Literary Blog Dedicated to JR Alila's Novels and Poems. Home to Alila's new novel, THE LUO DREAMERS' ODYSSEY: FROM THE SUDAN TO AMERICAN POWER
Ocampo’s arrival in Nairobi is being waited with dread. His agenda, it turns out, is already on President Kibaki’s Desk. He wants the Masterminds of the 2007 Presidential Election violence given him to prosecute either in Kenya or at any other venue the ICC choses. Read more at the standard.
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/InsidePage.php?id=1144027554&cid=4&ttl=Ocampo’s secret letter to Kibaki
Joseph R. Alila’s Novel, THE CHOIRMASTER (a spiritual tragedy),ISBN 1449541992, is now available for sale online. Go to https://www.createspace.com/3403394.
Author, Poet and Novelist Joseph R. Alila is a native of Kenya. A Chemist by training, JR Alila considers creative writing to be a natural consequence of the aging process. JR Alila has written extensively on his Luo people’s marriages and other cultural practices, criticizing where criticism is due, and shedding a sage’s light so as to put meaning to old traditions. JR Alila’s mournful caution against the practice of polygamy in the era of the AIDS and other viral diseases comes in “SUNSET ON POLYGAMY” and “THE THIRTEENTH WIDOW.”
Reflecting on his Christian journey, JR Alila has written extensively on pride, bigotry, prejudice and other moral shortcomings in the spiritual/cultural novels, “THE MILAYI CURSE,” “NOT ON MY SKIN,” “THE THIRTEENTH WIDOW,” “THE CHOIRMASTER” and “SINS OF OUR HEARTS.”
In his writings, Alila treats each of his characters as “the total person”—a writing style reflected in the novels, “WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART,” “SUNSET ON POLYGAMY,” “THE LUO DREAMERS’ ODYSSEY: FROM THE SUDAN TO AMERICAN POWER,” “NOT ON MY SKIN,” and “THE WISE ONE OF RAMOGILAND” –all of which are informative anthropological treatises on people and their physical, spiritual, political, cultural, and social circumstances.
When Alila set out to write he had no voice or agenda. His objective was to tell stories about his Luo people and his experiences as a Christian, a Luo, an African, and a World Scholar uprooted from his home base to chase scientific dreams. But Ten Novels and Two Epic Poems (“RATENG’ AND BRIDE” and “THIRTEEN CURSES ON MOTHER AFRICA”) later, he finds himself speaking increasingly for the burdened and voiceless African women and widows, in particular (as in “THE THIRTEENTH WIDOW,” “SUNSET ON POLYGAMY,” and “WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART”) whose yokes are the marital cultures and other practices whose original intentions were protective, but now turned spiritual death-traps from which there are no escape routes.
Alila has found his political voice in “RATENG’ AND BRIDE” (a word of caution, post, Kenya’s 2007 Presidential contest), “THE LUO DREAMERS’ ODYSSEY: FROM THE SUDAN TO AMERICAN POWER” (a historical-cum-spiritual fictional march of the Luo into the world’s only citadel of power—inspired by the Obama Presidency), and “THIRTEEN CURSES ON MOTHER AFRICA” (an Epic Poem of the theme: Africa is deluded with perilous crises, most of which are environmental or are due to amnesia, poor leadership choices, greed, and brother-on-brother conflicts, with Ebony the African Woman and her children bearing the brunt of their deadly consequences).
Ten novels and two epic poems later, in THE WISE ONE OF RAMOGILAND and “THE LUO DREAMERS’ ODYSSEY: FROM THE SUDAN TO AMERICAN POWER,” JR Alila comes out as a sage’s torch illuminating various aspects of the Luo journey, Luo cultural practices, Luo spirituality, and Luo thought.
Finally in the novel, “NOT ON MY SKIN,” JR Alila describes the American experience, consciousness and attitudes at street level, inside houses of worship and at the work place. This author, and native of Kenya, has come of age.
Why must the decision to hand over the “principal suspects” to Moreno Ocampo of the ICC be a joint one between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga? As of this time, only one these Kenyans sleeps in State House. Mr. Raila Odinga should write to Kofi Annan and Moreno Ocampo to let them know that, unlike the President, he, Mr. Raila Odinga, has no powers and keys to the key organs of state (the Judiciary, the Police, the Armed forces, the executive) to be able to order anybody to “round-up” or “try” or “enter nolle prosequi against” anybody the Hague wants! Mr. Odinga was the victim on post-election day. Why is he Mr. Odinga being asked to bury himself politically? This is political window-dressing of the first order, aimed at finishing off Mr. Odinga politically.
ICC Prosecutor, Moreno Ocampo, has a date shortly with President Kibaki (of PNU) and Prime Minister Odinga (of ODM). It is being reported that he needs an assurance from both leaders that once he is through with his investigations, the two leaders would hand over the “violence principals” (a number of whom are Ministers in ODM and PNU) he wishes to try at the Hague. Folks and fellow Kenyans, 
it is as clear and humiliating as that: Politicians are being asked to surrender their significant supporters to the Hague; a country, Kenya, is being told that it has no capicity to govern itself in a civil manner.
Kenya’s top cartoonist has gone puppet and political satire. He is under the skin of key actors in Kenya’s political landscape.
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Might means protecting the weak, offering help to the conquered, making friends with the vanquished and shaking hands with the enemy, and even marrying the enemy.
There is no need for war if it achieves no peace. Military strength means knowing when the war has been won. That is Luo wisdom. That is being on Ramogi Stool.
Good Luck President Obama, and Congratulations for Winning The Nobel Peace Prize; you didn’t ask for it, but the Prize has recognized your human efforts to assuage the pains of suffering world, give hope for the hopeless, defuse international tension and promote dialogue.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33237202/ns/politics-white_house?GT1=43001
President Barack Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize. His win surprising because nominations were in just before he became US President. But his calls for dialogue as a means to settle disputes was already well known. The United States is still at war in places around the world, but peace is never an absence of war (who said that?). War and armies can be used to proctect the helpless; previous foes can be friends if they “Unclench their Fists”. That appears to be President Obama’s thesis.
Yap! THE CHOIRMASTER by Joseph R. Alila (ISBN 144954199-2; 13 ISBN 978-144954199-6, https:/www.createspace.com/3403394), debuts in a week. I’m delighted about this spiritual endeavor on matters affecting every community of faith. Among a lot of Church Communities, the CHOIRMASTER often is a dilemma—an alternative center of power. If male, charismatic and single (unyoked), the CHOIRMASTER can can cause a lot of headaches and heartaches to man a mothers of available daughters (on a lighter note). Yet Evangelism works well with the CHOIRMASTER.
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