Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Writing My Nairobi

I learnt to tell stories in a world where there was no theory. I knew no Feminism; I was just a boy telling the stories of the life and the living in the idiom of my world. I knew no historical materialism; class struggles, just that there were things we didn’t have- things we wanted- and that Moi and Kenyatta had stolen them.

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There is a Nairobi where Dinda, my mtaa Pharmacist, refers to women (and cars, phones, stereos) as Malaya.

Malaya, (n.); (Pl.) Malayas

Translation:

ENG: virgin (kamalaya). Girl. Woman. The way a man or a woman who has sex with men, women and mzungu pets for a living describes him/herself. A kept man. A man who has been tested and proven a sex machine.

NGO SPEAK: GirlChild™

KIS: bikira. Mwana dada. Jogoo (Nyap-Teknisheni)

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