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.

 

Njeri’s blog www.Kenyanpoet.blogspot.com has been running for more than three years. It has since grown to incorporate other forms of art as well as host other poets. She has contributed immensely to the promotion of Kenyan Poetry not only on stage but also through the Internet through her reviews on art performances and by encouraging up and coming poets to start blogs and eventually share their work through performance. She is currently part of the Global Voices Online - an online portal for citizen journalists, as a writer on African Arts.

Njeri Wangare has established herself as the voice of reason and change in the Kenyan poetry circles, mainly due to the content and theme of her poems which range from Culture, religion, human rights, technology and everyday challenges in the Kenyan society.

Here are samples of her collection due from Nsemia Inc. Publishers in March 2010.

Typical Woman

I am your typical girl from the village

Who was taught that trousers are for men

Shorts for boys

And

Dresses for women and girls.

My grandmother always insisted

Red ink appeared on the lips of those who drank blood

Paint on nails was as rare to see as the occasional chapattis made over the festive period

I am your typical woman from the slopes

I wake up when the sun is still hiding far in the horizon.

Walk hours on end to the river to put water in the 3 mitungis (buckets)

Three times I go back and forth,

The cows need to drink, clothes washed

The utensils from last night washed

Njeri and Kamau with bathe tomorrow

My husband

Snoring like a pig

Wakes up and shouts

Wanjiru Winaku? (Wanjiru where are you?)

Wewe ni mwanamke ama mfano! (Are you a woman or an example of one)

“I am going to Nairofi to rook for a real woman”

A woman who is learned

A woman with kirathi (class)

Not rike you

Every time I want

Always compraining

Head, back, feet, stomach, teeth, hair, ah!

I want a Nairofi woman

Aii! I hate Nairofi women, those whish my husband wants

Yet he can’t have for more than a night

These women, is rike their eyes have been ricked by wild cats

They oroways want things

I want pizza (what in God’s name is that?)

I want a hand-bag

I want a dress

I want money

They only return his smiles when they can smell money on him

Like dogs on heat they follow him everywhere

Kwamaiko, sirikiso bar, they even have no shame

Coming into the compound asking for Mike!

Ati -Mathe ako wapi Mike? (Woman, where is Mike)

Michael ni nyukwa? (Is Michael your mother?)

Look at them, these women,

They behave so badly like it’s going out of style

Like the solea I still apply to my face

Like the hot comb I still use to fry my hair

These women behave like wild cats

With painted faces, like Wangu the witch

Torn clothes like a cow was eating them.

tight trousers I wonder if they were poured into them

And panties peeping out of their behinds like they want to come out and be worn on top.

But they say that I am not a well behaved woman,

That I am a shame to real women

They say that my head covered in mother’s union head scarf,

long dress, cracked feet and plain face

Should be cultural artefacts at the national museum

I say

They can go jump in a river

They are the real WBB

Women Behaving Badry.

Digital Hearts

There was a time when a mouth, eyes, ears, a touch

Were the essentials in a conversation

Humans were more in touch with one another and with nature

Watching, listening and touching

A sight of migrating birds meant an approaching storm,

Change in seasons or looming danger.

The tree’s whispers of cool sounds soothed our minds into peace

The crackling fall of a branch and singing of birds’ music,

Made love to our souls deepening our bond with what is real.

Now instead of facing each other, we face book

Our voices have become keys that we punch on keyboards,

Our smiles and emotions have become similes and icons,

Our hearts no longer constantly antagonize our lips to say “I love you”

For we simply short text our messages from our hearts and minds

long enuf 2 min wat we r sayin but short enuf not 2 excd 160 charctrs

We no longer pour our hearts out in persuasive soothing flow of words and smitten voices

Our fingers have subjected the feelings that the lips, eyes and face could never fill in a book

To cold machines making us similar to robots with the only difference being

We sit behind actual robots.

We are baring our lives, captured moments and souls to the digital world

Strangers whom we would never invite in to our homes

Now see the bottom of our beds the insides of our loos and beneath our garments

To fantasize, masturbate and stalk our digitized selves

Like the spider web that entangles a fly to its demise

We have gotten ourselves caught up in the world web

Yet in this connected world of digital bits and bytes,

We lost our heart bits and bought into gadgets to substitute our five senses

I ask you,

Are we connecting with each other or with technology?

Because we lost our human touch somewhere in the zeros and ones of this digital age.

My soul man

You are the pause in between my thoughts,

The space in between the dots

In motion to form words, fought

out emotions from heart to tongue, sought,

After notions of what real love ought,

To become.

You are the pace in between my heart’s beat,

The phase in between the rhythmic hit,

Of boom boom that beats in my chest, heat

that vibrates through my body, bit

by bit I, fall into a fit of emotional deed.

You are the daze in between my iris,

The gaze in between looks

of disbelief that fill my mind, flukes

that tie my tongue, legs, hooks

that hangs my desires like garments, books,

of love, poetry, song, can never quite cook

the meal that is my devotion to you

You are the gait in my walk

The depth in my talk

The vessel in my dock

The hardness in my rock

The awe in my folk

You are my soul man

 

Wangari performs regularly at various poetry spots in Kenya’s capital city Nairobi as well as in institutions and companies where is invited from time to time.

Njeri can be reached a Njeri This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . You can also follow her at Global Voices Online.