Marjory Kimani during the interview with the Business Daily at her Nairobi office yesterday. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
Here she says why she chose not to write a memoir and her love for the Kikuyu culture.
Growing up during the Mau Mau uprising could not have been easy for a colonial chief’s daughter. In her new book, The Chief’s Daughter, Marjory Kimani tells her story through a fictional character. Here she says why she chose not to write a memoir and her love for the Kikuyu culture.
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When did you know you had become a writer?
I have always had a passion for writing and telling stories. In my career as a secretary, I found myself scribbling bits of stories and poems whenever I had time.
Your book is part fiction and part true. Which one is more?
It is a deliberate blend of both fiction and memories of my childhood. The story is based on my own life during that tumultuous period of the Mau Mau uprising. I have narrated what I witnessed as a child and what I went through. I infused some fiction into the story to make it more realistic for the general reader and changed some names to protect the characters’ privacy.
How did your life change during the Mau Mau insurgency?
The fact that my father was a colonial chief did not make my life any easier. My father, and by extension his family, were all targets of the Mau Mau as chiefs were seen to be collaborators with the enemy. The rebellion led to the separation of parents and siblings.
How long have you wanted to write this story?
It is a book I have wanted to write for a long time and I am glad that it has finally come to fruition. Now people are asking for a sequel. I may get down to it or I may write on related issues.
Your first novel Múcii ni Múcii, is in Kikuyu. How long did it take you to get it published. Do you have plans to have it translated into English?
The book was published in 2010 although the manuscript had been ready maybe five years earlier. I could not get a local publisher until a friend directed me to Nsemia Publishers, a publisher in Canada who specialises in works by African writers. I wrote that book with no intention of having it translated into any other language.
This is because I promote vernacular and I feel that translation into another language will dilute the meaning of the story. At the same time, I also believe in the need to be multi-lingual, which is why I have published A Basic English-Kikuyu Translation Guide.
Then why write The Chief’s Daughter in English?
This was intentional. The Chief’s Daughter has a lot of history and cultural issues which will be relevant to all readers.
So it has been three years since the launch of your Kikuyu magazine, Micii-ini iitu. How has it been received?
The magazine has been received well. It is doing well in urban centres, in Central Province and generally in the areas where speakers of the language are found. I always have new readers asking for past copies. The features in the magazine are historical and many people retain them as part of their archives.
In one word, describe your writing?
Empowerment.
Advice to young writers?
Know your target audience and then write a story. Read a lot.
