"There was a Chinua"

My protagonist my hero the “patriarch of the Africa novel”. Born on 16^th November 1930, in the Igbo town of Ogidi, eastern Nigeria. Albert Chinualumogu Achebe schooled in public schools and later graduated from the University of Ibadan in 1954.  He published his ground breaking novel, Things Fall Apart, in 1958. He later authored 17 books and 5 standout novels. Today, Chinua Achebe is six feet under. Dead men are remembered based on what they did while their heart beat. I want us to learn three things from Achebe’s life and times, part of what made him the “father of African literature”

He started small then settled for more - Achebe started publishing short stories while in the university. Triumphant people confine into one thing then spread their wings to reach out to the world - and that was Chinua. He never scattered his focus and energy hence the reason we should pontificate him. From Korea to England, from United States to Australia, New Zealand and back to Africa, Achebe traversed the world in the name of literature. An unflinching look at the discord of his life gives you a startling success of this African child. Not so much because his writings dint have critics, but for holding together the African literary culture for generations.

Achebe never allowed tragedies of life cut short his mission. One day on a chattered vehicle from Enugu to Lagos, the wagon lost its axle and somersaulted several times before crash-landing with a deadly thud. It was a horrific sight as shrieks and blood melded on the scene of the accident living on its trail, a wreck vehicle and mortal agonies. The accident left Achebe paralyzed waist down and confined him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, yet he lived to receive over 30 honorary degrees from universities across the globe. According to Nelson Mandela Achebe brought Africa to the world.

Achebe was open minded – he said it as he saw it - Crossing the Rubicon and as brave as a lion Chinua published story of the Biafran Genocide. He laments that since independence his country blatantly denied people their rights; ushering in all manner of banality and ineptitude and destroyed the principles and systems that reward excellence and respect talent. According to Noo Saro Wiwa, a reporter with the Gardian, Achebe believed that the Igbo people were stifled by corrupt elite that preferred power and mediocrity to meritocracy. In Dr Enekwechi’s remarks, the Igbo holocaust left 3 millions Biafrans dead and provided the 20th century replica for Rwanda’s genocide, and Darfur atrocities. It equals the starvation and gassing of six million innocent Jewish men, women and children in the concentration camps by Germany’s Hitler. The story of Igbo genocide buried for forty years is finally being told by the victims and the pictures of “starved Biafran children” on You Tube.

He beat his enemies at their own game - Despite his controversial book, Chinua was given a state burial. All his adversaries sent condolences having realized what a noble man and an enormous icon the literary world had lost. Few weeks ago Prof Wole Soyinka lamented that Chinua is entitled to better than being escorted to his grave with that monotonous hypocritical aria of deprivations lament, orchestrated by those who dye their mourning garments a deeper indigo than those of the bereaved. Cheer and jeer greeted the obituary published under the title ‘There was a Chinua’. Achebe twice turned down national honors and think those who want a posthumous recognition for him should let him be and rest in peace. Otherwise, he may turn in his grave and reject the recognition for the third time. Chinua Achebe died on March 21, 2013, at the age of 82, in Boston, Massachusetts. Four presidents and the Archbishop of Canterbury graced his farewell when Achebe’s body finally kissed his father’s soil. Chinua’s story of Biafra, and of man’s inhumanity to man – was like a thunderous exclamation mark on his life as a writer!

The three things we learn from Chinua’s life and times; He started small, then settled for more, He was open minded and he beat his own adversaries at their game. As I conclude, I stand in humility, in the shadow of his greatness and, yes, of his almost Biblical stature! In the language of the poet I ask, when comes such another? There was a Chinua!

           (Some of the excerpts of this blog have been borrowed from other publications)

My life and my desire to speak! (from 2012 archive)

In the year that Ronald Reagan took oath of office as the 40th President of the United States, Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer walked down the aisle and married at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, Ghana's civilian president Hilla Limann got ousted in a bloody coup by former military ruler Jerry Rawlings, and the same year that Elizabeth Carr, the first U.S. test-tube baby, was born to Judith and Roger Carr, a loud cry confirmed the birth of a baby boy – who was named Titus Mutwiri

Fate had it that due to my parent’s jobs i had to live with my Dad on the slopes of Nyambene hills 37 kilometers away from my Mother. This was so out of the blue and seemed “pure alice in wonderland”. At Muciimukuru primary School Mrs. Kangai my Nursery school teacher divided the classroom floor according to the number of pupils and the soil was our book, and the finger was our pen. My Dad taught me everything a young man my age needed to know including cooking. I remember with nostalgia the first ugali I cooked while in fourth grade that tasted like hardened porridge

My childhood plays involved hunting gazelles in the Nyambene forest with my boyfriends under the camouflage of fetching firewood thanks to the ferocious dog that belonged to my friend Koronya Marete. I also enjoyed rearing rabbits and especially the white furred New Zealand white.

In my 6^th grade I got a chance to represent my primary school during the music festivals with the famous poem of Elizabeth woodsworth “If all the good people were clever and all the clever people were good the world would be nicer than ever we thought that it possibly could”.

In Meru High school I developed the hobby for public speaking. My pursuit for leadership found me scoop many responsibilities like the dormitory captain, the Christian Union treasurer, Science club spokesman, broadcasting club chairman, I was also a good baseball player. My education journey saw me pursue a Diploma in Medical laboratory Sciences, and landed me a job as a technical person in a research project at Kenya Methodist University, Meru Campus. While at KeMU i pursued a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and later enrolled with the Institute of tropical medicine of Jomo Kenyatta University for Masters in Medical Microbiology while pursuing a 2^nd Diploma course in Project management at the Kenya Institute of Management. I am currently working as a teaching assistant in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at Kenya Methodist University – Nairobi Campus. My recent visit to Ulm University – Germany the birth place of Albert Einstein transformed my view of science to the better.  Between Mondays to Friday you will find me either instructing undergraduate students at KeMU or AMREF, or characterizing some DNA in the microbiology laboratory KEMRI HQ in pursuit of identifying some genes of infectious parasites. On Saturdays I join my teammates to play baseball at Karen, and on Sunday I will be dancing my way to the throne at Nairobi Pentecostal Church in Karen.

During my stay in meru, love blossomed between me and a young girl that I met first on the Thursday, 8^th day of June 2006 at 5:15 pm. I convinced her we could live a manageable life together, and true to my conviction, after four years of sweets and babes, we said yes I do on 21^st August 2010.

God blessed us with our first born daughter, Natalia Mwendwa, who has just turned one.

My desire for public speaking got compounded while watching an interview on NTV and some voracious thirst, clutched my gullet. I purpose to go under the elephant, provided, I come out a better speaker but if the elephant tramples on me and I die, I will know I died trying.

When I visited one website for public speakers I found a testimony of a young man whose desire was to know how to speak, and he says “I want to speak and presidents listen, I want to speak  and men cry, I want to speak and wars cease” and I asked what else do I need. I am here because I want to know how to speak, now that I know how to talk!

When life gives you lemons- The story of a brother, the story of a friend!

When life gives lemons, make lemonade!

When a child is born, joy, ululations, smiles and chuckles of laughter fill the air. There is always hope that the child will grow in an exponential trajectory. The same was for Peter Kanyonyo Oloise, even though he was born in moderate paucity. I will share with you the story of a dear friend, the story of a brother. Peter Kanyonyo Oloise. A story of pain but a story of triumph

Kanyonyo was born in the midst of hope. This hope however dissipated when Kanyonyo was struck by Juvenile Osteoporosis at the tender age of 6 months. Osteoporosis is a disease of the bones and very unlikely to occur in children according to W.H.O. His bones became brittle and it took him seven years to start walking. But even then his weak bones made his walking a disheartening, laborious and painful experience. The weak willed would have given up but not Kanyonyo. He pursued his studies with vigour, cruising through the challenges and completed his secondary education. He not only passed his exams but also his power of pathos and steely determination won him every mans admiration.

Kanyonyo lived with my family from the age of 25. Living close to him, I experienced first-hand the special traits of this man. As Kanyonyo advanced in years, his weight increased and his weak bones could not carry him. At 30 kgs he turned to crutches for support as he could no longer walk freely. Quite often I had to assist him move. We normally used a bicycle for his movement but I remember a night when I had to hoist him on shoulders and carry him home after our bicycle got stuck in a muddy puddle after a heavy downpour. “You waddle like a duck, he would say hanging on my back”, as I struggled to get him through the muddy path home. His sense of humour never waned.

After high school, Kanyonyo decided to pursue Christian studies- one of his favorite areas of pedagogy. He completed a diploma course and was later admitted in a Pentecostal Bible College for a bachelor of arts degree in Theology. He graduated with first class honors, or what the Latin call "Magna cum laude" - with great honors, breaking a six year record in that college. This was all in stride. Kanyonyo married his longtime friend and sweetheart Sarah in a flamboyant wedding in year 2002. Some of the guests found it a complete spectacle when a beautiful woman said yes to a physically challenged man. But Kanyonyo would tell me “Titus,  I am marrying the most beautiful woman east of Sahara and north of Limpompo”. Kanyonyo started teaching at a local Bible college and to make his movement easier the community aided in buying him a car.

One early Morning while driving to see a couple friend (Peter and Eunice) in a town called Kibirichia, the car lost its axle while avoiding an oncoming track, veering off the road it somersaulted before crash-landing with a deadly thud. It was a horrific sight as shrieks and blood melded on the scene of the accident living on its trail, a wrecked vehicle and mortal agonies. Kanyonyo was hospitalized at Chogoria Mission hospital, undergoing a number of surgeries under an orthopedic surgeon. This horrible accident took him from crutches to using a wheelchair. And for a sometime he got wheeled to events, which he never missed as a local preacher and an admired celebrant. Kanyonyo would later get up from the wheelchair and pursue life as normal.

Two years down the line Kanyonyo and Sarah were blessed with a bouncing baby girl; Caron Soteria.  An intelligent girl and as sharp as a razor, then came Yobel Kanyonyo as handsome as a prince. Caron and Yobel became an amazing duo, a source of inspiration for every dawning day in Kanyonyo’s family – They also love their father like they did their heart beats. Kanyonyo and Sarah may have seen all brutality in life, but as a deer panting for a brook of water in the Kalahari desert, their undying resolve has kept them moving. They are a source of inspiration in my own backyard. They have broken the rubicon to remain strong under difficult circumstances of life.

Life has got its twists and turns but unflinching look at the discord of Kanyonyo’s life gives you a startling triumph of this physically impaired son of a woman. Let me give the three lessons I have learnt through Kanyonyo’s life and time

1.       Life may not be fair all times – therefore purpose to transcend every challenge – Kanyonyo could have looked back and died in self-pity but he chose to love himself   and turn his world around

2.       You snooze you lose – procrastination due to present challenges is a worthless endeavor. Opportunities can disappear in the blink of an eye. Despite the challenges do it now anyway. Just as Robin Sharma said in his book, “the best time to plant a tree was 40 years ago and the second best is now” You cannot afford to waste one more second. This was Kanyonyo’s principle

3.       Your present circumstances should not define your future. Kanyonyo suffered Osteoporosis,  walked in crutches, got into an accident, got into a wheelchair but now Peter Kanyonyo is a Father, a husband, a lecturer, a preacher, a mentor and believe you me, he is the last man standing in the village of my ancestors.

And I dare ask today, if Kanyonyo has made it – why not you- When life gives you a lemon – make lemonade!