In the epic poem, “RATENG’ AND BRIDE,” Joseph R Alila (Author of such novels as “Whisper to My Aching Heart” and Sunset on Polygamy”) pleads with the hero (Rateng’) to abandon a lifelong ambition of reigning in a killer, illusive Bride, and redeeming his honor and Ramogi people’s collective pride.
Of Rateng’s illusive Bride-call her Power, Leadership or The Presidency-Alila reminds his hero of her corrupting, material allure and deadly charms. Like a gem, a Powerful Presidency corrupts everybody it touches, and its corrupting effects linger like the nauseating smell of a scared skunk.
Employing rich imagery and proverbs, and never shy to go Luo vernacular with proverbs, in “RATENG’ AND BRIDE,” Alila has played his satirical hand, again, and demonstrated his knowledge of the political landscape of Kenya.
Category Archives: Poetry
Thirteen Curses on Mother Africa
Looking back to Joseph R Alila’s epic poem, THIRTEEN CURSES ON MOTHER AFRICA, I shudder as to how much change has taken place in Africa since 2007. A number of dictatorships have gone or are in peril. Get it here
http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-R.-Alila/e/B002QD5TDM
Write!
http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-R.-Alila/e/B002QD5TDM
In my poetry, I am not a protest artist, but rather I am an unwilling, untrained artist disillusioned with the world, Africa and Kenya; I am imperfect yet I find myself calling AU, Africa, Kenya to reform their ways. I have done this at a disadvantage because I have no training to “poetize,” if there is such a word. But I am not alone; my inspiration are our village poets–the soloists who sing their hearts out like birds of the field; they were born with the same voice as any of us; the difference is that they answered the call to mourn or praise in song. The widows in my village sang their hearts out for their departed; we called the timid who never opened their mouths to their departed husbands “mon ma numu” (half-baked or raw wives), and doubted their love for their departed. Then we considered the man who never sang a war song a boy. What I have said is that poetry like singing is as natural as sneezing. Write.
Readers and Fans
I have a few copies of my novels to give away for good summer readers.
Leave a comment here.
JR Alila
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002QD5TDM
ARE WE A LITERATE GENERATION?
I publish from abroad on great Kenyan political and cultural themes. My Novels have been rated by aliens as “Literary,” (Not on My Skin; Sins of Our Hearts) ”For the times” (The Luo Dreamers Odyssey); “Messianic” (The Wise One of Ramogiland); “A novel for a woman’s heart ” (Whisper to My Aching Heart), and the list of comments continues. But I wonder if we are still a reading generation, with library cards. Yet back home in East Africa, literary critics decrying of a literary drought, meaning that nobody writes a novel that begs you to think; a novel that goes beyond the emotion and demands that the reader reads between the lines. I am not exactly young, having been born in the mid 1950s, but my point of view was not tainted by colonial strings. All I remember as a little boy of six was my mother playing activist for either KANU or KADU; all I remember growing up was the order of the sixties descending into the strife of the late sixties and early seventies, as Kenyan leaders turned their guns of hate onto other Kenyans. Yet it was a Kenya where you applied for a post and received a response in the mail, it was a Kenya in which you went to a school you chose, your grades allowing. All that was until the so-called “district focus.” My writings are shaped by personal experiences in the 1960s to the19190s. But as a traveled man, some of my novels such as NOT OF MY SKIN, THE CHOIR MASTER, SINS OF OUR HEARTS, THE LUO DREAMERS ODYSSEY: FROM THE SUDAN TO AMERICAN POWER and THE AMERICAN POLYGAMIST borrow from my diaspora experience (17 years is a long time on the road!).
But even as I write, I doubt if we as Kenyans, Africans, Americans, Europeans, Asians and Diaspora Africans still read. How many of us can sustain a debate without being abusive? Very few. How many of us can talk sense to a woman or man? Not many. The art of dialogue and verbal persuasion is dead in us. Don’t tell me that “But I managed to round up a man or woman up with whom I share the house.” That is the point: you don’t want to call her ”my wife” or him “my husband.” The reason he or she has not walked with you to some man or woman of God to tie the vows is because you lack the verbal abilities of generations before, that priorities have changed for women and men since ten years ago, just made your verbal task and marriage chances the more difficult.
Read relevantly to empower yourself as a human being who can think, talk and act. Read.
Get Novels by JR Alila here:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002QD5TDM
THIRTEEN CURSES ON MOTHER AFRICA
JR Alila’s Poetry collection, THIRTEEN CURSES ON MOTHER AFRICA, is a sociopolitical commentary on the plethora of maladies, natural and manmade, and their burdens on the African continent. It is the poet’s contention that most of Africa’s problems arise from the loss of the sense of “Africanness” (moral code). Others arise from a synergist effect of a conflagration of global factors; yet others are natural or geographical. One must mourn for: The Longsuffering African Woman. The child mothers. The child soldiers. The horrors of war. The curse of globalization. The curse of oil and gems. The curse of poverty. The curse of disease and hunger. The curse of Ebony’s ureliable alien lovers. One must wonder whether Africa is under a continent-wide curse. In a continent where the cell phone is everywhere, why are there no passable roads and clean water? In this era of a virtual economy, why is Africa still bartering her diamonds and tea for cell phones? And where is Africa’s son AU?
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002QD5TDM
Never Again Ever*
Fellow Kenyan,
Didn’t we all sing
As the wise ones
Stirred the magic pot:
Divining, praying and prophesying in search
of the way forward?
Fellow Kenyan,
We all sang
And yearned for change,
Appeared to have been on course:
We hoped it would be
The liberation from tribalism;
We hoped it would be
The liberation from corruption;
We hoped it would be
The liberation from sycophancy;
We hoped it would be
The liberation from the politics
Of kickbacks and rewards.
Fellow Kenyan,
All that would not be,
Even as the people had willed
Change at the ballot-box
Because an evil cabal of oligoks
Would subvert the people’s will,
Yet again;
And turn you against me,
And I against you,
And wife against husband,
And doctor against patient,
And turn our ballots
Into weapons of mutual death.
Fellow Kenyan,
Arms ONE AGAINST ANOTHER.
Fellow Kenyan,
Never again ever
Shall we allow ourselves
To be played ONE AGAINST ANOTHER
By a manipulative, powerful
Cabal of evil elites.
Fellow Kenyan,
Lest we again become
Mere expendable pawns
In this war of a manipulative cabal
of voracious, evil-and-powerful elites.
Fellow Kenyan,
Never, never again should we
Allow our ballots to be turned
Into child-killing
weapons of death.
Fellow Kenyan,
There is only one mother
between us, and that mother
is our Dear Kenya;
And we must not allow her
To go to these manipulative
Crows of Nairobi.
Source: RATENG’ AND BRIDE (a poem)
by Joseph R. Alila, June
* http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002QD5TDM
JR Alila’s Novels
Which of JR Alila’s novels are you reading this fall? There are issues out there to meet any of your needs: from spirituality to politics to culture.
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002QD5TDM
Author Joseph R. Alila
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.
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002QD5TDM
Author Joseph R Alila, AUTHOR CENTRAL
Author, Poet and Novelist Joseph R. Alila is a native of Kenya. JR Alila is a Chemist by training and considers creative writing to be a natural consequence of the aging process. JR Alila has written extensively on his Luo people’s marriage and other cultural practices, criticizing them 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 virus comes in SUNSET ON POLYGAMY. JR has written extensively on pride, bigotry and prejudice in the spiritual/cultural novels, THE MILAYI CURSE, NOT ON MY SKIN, and SINS OF OUR HEARTS. http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002QD5TDM
Anthropological Paradigm
In his writings, JR treats each of his characters as “the total person”—a writing style that has made such works as 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, to be informative anthropological treatises on people and their physical, spiritual, political, cultural, and social circumstances. http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002QD5TDM
Scholar, Luo, African, Christian
When JR 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 Eight 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 THE THIRTEENTH WIDOW, SUNSET ON POLYGAMY, and WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART) whose yokes are the marital culture and practices whose original intentions were protective, but now turned spiritual death traps from which there is no escape. http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002QD5TDM
Political Voice
JR has found his political voice in RATENG’ AND BRIDE (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; theme: Africa is deluded with perilous crises, a lot of which are due to amnesia, poor leadership choices, greed, greedy friends and brother-on-brother conflicts, with Ebony the African Woman and her children bearing the brunt of their deadly consequences). http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002QD5TDM
Sage’s Torch
Eight novels and two epic poems later, in THE WISE ONE OF RAMOGILAND and THE LUO DREAMERS’ ODYSSEY: FROM THE pre=”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 – - attempting to put meaning to centuries of a people’s collective wisdom. http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002QD5TDM
The American Experience
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 has come of age.
All titles are available at amazon link.
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002QD5TDM
