Thanks for this pdf, Frederick. Much appreciated! And Vivek for this fine essay by Carey Baraka. Here we are, Ngugi languishing in balmy California, Carey in cold and windy Iowa ... and me in chilly, rainy, windy Cape Town. And how sad is that? Then there's Peter Nazareth, somewhere in Iowa I think. But he's an ex-Ugandan, not a Kenyan in voluntary exile. As for the Nobel prize, Ngugi's writing disappoints in translation but triumphs in the original. As he says, how could he create authentic characters speaking perfect or even imperfect English. Xxj
On Tue, 13 Jun 2023, 21:43 Frederick FN Noronha, <[email protected]> wrote: > In the second volume of Ngugi's memoirs called "Birth of the Dream > Weaver", subtitled "A Writer's Awakening" that is set in Makerere, > Ngugi says a lot about Peter. The music he played at the University, > his writing and performing in a play, Peter's writing a critique of his > play "The Black Hermit" produced at the National Theater, and more, > including references to Peter's two novels. > > In Chapter 1 Page 1, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o writes: "Peter Nazareth might > have understood. Though a year ahead of me in college, he was actually > the younger by two years; he was born in Kampala, Uganda, in 1940 and > I in Limuru, Kenya, in 1938. We had worked together for Penpoint, the > literary magazine of the Department of English, but he had just > graduated, having passed the editorship on to me. So I communed with > myself, alone, trying to rally my nerves in a reality I felt helpless > to alter. My one-act play, The Wound in the Heart, would not be > allowed at the Kampala National Theater in the annual nationwide drama > festival...." > > The full-text of this 254-page book is available here: > http://www.sunchina.co.uk/books/ngugi/birthofadreamweaver.pdf > > FN > > On Wednesday, 14 June 2023 at 01:12:27 UTC+5:30 VM wrote: > >> I was delighted to find the mention of Peter Nazareth, and an >> evocation of the heady post-colonial idealism at Makerere University, >> in this fine #longread profile of the great Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: >> >> https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jun/13/ngugi-wa-thiongo-kenyan-novelist-profile-giant-of-africa-literature >> > -- > *** Please be polite and on-topic in your posts. *** > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "The Goa Book Club" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-book-club/e5c5de63-e591-46de-a1f1-3bfcdf1891e8n%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-book-club/e5c5de63-e591-46de-a1f1-3bfcdf1891e8n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- *** Please be polite and on-topic in your posts. *** --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Goa Book Club" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-book-club/CA%2BcjhjgyhtfYBp%2BvVwD0MNZQrEVgQQ2UEfZ3z7RtsBK-G7zTAg%40mail.gmail.com.
