LITERATURE-KENYA: Journey Through Girls’ World

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Mar 19 1996 (IPS) - “The scene that met my eyes was horrifying: Tables were upside down, stools were broken, the pot of milk was in pieces with milk dripping all over. My little brother and sister were crying, huddled together in a corner. I wondered: What is the cause of these problems?

“My father had a king size club in his right hand and was about to descend it on our mother. I shouted, but that did not stop him. Instead he angrily shouted at me and shoved me off the way, sending me flying into the opposite wall. I escaped with an egg- size bump on my forehead but got up all the same and went on with the attempt to save my mother, who was sobbing bitterly. She was bleeding profusely, she had cuts and bruises all over her body.”

This is an extract from a short story by 13-year-old Emma Emily Ombogo (13), one of two girls whom five judges recently singled out as Kenya’s best teenage writers, while a third was awarded the best artist prize.

About 30,000 contestants submitted stories and posters on topics centering mainly on rape, teenage pregnancy, prostitution, sexual harassment, aids, early marriage and girls and education.

Ombogo and Maureen Wakishi (16) won the top prizes for their short stories, and 15-year-old Rachel A. Diru won the award for best poster “On Pursuing Education”. Earlier this month, they were each awarded a 100 dollars, a small fortune in a country were workers earn as little as 25 dollars per month.

Presenting the cheques, Dr. Wangoi Njau, director of the Nairobi-based Centre for the Study of Adolescence, urged the girls to read more so as to improve their writing ability and skills.

Their works and those of other girls were published by the Nairobi-based Kenya Alliance for the Advancement of Children (KAACR) in a 32-page book — called the “Journey Through Girls’ World” — which was was used in three fora at the Fourth U.N. Conference on Women in Beijing last year.

“The two writers and the artist, who represent an average girl in Kenya, have sincerely shared their experiences with the hope that the 1995 U.N. Forth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China and women from all over the world will support them in their struggle for empowerment,” wrote KAACR Chairwoman Joyce Umbima in the book’s preface.

“The girls want equal opportunity in education, peace at home and in the society, eradication of gender insensitive cultural practices, violence and sexual harassment,” she wrote.

This is evident in Ombogo’s ‘Oh! What Hell at Home’, the story of a girl tracing the degeneration of her parents’ relationship, and which she caps with a heartfelt plea: “Children need a peaceful and united family. We learn from our parents. Parents, we beseech you, set good examples.”