The Kenyan poet Jared Angira was born in 1947 and studied commerce at the University of Nairobi where he was also the editor of the journal Busara. He has spent much of his working life in the Kenyan civil service and published seven volumes of poetry. As a Marxist poet, he once proclaimed: “Karl Marx is my teacher; Pablo Neruda my class prefect (when I am in the classroom) and my captain (when I am on the battlefield).” His poetry shows a critical concern with social injustice in post-independence society and is often critical of Kenyan politics. This fact is evident in his poem “The Country of the Dead”–as his negative sentiment is expressed clearly by the title itself.
“The country of the dead
I speak
no answer
I weep
no pity
I watch
no colour
I listen
no sound
the country of the dead” (pg. 123)
Angira evinces a deeply personal and moral issue with the inequality he witnesses. Here, I believe “the dead” do not literally mean deceased human beings, but rather a sort of non-committal or inactive population that lacks the will or ability to take political/social action when necessary. How do these views reflect the beliefs of Karl Marx? What kinds of inequality exist within Kenya? Given that Angira studied Marx, what solutions might he propose to eradicate these social inequities?
In his poem “Manna”:
“Children wailed in hunger
Idle mothers rushed
To the screening chamber
Even mothers
Who had worked
Mighty hard
Sank in the scrum” (pg. 124)
We see a continuation of the theme of economic injustice and strife; thousands of innocent civilians are “hungry” and struggling to survive. Where else do these issues appear in the Kenya section of poetry? Can you make connections to other Kenyan poets, or poets from any region of Africa?
World Lit 2014 