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
Njeri can be reached a Njeri
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or
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. You can also follow her at Global Voices Online.




