I think and write alot about what pan-African history and thought mean for every day life issues. My mentors and icons are Frantz Fanon, Micere Mugo, Nikki Giovanni, Lewis R. Gordon and Tiyambe Zeleza.
I grew up where books by Chinua Achebe, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Frantz Fanon and Paulo Friere could be found in the family bookshelf. As a teenager and a young adult, I read these books, although my understanding gained a new dimension as a student in the United States and France. There, I came into contact with brute racism, and then everything I read began to fall into place.
However, I also met great people who have made me love life despite the evil that human beings can do to each other. Tiyambe Zeleza, whom I met in the US but had taught at my alma mater Kenyatta University, gave me the passion for writing by hosting my articles on his blog The Zeleza Post. I greatly admire him and my writing is generally modeled on his. I love his passion for Africa and the way every word he writes, every thought and every project are so tied to Africa rising.
Lewis R. Gordon has also had a huge influence on my life and thought. I am especially jazzed by two ideas. One, is the idea of (secular) theodicy, in which black people (or the oppressed) are blamed for not fitting into a faulty system because the system must always be held beyond reproach. This idea has been so fundamental in the way I view institutions and policies, especially in Africa where the default assumption, which comes from our colonial history, is that we are all crooks and the role of the law is to punish us and never to serve or guide us. I have therefore continually opposed policies that do not help us become better thinkers in service of humanity and the motherland. I have also linked this idea to Jesus's call for Sabbath to be for human beings, not human beings for the Sabbath. The second of Gordon's ideas that completely floors me is that of the ordinary life. Gordon's work basically assumes that our humanity is in our ordinary lives - that how we eat, sleep, move, love, grow, think, work, get sick and healed, and even how we die, indicates the extent to which our humanity is valued. Oppression occurs when extraordinary conditions distort our ability to do these ordinary things that make us human.
I simply love, love, love, Micere Mugo's poetry. Her beauty, strength and black consciousness emerge so powerfully in her work. Every time I look at her or listen to her, I remember what I aspire to be as a thinker and as a woman. She is just a great person. Also close to her in my heart is the poet Nikki Giovanni.
I'm also part of great group of people called Ajenda Afrika. The group was started by Muoki Mbunga, then an undergraduate student, to provide a forum where we could interact with African perspectives on various issues. Ajenda Afrika has since grown into a group bound by deep love and a desire for freedom for African people through faith.
But I also get my courage from a great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us and asserted the humanity of God's people. Malcolm X, Thomas Sankara, Patrice Lumumba, Queen Nzinga, Mary Nyanjiru, Cheikh Anta Diop, are just some of the great minds that inspire me.
Last and best, I am honored to have become the wife of the most wonderful man I know, Chris Lyimo. Our love for each other began with our love for writing, and we have grown in love together and have been able to bless others with our story. Chris is the fulfillment of everything I have spoken of here. Our marriage is the true love and revolution for me.
I grew up where books by Chinua Achebe, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Frantz Fanon and Paulo Friere could be found in the family bookshelf. As a teenager and a young adult, I read these books, although my understanding gained a new dimension as a student in the United States and France. There, I came into contact with brute racism, and then everything I read began to fall into place.
However, I also met great people who have made me love life despite the evil that human beings can do to each other. Tiyambe Zeleza, whom I met in the US but had taught at my alma mater Kenyatta University, gave me the passion for writing by hosting my articles on his blog The Zeleza Post. I greatly admire him and my writing is generally modeled on his. I love his passion for Africa and the way every word he writes, every thought and every project are so tied to Africa rising.
Lewis R. Gordon has also had a huge influence on my life and thought. I am especially jazzed by two ideas. One, is the idea of (secular) theodicy, in which black people (or the oppressed) are blamed for not fitting into a faulty system because the system must always be held beyond reproach. This idea has been so fundamental in the way I view institutions and policies, especially in Africa where the default assumption, which comes from our colonial history, is that we are all crooks and the role of the law is to punish us and never to serve or guide us. I have therefore continually opposed policies that do not help us become better thinkers in service of humanity and the motherland. I have also linked this idea to Jesus's call for Sabbath to be for human beings, not human beings for the Sabbath. The second of Gordon's ideas that completely floors me is that of the ordinary life. Gordon's work basically assumes that our humanity is in our ordinary lives - that how we eat, sleep, move, love, grow, think, work, get sick and healed, and even how we die, indicates the extent to which our humanity is valued. Oppression occurs when extraordinary conditions distort our ability to do these ordinary things that make us human.
I simply love, love, love, Micere Mugo's poetry. Her beauty, strength and black consciousness emerge so powerfully in her work. Every time I look at her or listen to her, I remember what I aspire to be as a thinker and as a woman. She is just a great person. Also close to her in my heart is the poet Nikki Giovanni.
I'm also part of great group of people called Ajenda Afrika. The group was started by Muoki Mbunga, then an undergraduate student, to provide a forum where we could interact with African perspectives on various issues. Ajenda Afrika has since grown into a group bound by deep love and a desire for freedom for African people through faith.
But I also get my courage from a great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us and asserted the humanity of God's people. Malcolm X, Thomas Sankara, Patrice Lumumba, Queen Nzinga, Mary Nyanjiru, Cheikh Anta Diop, are just some of the great minds that inspire me.
Last and best, I am honored to have become the wife of the most wonderful man I know, Chris Lyimo. Our love for each other began with our love for writing, and we have grown in love together and have been able to bless others with our story. Chris is the fulfillment of everything I have spoken of here. Our marriage is the true love and revolution for me.
