Monday, December 23, 2013
Why Billy Kahora is the right man to be steering Kenya’s literary journal
KWANI managing editor Billy Kahora addresses participants during the
KWANI? Litfest 2010 at University of Nairobi's 8-4-4 building on
December 14 2010. Photo/PHOEBE OKALL
If Billy Kahora had completed his
studies at the University of Nairobi and become a quantity surveyor as
was his original plan, we would have likely missed the scriptwriter for
Soul Boy and Nairobi Half-Life.
We would also have missed the short story writer whose work has been short-listed for the Caine Prize, who wrote The True Story of David Munyakei: Goldenberg Whistleblower;
and perhaps most importantly, we would have lost one of the key driving
forces behind Kwani?, Kenya’s premiere literary journal that has just
celebrated its tenth anniversary and has showcased countless young
writers, poets, photographers, cartoonists, illustrators and other kinds
of visual artists.
Fortunately, Mr Kahora figured out
before it was too late that he needed to change tack and try following
his primary passion, which was to become a journalist and creative
writer.
He dropped out of the university after his
second year and found a place at Rhodes University in South Africa to
study journalism.
He earned his first degree in 2004
and was well on his way to completing his second degree in Media
Studies when again he realised he didn’t want to become a media
academic.
Instead, he recalled what he really wanted to do, which was to write both fiction and creative non-fiction.
But even before he’d made up his mind, Mr Kahora was already writing award-winning ‘flash fiction’. The Girl at the End of the Sand earned him a short story prize at the prestigious Grahamstown Book Festival.
And despite staying down south until 2004, he kept a close watch on Kenya’s cultural scene.
For instance, he watched online as Binyavanga Wainaina won the Caine Prize in 2001 and then went on to launch Kwani? in 2003.
Mr Kahora even sent Mr Wainaina his most recent short story, Applications, about a woman who lost her mind during the darkest days of the Moi era.
“Binyavanga
wanted to publish my story but before he did, I was back in Kenya and
the first two editions of Kwani? were already out,” he recalled.
The
two writers had also conversed online, so when they finally met face to
face, Mr Wainaina already knew he wanted to write creative non-fiction.
CHEVENING SCHOLARSHIP
That’s also how he came to suggest that Mr Kahora write The True Story of David Munyakei,
since he knew Mr Kahora was more than capable of writing about the
Transparency International award-winning whistle blower who
single-handedly exposed the fraud endemic in the Goldenberg saga.
Mr Kahora did just that. A portion of his novella subsequently appeared in Kwani? 3 as did his short story Applications.
After
that the two writers began working together closely in spite of the
fact that Mr Kahora had planned return to Washington, DC where he’d
interned briefly at www.allafrica.com while still a student.
Mr
Kahora had just won a prestigious Chevening scholarship which could
have also stopped his plan to work at Kwani?, but he felt quite capable
of multitasking.
So he not only took the scholarship
and spent a year earning a master’s in creative writing at the
University of Edinburgh, he also took up the post at Kwani?, editing in
his spare time.
In the meantime, Kahora is also completing his own novel as well as coordinating a monumental international manuscript project.
He’s
also doing all the administrative chores as managing editor, given Mr
Wainaina went to the US some time back to teach at Bard College.
There’s
little doubt that Billy Kahora is the right man to be steering Kwani?
since he, like the other writers who appear in the cutting-edge literary
journal, is young, ambitious, imaginative and alive to the limitless
possibilities that literature has to offer.
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