There is research behind every great story

Creative writers are the only researchers whose success depends on making their research invisible.

By Egara Kabaji 2 months ago

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Graduates who never read and do all that appertains to their degrees

A teacher who does not read cannot produce readers. Inspiration is rarely transmitted through instruction alone. It is transmitted through example. Period.

By Egara Kabaji 2 months ago

Why the Congolese Seben is Africa's greatest cultural gift

Lingala music is not merely music. It is a sophisticated cultural text.

By Egara Kabaji 2 months ago

Jotham's fable and the mistake of electing the wrong leaders

We should not be asking where all the good leaders have gone. The better question is whether we have done enough to identify, persuade, protect and retain our olive trees.

By Egara Kabaji 2 months ago

The crisis of fatherhood and the rise of Andrew Kibe as hero

Andrew Kibe is not merely a media personality. He is a cultural text. His popularity tells us that thousands of young men are searching for an interpreter of manhood.

By Egara Kabaji 3 months ago

Fathers have gone missing, the boy child is endangered

The tragedy is that while the world has changed dramatically, many of our boys continue to be prepared for a world that no longer exists.

By Egara Kabaji 3 months ago

We cannot build a great nation on broken values

Culture is not what hangs in our museums. Culture is what lives in our hearts, guides our choices, shapes our institutions and ultimately determines the kind of nation we become.

By Egara Kabaji 3 months ago

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Why many secondary school students struggle to read well

Kenyan secondary schools face a hidden literacy crisis as many learners struggle to read, exposing deep gaps in early education and urgent need for intervention.

By Egara Kabaji 3 months ago

How pornography is warping how children understand love

We must pay close attention to the stories our children consume. Whoever controls the stories they hear ultimately shapes their minds.

By Egara Kabaji 4 months ago

Teenagers, rebellion and the power of telling their stories

The quickest route to failure is to burden teenage readers with preachy messages. Teenagers have little patience for sermons disguised as stories.

By Egara Kabaji 4 months ago

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Why Africa needs fresh ideas, not endless colonial outrage

My view is that we should stop writing back and start writing forward. Writing back was a form of resistance. Writing forward must become reconstruction.

By Egara Kabaji 4 months ago

What writers can learn from outstanding Kenyan runners

Dedication is highly repetitive. It is showing up when the body resists and the mind negotiates excuses.

By Egara Kabaji 4 months ago

Why I went back to law after four degrees and counting

In a society that often measures success through the accumulation of wealth and comfort, returning to the classroom after years of professional achievement appears unnecessary.

By Egara Kabaji 4 months ago

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This is how to rescue poetry from shackles of classrooms

Poetry must be returned to life. It must leave the exam paper and re-enter the gathering, the school club, and the community hall.

By Egara Kabaji 5 months ago

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Poetry never left us, we just stopped listening to women

Poetry remains central to human life, but women's voices-especially in Africa-have long been ignored, a gap now being challenged by a new anthology.

By Egara Kabaji 5 months ago

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The role of narratives in unmasking modern slavery

Today's slavery often appears voluntary. Our young people willingly board planes and boats in search of better opportunities.

By Egara Kabaji 5 months ago

Invest fully in film and theatre education or lose storytellers

The expectation that teachers of literature can seamlessly handle theatre and film without deliberate retooling is a serious aberration.

By Egara Kabaji 6 months ago

Literature isn't dying, it's our teachers letting its flame dim

You cannot master English from coursebooks alone. Language is learned far beyond grammar exercises and comprehension passages. Language is mastered through extensive reading.

By Egara Kabaji 6 months ago

Why we need more research on folklore

We teach a few folktales, songs, riddles, and we imagine we have taught culture. No. Folklore is much bigger than that.

By Egara Kabaji 6 months ago

Elegy of a nation that learned to tolerate dysfunction, chaos

I have come to recognise a subtle but pervasive phenomenon that has embedded itself in our daily lives: we have slowly normalised the abnormal.

By Egara Kabaji 6 months ago

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Publishing boom highlights development editors' crisis

Nairobi has cemented its status as East and Central Africa's publishing hub, but the boom is exposing challenges for development editors.

By Egara Kabaji 6 months ago

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Why love stories make us cry, laugh and keep turning pages

Readers of Kinyanjui Kombani's Shadows of Love reveal its emotional impact, with strong sales confirming its popularity over his other works.

By Egara Kabaji 7 months ago

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Why writing in your mother tongue is true labour of love

When Ngugi wa Thiong'o declared that Gikuyu would be the vehicle of his creative work, it felt like a personal challenge. He was not merely theorising; he was acting.

By Egara Kabaji 7 months ago

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Musoli workshop champions creativity in Theatre and Film

The Musoli workshop at St Ann Musoli Girls' High School fosters creativity and innovation in theatre and film education.

By Egara Kabaji 7 months ago

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Why Prof Wainaina's story matters to KU and the nation

The story of Prof Paul Wainaina highlights the challenges faced by outspoken voices in Kenyan society and underscores its significance for both Kenya University and the nation.

By Egara Kabaji 7 months ago

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When reading fails: A crisis in schools that we can't ignore

Half of Grade Six learners cannot read and comprehend a Grade Three English storybook. This should alarm and indeed shock everyone in the education sector.

By Egara Kabaji 8 months ago

When reading fails: A crisis in schools that we can't ignore

Literacy is not just another school outcome. It is the doorway to all learning. When reading collapses, every other subject limps.

By Egara Kabaji 8 months ago

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What you need to know about CBC pathways

Under CBC, Senior School is not a narrow corridor but a wide, well-lit highway of possibilities. Learning at this level is organised into pathways.

By Egara Kabaji 8 months ago

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Let us develop the country's potential for literary tourism

In the United Kingdom, literary tourism is not limited to long-dead canonical writers; it also honours contemporary and diasporic voices.

By Egara Kabaji 9 months ago

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Change knocks when the old self becomes utterly unbearable

Change comes when the old self becomes unbearable. The nation needs a Damascus moment. President Ruto has started the conversation, and that, in itself, is a form of hope.

By Egara Kabaji 9 months ago

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Ruto's Singapore dream needs discipline and hard decisions

It is refreshing to hear President Ruto speak boldly about the transformation of our country.

By Egara Kabaji 9 months ago

Peace and gender equality begin when stories change

I have been facilitating a workshop on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and male engagement in the Igad region, in Machakos County.

By Egara Kabaji 9 months ago

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Book clubs: Why reading circles matter, grow them

While serving as a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA, in 2009, I encountered one of those rare moments that expanded my imagination.

By Egara Kabaji 10 months ago

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Beware, some victories are actually defeats in disguise

To understand what is happening in our politics today, we need to look back at history and mythology and listen to their lessons.

By Egara Kabaji 10 months ago

State of our nation's creativity and the crisis of shrinking minds

In August this year, Daystar University magnanimously hosted one of the largest and most energetic gatherings of Kenyan writers in recent memory.

By Egara Kabaji 10 months ago

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Highs and lows of new Senior School Literature syllabus

The more things change, the more they remain the same. As I reflect on these designs, I cannot help but feel the weight of this paradox.

By Egara Kabaji 10 months ago

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Why modern medicine must relearn art of patient stories

Modern medicine has lost this art of listening. The hospital, with its machines, forms, and impatient queues, has replaced the listening ear with a checklist.

By Egara Kabaji 10 months ago

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KCSE Literature questions no one dares to ask, but should

In last week's installment, I argued that our teaching of literature at all levels of education is wanting.

By Egara Kabaji 11 months ago

Why our teaching of literature must go beyond criticism

Literature indeed loses its vitality when it is reduced to theory alone. When we confine it to critical analysis, we strip it of the very life it seeks to illuminate.

By Egara Kabaji 11 months ago

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JSS teachers' story shows why it's a dog's life for many

Some days ago, social media was abuzz with the story of a divorced couple who decided to bare their hearts before the world.

By Egara Kabaji 1 year ago