Why Mwalimu Bukenyas students have kept the faith – Daily Nation
Posted: August 22, 2020 at 2:54 am
Mwalimu Austin Bukenya stoked my literary instincts last week with his response to an article I wrote in the Daily Nations recently launched Higher Education magazine.
I was pleasantly surprised when he picked on the article as illustration of a good read and he went on to illustrate what makes any piece of writing qualify for that description.
The article was about Kenyatta Universitys Prof Stephen Runo who had won British Royal Africa Society Prize through research on the innovative way of killing the deadly weed, striga. According to Mwalimu Bukenya, among other things, the article was refreshing as it celebrated research, an area generally shunned by the general public, and the media too.
But confessions first. Mwalimu Bukenya, as those close to him fondly refer to him, was my literature lecturer during my undergraduate studies at Kenyatta University in the late 1980s.
He was an all-rounder literary scholar, enchanting us with poetry and taking us through East African prose to European theatre. His favourites, among others, were French dramatist popularly known as Moliere, but whose real name was Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, George Bernard Shaw and of course Shakespeare.
Mwalimu Bukenyas fascination with various genres from Caribbean and particularly the revolutionaries such as V.S. Naipaul, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, George Lamming, was breath-taking. His course on literary stylistics was a fascinating journey for upcoming writers.
Over the years, a number of us, his former students, have kept constant touch with Mwalimu especially through literary events. The latest interaction was late last year, before coronavirus struck.
One of our classmates, Simon Sossion, who went into publishing, hosted us during the 10th anniversary celebration of his publishing firm, Spotlight, at Sarit Centre, Nairobi. Classmates in attendance were Dr Evans Mugarizi, a literature lecturer at Moi University and Muthuri Nyamu, former KBC Deputy Managing Director and currently, media consultant. It was a reunion of sorts, full of classroom nostalgia.
In class, Mwalimu Bukenya had a way with words and that he has consistently demonstrated in his weekly column in these pages. His distinctive charge was that writing must be simple, easy and flowing.
Not surprisingly, he was at it last week when he made reference to my article and another by Dr Tom Odhiambo of the University Nairobi. Dr Odhiambos article was a book review of editor Saida Yahya-Othmans Nyerere: The Making of a Philosopher.
I was humbled by Mwalimu Bukenyas appreciation of our write-ups. It was a thumbs up from venerable Mwalimu. He used our stories to pronounce himself on the art of good writing.
His pitch was that a good read is identified by the twin catchphrase of facility and felicity. He went on to explain facility to mean fluency and ease of reading while felicity is about elegance.
Mwalimu always insisted on short and simple sentences and had aversion for verbosity and pomposity. He had a sneaky way of putting his view on simplicity, charging that; a long sentence is the rope with which you hang your neck. Not that long sentences are bad. But one has to be careful when using them because often times, many writers end up confusing syntactic rules and confusing readers. Another addition to good writing, he would say, was colour, perhaps, humour, but only in proper context. Those have stood out as the true North for his charges.
Those of us who went on to pursue higher degrees and make a career out of writing, editing and publishing stuck to Mwalimu Bukenyas edict. We are reminded of the works of Chinua Achebe, who though makes use of his vernacular, Igbo, and pidgin, in his English texts, is easily accessible because of simplicity and ease with which he weaves his narratives.
The reason Mwalimu Bukenyas verdict was fascinating was that he is no placatory reader. He is a seasoned literary critique; plain and forthright. He tells it as it, tearing any piece of work from the morpheme to syntax, paragraph to the full text.
Another trait we learnt from him is the art of reading. He always insisted that any literary scholar has to read at least one novel, a play and two poems every week. Reading is the salt of the soul, nourishing the mind and opening vistas to new knowledge. The advice has never failed.
Mwalimu Bukenya has reason to walk with his head high up because his students have kept the faith.
[emailprotected]
View original post here:
Why Mwalimu Bukenyas students have kept the faith - Daily Nation
- Nice walks in Welwyn Garden City and Wheathampstead - Welwyn Hatfield Times - February 17th, 2021
- Irish unity will take place within a generation historian Max Hastings - The Irish Times - February 17th, 2021
- Viola Davis says she had to make her Blackness disappear as a student at Julliard - The News International - February 17th, 2021
- Press Review: Climate Change by Bill Gates and the Anti-Q Lobby - News - haveeruonline - February 17th, 2021
- Viola Davis: Dark-Skinned Black Women Do Not Have The Same Freedom As White Actresses - SheThePeople - February 17th, 2021
- Ireland Reads campaign leads up to national day to celebrate reading on 25 February - TheMayor.EU - February 17th, 2021
- Princestan is many pages of revelations: Jairam Ramesh - The Siasat Daily - February 17th, 2021
- Love is in the air and on the screen for Valentine's Day - Monadnock Ledger Transcript - February 17th, 2021
- George Bernard Shaw Was so Enamored with Socialism He Advocated Genocide to Advance It | Tyler Curtis - Foundation for Economic - February 17th, 2021
- Dublin pubs: Lego artist recreates the citys iconic boozers with tiny bricks - Dublin Live - February 10th, 2021
- On this day: February 9 - Metro Newspaper UK - February 10th, 2021
- Allyson Pollock: Testing, testing...for SARS-CoV-2 in asymptomatic people - The BMJ - The BMJ - February 10th, 2021
- Artist Spotlight: Bored at My Grandmas House - Our Culture - Our Culture Mag - February 10th, 2021
- The life and greatest quotes of George Bernard Shaw, Nobel Prize and Oscar winner - IrishCentral - February 10th, 2021
- Saint Joan: Speaking Truth to Power | Music | yesweekly.com - Yes! Weekly - February 9th, 2021
- Dover Doins: Heroes all around in our community - Foster's Daily Democrat - February 9th, 2021
- To er is human Frank McNally on the scourge of rhotic imperialism - The Irish Times - February 9th, 2021
- Fabulous Online And IRL Events This Week: Feb. 8 - 11 - LAist - February 9th, 2021
- Thinking Anew A universal and timeless significance - The Irish Times - February 9th, 2021
- AMERICAN THEATRE | The Sardonic, Curious, Unyielding John Heilpern - American Theatre - February 9th, 2021
- Dennis Marek: I wish I had thought of that - Kankakee Daily Journal - February 9th, 2021
- Getting old is like climbing a mountain; you get a little out of breath, but the view is much better - The Dubrovnik Times - February 9th, 2021
- Theater groups present plays virtually to stay connected to audiences - Uniontown Herald Standard - December 28th, 2020
- Politicians and statesmen . . . and their reading habits - The Financial Express - December 28th, 2020
- My Bond girl should have turned down sex with 007, says Gemma Arterton - The Sun - December 28th, 2020
- Patty Hearst's Daughters Now: Where Are Lydia and Gillian Hearst Today? Update - The Cinemaholic - December 28th, 2020
- 6 new hotels to seek out in the UK and Ireland in 2021 - NewsChain - December 28th, 2020
- Muhammad (pbuh), the Best of Mankind - Kashmir Reader - December 28th, 2020
- Patty Hearst Now: Where is She Today? Is She in Jail? Update - The Cinemaholic - December 28th, 2020
- The cosmic explorations of Elon Musk, David Bowie and Blind Willie Johnson - Colorado Springs Independent - December 3rd, 2020
- The French law protecting those who speak funny is a real crime - Telegraph.co.uk - December 3rd, 2020
- Theater groups present plays virtually to stay connected to audiences - Observer-Reporter - December 3rd, 2020
- Mural inspired by Toy Show's Adam is a gesture of hope - RTE.ie - December 3rd, 2020
- Christopher Plummer Films and Interviews Coming To Stratfest@Home - Broadway World - December 3rd, 2020
- Marion Davies was as big as Valentino. Then she had a scandalous affair - The Irish Times - December 3rd, 2020
- J.C. Bose Father of Radio Science who was forgotten by West due to his aversion to patents - ThePrint - December 3rd, 2020
- Op-Ed: Rules For Revolutionaries: Understanding The Transformative Events That Are Reshaping America - The Published Reporter - December 3rd, 2020
- The Return of Nature and Marx's Ecology - Monthly Review - December 3rd, 2020
- Letter to the Editor: What used to be the party of Lincoln - Daily Bulldog - November 24th, 2020
- Letter to the Editor: First socialism, then communism - North Platte Telegraph - November 24th, 2020
- Is Joe Biden the new RFK? - The Philadelphia Citizen - November 24th, 2020
- The vaccines are on their way. Our next task? Persuade people to take them - Evening Standard - November 24th, 2020
- Village Playhouse Has Run Planned Through June, 2021 - Shepherd Express - November 24th, 2020
- Signs of the times: "Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music" by Alex Ross - Santa Fe New Mexican - November 24th, 2020
- On this day: November 18 - Metro Newspaper UK - November 24th, 2020
- It happened today - this day in history - November 18 - Yellow Advertiser - November 24th, 2020
- GO NZ: New Zealand's best hot springs, geysers and geothermal attractions - New Zealand Herald - November 24th, 2020
- We dont have it right: Bay Area sports teams struggle to diversify leadership - San Francisco Chronicle - November 24th, 2020
- Renewable Energy Technologies Are Impacting the Oil and Gas Future - Energy Voice - November 11th, 2020
- Inside One Madmans Wild Plan to Conquer Everest - InsideHook - November 11th, 2020
- Are Hotels Only to Stay or Does it Have a Story to Reveal? - Love Belfast - November 11th, 2020
- Chelsea: The criticism of Kai Havertz is premature and unwarranted - The Pride of London - November 11th, 2020
- The kidnapping and brainwashing of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst - 9Honey - November 11th, 2020
- Life Without Art In A Pandemic - New Haven Independent - October 9th, 2020
- The Skelligs: the Islands of wonder, legend and lore - Irish Examiner - October 9th, 2020
- Students resurrect old uniforms to mark schools 175th anniversary - The Irish Times - October 9th, 2020
- Northern Light Theatre has something special to celebrate - St. Albert TODAY - October 9th, 2020
- Kirby: What they say, what they mean and what can you do? - The Augusta Chronicle - October 9th, 2020
- Britains mixed-race population blurs the lines of identity politics - The Economist - October 9th, 2020
- In the Mendelssohn Octet, the pure sound of youth - Los Angeles Times - October 9th, 2020
- Naval Service Will be Required to Deal with Tensions if Brexit Talks fail to Broker Deal On Fishing Rights - Afloat - October 9th, 2020
- 'What Are You Saying? And why you're not saying it' - a new book by Conor Kenny - Limerick Post - October 9th, 2020
- England is still a nation divided by language says VIRGINIA BLACKBURN - Daily Express - October 9th, 2020
- Shes All That: Tanner Buchanan joins the cast of gender-flipped Shes All That remake - Gamer Rewind - October 9th, 2020
- Navy to Carry Out Investigation Over Fire On Board LE Niamh - Afloat - October 9th, 2020
- Pod of the Planet Ep. 9: Not Everyone is Greta, and That's OK - Pod of the Planet - State of the Planet - September 2nd, 2020
- Opinion | Why writing is harder than you think - Livemint - September 2nd, 2020
- Stellar Lumens (XLM) Community Fund 2.0 to be a New and Improved Version - The Cryptocurrency Analytics - September 2nd, 2020
- Television: C-SPAN offered some of the best convention coverage - The Delaware County Daily Times - September 2nd, 2020
- My Heart's in the Highlands: Today is William Saroyan's 112th birth anniversary - Public Radio of Armenia - September 2nd, 2020
- Noted educator and architect William Bill McMinn passes away at 89 - The Architect's Newspaper - September 2nd, 2020
- Kilkennys Butler Gallery breaks from castle basement home - The Irish Times - August 22nd, 2020
- A List of Books, Plays and Films to Illuminate Your Understanding of the Suffragist Movement - Sarasota - August 22nd, 2020
- Did you know about our sister magazine Ireland of the Welcomes? - IrishCentral - August 22nd, 2020
- The Ethical Argument For Wearing a Face Mask - The National Interest - August 22nd, 2020
- A Timeline of Notable Events Leading to the Passage of the 19th Amendment - Sarasota - August 22nd, 2020
- Candid Confession: The fault lies with our parents - National Herald - August 22nd, 2020
- The Abolition of Man and the Advent of the Posthuman - Discovery Institute - August 22nd, 2020
- Garry Linnell: Angry old men rule, and are ruining, the world - The New Daily - August 22nd, 2020
- The 55 Best Things To Do in Seattle This Weekend: August 21-23, 2020 - TheStranger.com - August 22nd, 2020