Descent from Cherang’any Hills: Memoirs of a Reluctant Academic

Book info:

Price in Kenya: Ksh 1800

Availability: All leading bookshops

To order online: write to info@macken.co.ke

The book, Descent from Cherang’any Hills: Memoirs of a Reluctant Academic, is a hard-hitting account written by Dr Benjamin E Kipkorir, Former Kenyan Ambassador to Washington. The book was launched on Friday 11^th December 2009 at the Lifestyle Mediastore, Westgate Shopping Centre, Westlands. The Guest of Honour during the launch was the Hon. Kenneth Marende, EGH, MP, Speaker of the National Assembly.

Ambassador Kipkorir’s memoirs are a stunning account told in captivating literary language, gripping phrases and simple sentences mortised to astonishing tightness. It is a breathtaking study in genius and plain perspiration – an exhilarating look deep inside the life of a man who as a boy struggled hard just to survive but still beat great odds to scale the highest

heights he possibly could. It is a story about what spawned and inspired,

birthed and moulded him to pull himself from nowhere to become an icon.

The memoirs are truly “Been there, done that, indeed!” Marakwet-born and

Cambridge-educated, Kipkorir has led several lives, any one of which could

have provided ample fodder for unforgettable memoirs.

A singular raconteur, the author weaves a tapestry – spanning many years –

in quick rapid-fire, both vivid and compelling. It’s a story to make one laugh,

a story to make one cry, to build one’s faith to maximise their potential, for it

is a story about possibilities.

We read with fascination as the quintessential Marakwet village boy with

almost frightful upbringing rises up gloriously and turns into a consummate

academic (albeit reluctantly), as he makes an epic journey through GAS

Tambach, Alliance High School, Makerere University and finally, to

Cambridge University, England.

Kipkorir, an astonishing figure of pure will, took his burning ambition to

equally deadly and fierce combat zones of war: study, the corporate world

and public service; working as a Deputy Clerk of the Sirikwa County Council,

a lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Executive Chairman of the Kenya

Commercial Bank and later, as Kenya’s Ambassador to Washington.

Then, in a cruel twist of fate, disaster struck the Kipkorirs’ closely-knit family

with the force of a hurricane – and the family was shaken to a jolt – when

Kipkorir’s wife, Lea, was diagnosed with cancer. The author nostalgically

relives his last days with Lea in a language that is heartbreaking, poetic and

haunting; he recounts joys past and envisions what could have been.

Despite the passionately penetrating, often unflattering accounts of his

personal and family life, these memoirs are a work of history. Indeed, it is also

a story about Kenya as the author retraces the history of the nation,

highlighting its triumphs, struggles and political intrigues. The book is a

balanced critique of both the Kenyatta and Moi administrations – which he

was exposed to. It is also a source of new exciting information – especially the

chapter on local government, viewed against the yearning for a new

constitution.

Some of the other highlights include: the genesis of land conflict in the Rift

Valley, why devolution is not a new thing and why it is the way to go, the

intrigues of presidential appointments and sackings (he was sacked over the

Radio when he was Executive Chairman of Kenya Commercial Bank) and

much, much more!

Open bias dims the Lit Nobel Prize

By John Mwazemba

Published in The Sunday Standard on 18/10/2009

Nobel Prizes have sparked endless diatribe and angry denunciations. The Nobel Prize in Literature has been dogged by bitter controversy over the years — shrouding it in dark mystery and cliff-hanging surprises.

Rudyard Kipling won it. The great Leo Tolstoy did not. Elfriede Jelinek, known for her writings on sexual perversity, was the 2004 laureate in Literature. The flamboyant Wole Soyinka clinched it. It has eluded Chinua Achebe for decades.

Frustrated critics have demeaned and dismissed it as being "voted on and handed out by a committee of five obscure Norwegians selected by the Norwegian parliament".

The 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature had started a global debate when a little known European Herta M¸ller won it. As critic Thom Geier wrote, "Once again, the Swedish Academy has selected a virtual unknown as its Nobel laureate in literature, Romanian-born German novelist/poet Herta M¸ller. ‘Herta who?’ You ask. You’re not alone. M¸ller is a writer who ranked far, far down the list at the bookmakers Ladbroke.

Unknown writers

Only a handful of her books have been translated into English, and most of those appear to be semi-autobiographical novels about erudite young women of German ancestry who grew up in, and struggled against, the now-fallen Communist regime in late 20th Century Romania."

Another bitter critic was more blunt, ". . . almost without fail, the Nobel laureate in Literature turns out to be an obscure writer, usually European, whose works are hardly known outside of a few German-speaking and Germano-centric countries."

Euro-centrism

Critics have worried that the Nobel Prize for Literature is becoming more ‘’Eurocentric’’. Permanent Secretary of the Nobel Foundation Peter Englund admitted in an interview with the Associated Press after the award was announced that "If you are European (it is) easier to relate to European literature. . . It’s the result of psychological bias that we really try to be aware of. It’s not the result of any programme.’’

To be fair to the judges, writers from all over the world (including Africans) have won Nobel prizes in Literature over the years. However, as correctly noted elsewhere, "European-based authors, whether natives or emigrants, have had a virtual monopoly in recent times — a trend the committee has defended, apologised for and perpetuated."

Last year’s Nobel laureate in literature was Jean-Marie Gustave le Clezio of France, also little known and with very little works in English.

One wonders whether the Nobel committee reads the literature of the world or just European literature — and thus their obvious bias in the selection of winners. Unless this trend is checked, the Nobel Prize in Literature will continue losing its lustre.