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Marion Op het Veld's avatar

I would like to have dinner with Nelson Mandela. This because he not only is my hero, he also is a good story teller. I would specifically want to know where he got his resilience from and how he sees the future for a united Africa.

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Msanii Kimani wa Wanjiru's avatar

The elephant in the room "the future for a united Africa." That is an answer I would love to hear too especially with all that is happening at the moment. I am particularly saddened by the foreign debt that seems to be crippling and ensnaring the continent.

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Afro Literature Academisphere's avatar

Can Africa really be ONE? Note that my opinions do not represent those of all the members of our physical meetup.

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Masitsa Otunga's avatar

Dinner for me would be with Biko Jackson. I would love to behold him with my eyes, this man who has a way with words, who can weave a short story intricately so that it sounds like a whole novel. I would like to know if he is what he writes

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Msanii Kimani wa Wanjiru's avatar

Hopefully we can organise to collect questions that readers would like to ask him and get him to answer them. I am sure there are many who follow his writing closely like you.

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Stephen Musau's avatar

Ngugi wa Thiong'o remains to be that one inspiring writer for me. He brings out so many aspects in art work whether its in a novel, a play, short story or an essay. The question I would still ask him is how can artistic writing still influence social-economic and political change in 21st century knowing readers are turning so much into digital work and not books?

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Msanii Kimani wa Wanjiru's avatar

He is a legend that still stirs up heated discussion in his articles and papers/presentations.

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Afro Literature Academisphere's avatar

You sound like our forum material.

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Afro Literature Academisphere's avatar

Ha ha ha. Some members at out dinner thought otherwise. I took a middle stance.

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Jane KAY's avatar

It would be a toss between Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Adichie for their various impacts on me and my passion for African languages, views on life and open feminism and the African culture.

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Msanii Kimani wa Wanjiru's avatar

I see the conflict in the choices. That would be a great conversation. What are your thoughts on Ngugi's push to write in our languages? And your thoughts on African languages?

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Afro Literature Academisphere's avatar

Remember that even Ngugi's son, the one who wrote the novel "Nairobi Heat," wrote it in English. I think it is futile to propse African languages, or else African authors would have done it since the 1962 Makerere Conference.

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Afro Literature Academisphere's avatar

Ha ha ha. Trying to write in African languages would take us far back.

There are several research papers on this subject. The most recent one was written by a farmer in a Nigerian village who is also a local primary school teacher. His name is Okafor. He speaks Igbo and learned perfect English from books and YouTube videos. I’m not certain about the exact title of academic paper published in a reputable journal, but it’s something like: Okafor William's Exploration of African Writing - Navigating Standard English and Linguistic Futures

(Note: Please don’t use quotation marks when searching, as I may not have the exact title.)

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Afro Literature Academisphere's avatar

I feel you’re not being genuine, because none of those people wrote in an African language or spoke one in any video interview. Only Ngũgĩ wrote a few things in Kikuyu. If you need inspiration to speak African languages, you should credit the local palm wine seller in any African village. Our forum has some vintage tapes, but the family that donated them made us promise to share them when they return to Somalia from exile.

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Lucy's avatar

Please allow me to take two. NoViolet Bulawayo and Jackson Biko. I think I'd have a night full of laughter. Would also be refreshing to tap into their intelligence.

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Msanii Kimani wa Wanjiru's avatar

Interesting choices. Sometimes one is conflicted when given these kind of choices and picking the two is in order. I am hoping that one of this fine day, we will post questions to all these authors here.

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Shiro was Kimani's avatar

I would like to have dinner with Zukiswa Wanner. I love the way she weaves her stories, goes different places and explores the human experience with a twist. I would ask 'how do decide what to write about next?'

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Msanii Kimani wa Wanjiru's avatar

She has a way with words and ideas.

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Cajetan Boy's avatar

Ngugi Wa Thiong'o.

Has your insistence to write in Kikuyu had any lasting impact?

What?

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Msanii Kimani wa Wanjiru's avatar

There are actually many people still asking that question even on this platform. I hope that we can put this question to him one of this fine days.

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Msanii Kimani wa Wanjiru's avatar

What are your thoughts on writing in our languages?

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Cajetan Boy's avatar

I think it is a choice between the language one writes in best and the language their target audience understands best.

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Aghan Odero AGAN's avatar

Ben Okri. What particular real experiences triggered his creative crafting of the "The Famished Road" surreal world!?

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Msanii Kimani wa Wanjiru's avatar

A legend. Interesting question too. I hope that we will put this question to him one day.

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Hillary Lisimba's avatar

Ken Saro Wiwa. Africa Kills her Sun still reverberates through my mind years since I first read it. What was going through his mind when he penned that piece?

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Msanii Kimani wa Wanjiru's avatar

He was a great mind, no wonder the butcher of Abuja had him killed.

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Lucas Wafula's avatar

It would be Chimamanda. I would like to know how she manages to write in an easy way and push and push and push the reader to their limits. Also, I would like to know how she manages to write about some things that happened before her time, more like Shakespeare who wrote about places he had never been to.

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Msanii Kimani wa Wanjiru's avatar

These are interesting questions Lucas. Will try to use our network to see if we can put some of these questions to her.

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Jelvas Musau's avatar

Taban Lo Liyong; Would like to get a better feel behind his thought process when he was writing such material as Lexicographicide.

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Msanii Kimani wa Wanjiru's avatar

He of the literary barreness.

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Edwin wainanaina Kibe's avatar

George Orwell..How he forecasted where we are today as a country

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Msanii Kimani wa Wanjiru's avatar

Interesting Kiffe-Kibe. What about an African author too?

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Patrick Ngugi's avatar

Mbella Sonne Dipoko [Cameroonian poet]

He influenced my passion for poetry through his anthology BLACK AND WHITE IN LOVE.

I am always fascinated by his narrative in that story, so I would ask him, is it based on personal experience?

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Msanii Kimani wa Wanjiru's avatar

Fascinating. But what is your own experience as a poet, how close are the pieces you put out informed by personal experience?

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Masiga Asunza's avatar

Next question: why do you like that food?

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Msanii Kimani wa Wanjiru's avatar

Masiga, you didn't say which author you would go out with for dinner

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Masiga Asunza's avatar

Ngugi wa Thiongo

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Masiga Asunza's avatar

How do your literary works in the present ongoing scenarios or context?

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Afro Literature Academisphere's avatar

Which of Achebe’s novel do you want us to review for a discussion? Note that my opinions do not represent those of all the members of our physical meetup, although they read all our posts and we constantly watch videos together on Zoom. I will explicitly tag an opinion with something like “xyz is the forums general opionion“ whenever that is the case.

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