong with the clan into which they married, even as their immediate in-laws consider the younger widow to be a living "a curse," who must go. In this choice, the women have taken the higher cultural moral road than their heartless in-laws. Moreover, the women are on the right side of Luo Customary Law, which states that women and their children belong with the clan, and not just the immediate family of their husbands.
In Awino accepting a distant brother-in-law’s hand in marriage so that her burdened daughter-in-law ( Apiny) can find a kitchen in which to sleep as the latter awaits the birth of her next husband, I tell my readers a story about undying faith, courage, patience and humility, on the part of the women, and charity, on the part of the widower (Misuru). That Awino agrees to give her daughter-in-law a tender son to marry is a steep moral hill she, Awino, has to overcome amid daily echoes of laughter and ridicule of both women by their contemporaries.
But my readers should remeber that this is eighteenth-century Luoland, in which due process in matters of birth, marriage, death has to be observed religiously, lest unsettled spirits run amock. Moreover, the Seer says that the future of a whole people is tied to the strength of arms of the yet-to-be-born children and grandchildren of the two widows.
In one of my newest novels, WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART, I have employed a story about the trying times of two widows to lead my readers along an anthropological journey into some cultural aspects of marriage, kinship and inheritance among the Luo of Eastern Africa. WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART is an ansty cry of a strong-willed, unfortunate widow (Apiny) with the "spiritually-untouchable" tag hanging on her neck, who, together with her widowed mother-in-law (Awino) insist that they belong with the clan into which they married, even as their immediate in-laws consider the younger widow to be a living "a curse," who must go. In this choice, the women have taken the higher cultural moral road than their heartless in-laws. Moreover, the women are on the right side of Luo Customary Law, which states that women and their children belong with the clan, and not just the immediate family of their husbands.
In Awino accepting a distant brother-in-law’s hand in marriage so that her burdened daughter-in-law ( Apiny) can find a kitchen in which to sleep as the latter awaits the birth of her next husband, I tell my readers a story about undying faith, courage, patience and humility, on the part of the women, and charity, on the part of the widower (Misuru). That Awino agrees to give her daughter-in-law a tender son to marry is a steep moral hill she, Awino, has to overcome amid daily echoes of laughter and ridicule of both women by their contemporaries.
But my readers should remeber that this is eighteenth-century Luoland, in which due process in matters of birth, marriage, death has to be observed religiously, lest unsettled spirits run amock. Moreover, the Seer says that the future of a whole people is tied to the strength of arms of the yet-to-be-born children and grandchildren of the two widows.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
OUR LUO SUNRISE IN THE WEST (Prophecies and Improbable Journey)
Fans of "SUNSET ON POLYGAMY," I'm digging in to polish my next novel, "OUR LUO SUNRISE IN THE WEST" or some title to that effect. If you wanna scoop me, you ghost writers out there, go right ahead, at the risk of fighting with my ancestors. Anyway, if you are not in the know, the Nilotic Tribe, The LUO, fathered the new man of the world, The Man of the Moment.
It is a tough project. I am grabbing every catchy phrase and idea that visit my dreams. Writing one line is taking me two days, on some cloggy days. You must be wondering why? when the history of the Luo is out there.
This is why: Novelists are not historians; they are not prophets, even as their works may foretell some events , as Novelist JR Alila in the closing chapter in THE WISE ONE OF RAMOGILAND. They are not bound by any truths. They have to try to relive the lives of some of the subjects of their imaginations and creations. Novelists try to dig into the hows and whys, even if these are unusual or untrue. For example, they have to imagine what their subjects could have done if faced with a hyena eating a Buffalo; or when forced to live in a cave of serpents like a Special Forces Soldier; or what a woman, ejected by her in-laws, would have done in the middle of nowhere in a vast wilderness in seventeenth-century Sudan. Novelists embellish their facts because they may have to (for example) describe the musical bowel movements of a glutton in the middle of a scarce meal, even if such the noises were absent! So don't take catchy "commercial" phrases from a scribe like me as sources of wisdom!
Anyway, I'm trying to put this historical event of our times, precipitated by the very grandson of Ramogi the Great, into prophetic and escatological context (you may use your GoogleSearch or Dictionary here), even though I am no prophet.
Don't misunderstand me: novelists purposes are never vain, even as their truths are embellished. The reader walks away with some new knowledge and some truth from amidst some half-truths. The Novelist has some agenda though, even as he may just be some innocent storyteller. You may read a story and come out with a plethora of literary devices used--- virgin metaphors, oxymorons---all products of the language, slang and culture he or she lives. But most novelists don't wake up and say, "I'll use so many metaphors in this action packed, boiler of a paragraph." The novelist, often, is just talking to you, on a street, at a diner, in bed without thinking about the literary classification of his or her work.
But this project is taking me long to complete because the characters such as Ramogi the Great were not mere men; their wives were not ordinary women; their decisions could have impeached a modern President; they walked under a special cloud; they fasted and prayed more often than you and I, because their burdens were weightier and their circumstances more dire than any modern president would ever face, even if these ancestors could have had responsibilities over less than 200 men!
But even if the final novel may end up being a mere product of my imagination, I want my readers to realise that we as MAN have travelled a difficult road, and are here today because of sacrifices made by those before us. Tread the land with reverence; fast and pray more often, think before you burn 50 gallons of gas chasing an illusive girlfriend or boyfriend; eat what you need and not what you want; donate when you can!
Happy New Year
Joseph R Alila
(Author: WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART)
It is a tough project. I am grabbing every catchy phrase and idea that visit my dreams. Writing one line is taking me two days, on some cloggy days. You must be wondering why? when the history of the Luo is out there.
This is why: Novelists are not historians; they are not prophets, even as their works may foretell some events , as Novelist JR Alila in the closing chapter in THE WISE ONE OF RAMOGILAND. They are not bound by any truths. They have to try to relive the lives of some of the subjects of their imaginations and creations. Novelists try to dig into the hows and whys, even if these are unusual or untrue. For example, they have to imagine what their subjects could have done if faced with a hyena eating a Buffalo; or when forced to live in a cave of serpents like a Special Forces Soldier; or what a woman, ejected by her in-laws, would have done in the middle of nowhere in a vast wilderness in seventeenth-century Sudan. Novelists embellish their facts because they may have to (for example) describe the musical bowel movements of a glutton in the middle of a scarce meal, even if such the noises were absent! So don't take catchy "commercial" phrases from a scribe like me as sources of wisdom!
Anyway, I'm trying to put this historical event of our times, precipitated by the very grandson of Ramogi the Great, into prophetic and escatological context (you may use your GoogleSearch or Dictionary here), even though I am no prophet.
Don't misunderstand me: novelists purposes are never vain, even as their truths are embellished. The reader walks away with some new knowledge and some truth from amidst some half-truths. The Novelist has some agenda though, even as he may just be some innocent storyteller. You may read a story and come out with a plethora of literary devices used--- virgin metaphors, oxymorons---all products of the language, slang and culture he or she lives. But most novelists don't wake up and say, "I'll use so many metaphors in this action packed, boiler of a paragraph." The novelist, often, is just talking to you, on a street, at a diner, in bed without thinking about the literary classification of his or her work.
But this project is taking me long to complete because the characters such as Ramogi the Great were not mere men; their wives were not ordinary women; their decisions could have impeached a modern President; they walked under a special cloud; they fasted and prayed more often than you and I, because their burdens were weightier and their circumstances more dire than any modern president would ever face, even if these ancestors could have had responsibilities over less than 200 men!
But even if the final novel may end up being a mere product of my imagination, I want my readers to realise that we as MAN have travelled a difficult road, and are here today because of sacrifices made by those before us. Tread the land with reverence; fast and pray more often, think before you burn 50 gallons of gas chasing an illusive girlfriend or boyfriend; eat what you need and not what you want; donate when you can!
Happy New Year
Joseph R Alila
(Author: WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART)
Friday, January 2, 2009
THE DRAMA OF LIFE
The drama of life and its contradictions, as captured in JR Alila's novel, "Not on My Skin," play out inside a Cafe on Oak Street in the fictional city of Harmony, New York. Four patrons are permanent faces in the cafe evening crowd. They include Sam the Ladykiller, Pierre the snoop, Dave Ochome the poet and Frank. Though these gentlemen from the suburbia appreciate their mutual presence in a ten-by-ten-by-ten (cubic feet) space in the downtown Cafe, they live their individual evenings in silence, as if the world never was at war in Somalia, Iraq, Congo, Durfour and Afghanistan; as if the AIDS epidemic never visited mankind; as if hurricanes, tornadoes and floods never visited the land; as if several elction cycles never graced the land. The Cuban Girl, a Service Attendant, rightly calls these gentlemen Dummies. The only real man in the Cafe is rather challenged individual, Alex, who is a bother to all in his innocent utterances. But Alex is the only tumpet of the true feelings of the privately bigotted patrons. When at his best, Alex unmasks the dirt behind some of the patron's thin skins, even as these getlemen must cry, "Not on My Skin," in silence, for sure!
SOURCE (Copyrighted)
NOT ON MY SKIN
By Joseph R. Alila
http://www.createspace.com/
SOURCE (Copyrighted)
NOT ON MY SKIN
By Joseph R. Alila
http://www.createspace.com/
Thursday, January 1, 2009
OF CURSES, SAINTS AND BIGOTS
I am author Joseph R. Alila. In THE MILAYI CURSE, which is my second novel, I bring to my readers and fans a spiritual story of people caught up in a conflict between isles of love within a sea of hate; a conflict between a conservative and prejudicial, old perspective of life against the hope and innocence of youth; a struggle between a new Christian religious perspective and an entrenched traditional, religious order. The battlefield is for the people's souls, with Father James on one side and Mrs. Milayi on the other, and the rest in between.
A family divide with a historical origin has survived for centuries, and continues to haunt great-grandchildren of the original protagonists, two cousins—the Jamokos and the Milayis. The cold war and social schism within the clan is such that neither side could inherit a widow from the opposing side of the clan divide and successfully sire a male child. That the Jamokos are generally rich and the Milayis generally poor, and that this class schism was the result of the original conflict, has not helped the situation.
But there are a few Saints on ether side of clan-divide: two boys (and now men) whose fates are tied to academic achievements; a rich Jamoko man who sponsors a Milayi boy’s education—when a Church Mission establishes a school; a Priest, Father James, who ministers to the troubled souls of his polarized congregation, and is the secret conduit of the scholarship from Jamoko to the Milayi boy’s education trust.
This battle is being fought the more intensely in the hearts of two women in the lives of two boyhood friends—a friendship that outlives their ages and changes in fortune. Mrs Jamoko (the Mayor's daughter) is not amused that her husband—Councillor Jamoko—is playing 'servant' to a Milayi politician (Charles). An educated Milayi (Charles, an MP) is the new voice of the clan—a role that only Divine Providence could have established. But his mother, Mrs. Consolata Milayi, believes that the Jamokos are out to destroy her son, Charles Milayi. Caught up in the war within the souls, is Father James, the keeper of Confessional Secrets, and a constant listener and counselor to Mrs. Milayi.
Father James has to reveal to Mrs. Milayi the little Secret between her son’s success and David Jamoko’s generosity, during what could have been her last rites. She wakes up from her self-inflicted spiritual wounds, and prison of hate against the Jamokos, and becomes a champion of reconciliation within the clan.
The Milayi Curse
By Joseph R. Alila
www.lulu.com/810018
http://www.amazon.com/
A family divide with a historical origin has survived for centuries, and continues to haunt great-grandchildren of the original protagonists, two cousins—the Jamokos and the Milayis. The cold war and social schism within the clan is such that neither side could inherit a widow from the opposing side of the clan divide and successfully sire a male child. That the Jamokos are generally rich and the Milayis generally poor, and that this class schism was the result of the original conflict, has not helped the situation.
But there are a few Saints on ether side of clan-divide: two boys (and now men) whose fates are tied to academic achievements; a rich Jamoko man who sponsors a Milayi boy’s education—when a Church Mission establishes a school; a Priest, Father James, who ministers to the troubled souls of his polarized congregation, and is the secret conduit of the scholarship from Jamoko to the Milayi boy’s education trust.
This battle is being fought the more intensely in the hearts of two women in the lives of two boyhood friends—a friendship that outlives their ages and changes in fortune. Mrs Jamoko (the Mayor's daughter) is not amused that her husband—Councillor Jamoko—is playing 'servant' to a Milayi politician (Charles). An educated Milayi (Charles, an MP) is the new voice of the clan—a role that only Divine Providence could have established. But his mother, Mrs. Consolata Milayi, believes that the Jamokos are out to destroy her son, Charles Milayi. Caught up in the war within the souls, is Father James, the keeper of Confessional Secrets, and a constant listener and counselor to Mrs. Milayi.
Father James has to reveal to Mrs. Milayi the little Secret between her son’s success and David Jamoko’s generosity, during what could have been her last rites. She wakes up from her self-inflicted spiritual wounds, and prison of hate against the Jamokos, and becomes a champion of reconciliation within the clan.
The Milayi Curse
By Joseph R. Alila
www.lulu.com/810018
http://www.amazon.com/
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