BOOK REVIEW:NAIROBI HEAT. . .
Mukoma Wa Ngugi is an African Writer based in Norwalk, CT. He was
born in the united states and grew up in Kenya. He is the son of the
renowned author Ngugi wa Thiongo. His not only an author ,but a poet
as well as an essayist. He is well know as a political analyst for BBC
Focus on Africa Magazine. Ngugi was also the former co-editor for the
well-known Pambazuka News.
Ngugi’s latest work is entitled “ Nairobi Heat” (Melville House
Publishing 2011) For those who like a book full of action, thriller and
suspense this is the book for you. The book begins with a murder of a
white girl found dead at the doorstep of an African Professor
Hakisimana in Madison, Wisconsin. This is becomes the “it” story for
every one wants to get to the bottom of it. The detective in charge of
the Case is Ishmael an African American. Ishmael is Finds himself
traveling to Africa after a mysterious phone call to find out the truth
behind the murder. As Ishmael, the detective in charge of the
investigation, puts it, “If I was to give advice to black criminals, I
would tell them this: 'do not commit crimes against white people
because the state will not rest until you are caught.'”
Once in Nairobi, or “Nairobbery” as his Kenyan police liaison, David
Odhiambo – called simply ‘O’ ,Ishmael confronts the fact that in Africa,
he may be black, but to Africans he is ‘Mzungu, mzungu’ – a white man.
Ishmael soon takes this label as badly as if a fellow American had
called him a nigger. It is a strange irony to him that as an African
American to other black Africans he is just another wealthy tourist –
a white man. It takes more than the color of your skin to determine
your identity.
He also discovers that the whites in Africa, as well as the wealthy
Africans, live in walled and guarded compounds and that life is cheap.
It quickly becomes apparent that someone does not want him to learn
the truth about Joshua or the dead girl or the true workings of the
Foundation, Refugee Centers or charities that supposedly are helping
the displaced refugees of the civil wars.
“Ngugi not only writes Africa, but also writes great noir in this somewhat
disturbing, but beautiful piece of crime fiction that breaths that
rarified air of great fiction. There is a certain deliberate cadence to the
prose in the telling that works very well and the narration is excellent.
The dialogue is real without being cliché. The twists and turns of the
tale are a morass because so many characters have so much invested
in keeping the truth behind the curtain. But Ngugi uses these twists
that could otherwise bog the story down to draw a picture of Kenya
and her people and also the people and organizations big and small
that have their own agendas in mind, whether in enriching themselves
or in helping the people. There is blood and violence as the bodies
pile up, but it hardly seems gratuitous since Ngugi is so successful in
conveying that sense of place that is Africa.”( Paragraphy by Tony Jundt)
Written and composed by
D.Gaitha
Artist and Creative Director
of D.Gaitha Creative Studio.
IDEA DIAPORA 25
Ngugi’s ability to weave a complex narrative, which connects crime
and racial tensions in the US to an in-depth knowledge of Kenya and
its nuances, to Rwanda and its genocide past within this African crime
thriller, is nothing but the work of a genius craftsman and wordsmith.
It is hard to find any faults with Ngugi’s novel. His pen promises us
more intriguing stories. This is one book yo ԁݥ