Garfield Ellis – Story Teller & Social Commentator
Sunday, 15 November 2009 15:41
Mwandishi
Garfield Ellis, author of Till I’m Laid To Rest, an upcoming title from Nsemia Inc. Publishers, grew up in Jamaica, the eldest of nine children. He studied marine engineering, management and public relations in Jamaica and in a varied career worked as a marine engineering officer on board ships, as engineering supervisor, and placement director of the Jamaica Maritime Institute. He has also worked as both the circulation and operations manager of the Jamaica Observer morning newspaper.
In between career changes and in preparation to eventually spend his life with his one love, writing, he completed his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Miami, on full scholarship as a James Michener Fellow.
Enock Matundura, author of Kivuli cha Sakawa, an upcoming title from Nsemia Inc. Publishers, and famously known as Bitugi Matundura in the literary circles was born in Bomoseri village, Gucha District in 1973 in Kenya. He grew up in Kericho and went to KipketerPrimary School. He later joined the Starehe Boys’ Centre and School for his secondary education before studying for a degree in education at MoiUniversity.
Thereafter, Matundura worked briefly as a news editor for the national broadcaster, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation before going to graduate school where he attained a Master of Arts degree in Swahili studies at the University of Nairobi. He had a short stint at Nation Media Group before venturing into teaching at local universities.
Njeri Wangare is a multi talented Kenyan poet and performer, IT specialist and arts blogger.
Njeri’s love for the arts began at an early age through her appreciation of African culture. This, she found to be well expressed in many of the books that she started reading while still young and they have shaped the person she has now become.
She penned her first poem in 2004. Three years later she made her first attempt in front of an audience, performing her poetry. She is now among the most talented Kenyan poets and performers.
Moraa Gitaa, author of Crucible for Silver and Furnance for Gold, was born, bred and raised in the port city of Mombasa, Kenya’s second largest city. She has lived and worked in the coastal beach town all her life and only recently moved to Nairobi where she is a fulltime writer and is working on plans to initiate an organization that provides books for disadvantaged children residing in informal settlements and those challenged by dyslexia, a condition that had challenged her daughter.
She attended the Aga Khan group of schools in Mombasa and studied Administration and IT at the Coast College of Commerce.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 04 November 2009 15:58 )
Nemwel Atemba - Oral Tradition Recorder
Saturday, 15 August 2009 00:08
Mwandishi
Nemwel Atemba, Author
AbaGusii Wisdom Revisted
Nemwel Mogere Atemba (author of Abagusii Wisdom Revisited - available fromNsemia Inc. Publishers in Spring 2010) was born in 1956, to young peasant parents at Boking’oina village in the then larger Kitutu Location, in the then Kisii district. He relocated to Nyansiongo settlement scheme in 1965 and after school in 1977, moved to Nairobi for training and employment, where he has resides to date.
He went to school at Tambacha and Nyansiongo primary schools, NyanturagoSecondary school (where in 1975, he set a record of being the very first student in the school to attain a Division one (1) in the “O” levels). He proceeded to MachakosBoysHigh School, Eastern province where he passed his “A” levels well in 1977. Thereafter, he taught for two years at MangaGirlsHigh School before joining the Kenya Railways Corporation for training in Management and Administration fields.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 25 November 2009 05:55 )
Christopher Okemwa - Poet & Dancer
Friday, 14 August 2009 23:44
Mwandishi
Okemwa’s childhood was unique, riddled with poverty, despair and loneliness. Out of school most of the time, due to fees, he sat on an ant-hill outside their rural home watching the colours of the rainbow on the rural sky. On fine days he would run about with other boys of similar circumstances to catch grasshoppers and butterflies in the vast fields next to theriver banks while, at the same time, watching the orange rays of thesetting sun slowly sinking in the western horizon. During market days Okemwa would sit with other little boys beside the road and watched people carrying their wares to the market, counting the number of vehicles that drove by, while making faces and gestures at children who accompanied their parents to the market. With no basics in life, and being brought up with just a mother, Okemwa didn’t enjoy the life other children in the neighbourhood had. In the poem Gong, he vividly captures the true texture and feel of his childhood:
(Note: this review appeared in the East African Standard (a Kenyan newspaper) on March 29th, 2009.)
A love story through hard times
Times like now in Kenya need some inspiring. In a land that is desolate, assaulted by a political leadership that seems to live elsewhere but sojourns here once in a while to issue political proclamations, hope diminishes and the soul is attacked by despair. In a country battered by ‘ill winds’ blowing from the mouths of politicians, stories of determination and survival are worthy listening to. One such story is Moraa Gitaa’s debut novel Crucible for Silver and Furnace for Gold.
This is a story of love enduring hardship and hopelessness. It is the story of the re-birth, figuratively, of Lavina, a woman who had at one time given up hope for life and decided to commit suicide. But when she is rescued by one Giorgio from the waters of the Ocean in Malindi, the encounter leads to an enduring love between the two – a black woman driven to the doorsteps of self-annihilation and a white man desirous of a challenge to make the best out of life. The two, Lavina and Giorgio, are ‘creators’: the former a sculptor and the latter a real estate developer.But the story of the two lovers is used as a canvas by Gitaa to paint several themes about contemporary Kenya.
