the Magunga

theatre of stories untold

[themagunga]

Fever pitch

I am no longer allowed to talk about you. At least not publicly. The last time I did, things did not go very well. I tweeted saying that I am manifesting getting you before the end of the year, and the world went to shit. Lakwan started getting phone calls and texts from people asking if she was pregnant already. Because on Twitter we manifest things the way miracles happen in Nairobi churches;…

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Pancakes for the leopard

#NEWPOST A guilty breakfast

Wangari can sleep. She sleeps like a felled tree. Makes flesh of every expression that describes bottomless sleepers. Her head lies on your chest in such an elegant repose. Your right cheek is pressed above her hairs. Awake, you stare at the ceiling directly above. Inhaling the floating scent of lemon or was it bergamot oil, springing from her body. You try, playfully, to match her sluggish…

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The Suspension

It was the red ties who finally ruined Saturday knock for all of us. Knock, for those who went to schools that had nicknames, was what we called dawn preps. I am not sure if they still call it knock – or worse, or if Maranda High School students even wake up at 4am anymore. They are a national school now; they eat chicken regularly. Anyway, back then knock was mandatory every day except Sunday.…

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[themagunga]

Down by the river

#NEWPOST: Down by the river

We would find ourselves in the Sergeant’s office that evening. She sounded like more of a mother than a police officer- her words measured and deliberate. But in that kind of terrifying way that a police officer can be calm. You never know with these ones. Better the hotheaded ones, because with those ones, at least you know where you stand. All this while I knew things had gotten out of hand and…

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The drone and the Jade Sea

#NEWPOST: The drone and the Jade Sea

That phone call came from an agency that was handling Safaricom back then, and the lady on the other side of the line asked, “Unajua North Horr?” And I remember blinking several times wondering if I heard the last part right,it sounded terribly close to something you should never call someone else. “Come again?” “North Horr,” she said, “Do you know North Horr?” “No, I do not know who North is, or…

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[themagunga]

The eulogy of Magufuli

A eulogy of Magufuli | by Oduor Oduku

John Pombe Magufuli, over the first years of his first term, was everything Kenya desired but didn’t have. A genuine and tough stance against corruption. A deep commitment to public service. Chapa kazi tu. There was no time for laxity. He espoused the belief and practiced servant leadership, placed the issues of the average Tanzanian at the center of government policy. He was too good to be true.…

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[themagunga]

John Pombe Magufuli, over the first years of his first term, was everything Kenya desired but didn’t have. A genuine and tough stance against corruption. A deep commitment to public service. Chapa kazi tu. There was no time for laxity. He espoused the belief and practiced servant leadership, placed the issues of the average Tanzanian at the center of government policy. He was too good to be true.…

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[themagunga]

Getting to thirty

I just turned 30. Please, remain seated. This is not what I signed up for. I’d like to return it back to sender. To press rewind and have another go at turning 30. I remember last year at a time like this, I told myself that I have one more year to get my shit together, and back then it seemed like I had a lot of time. Because 30 always seemed like a deadline, you know? Then COVID happened and…

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[themagunga]

The way I remember it

The way I remember it

It would have been different, the outcome. Had you been everything you thought you were. I have this memory of us in bed, we hugged, said good night to each other. Lights out. I felt loss, like my insides were gently being pulled out.  I turned over to you “I miss you when you’re sleeping. I actually miss you. I don’t understand it.” You looked at me, part amused, part enchanted and pulled me…

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Robert's Note

Robert’s Note

Whatever evil spirit told me to go to High Court that Friday evening must have been sent by someone who does not see for me well. I could have just stayed at home and chilled with my sister and her family, but something convinced me that I should instead go out with a friend. There is no point mentioning the name of this friend because – like many people I used to know – she is no longer around.…

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Moving the goalposts

At the age of six, I was learning to use the words uncle and aunty loosely. They didn’t necessarily have to mean a blood relative, but rather someone who spent their time a lot around your parents. In this case, it was someone who was around my old man during weekends. He told a lot of stories and my parents would in-turn laugh about. The day we got acquainted, this ankalhad a subtle grey, burnt…

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Arafa Hamadi

As if being an early teenager is not complicated enough, you just had to be different. You deal with the normal confusions of what it means to grow into yourself – hairs where none used to be and attention to parts of your body that didn’t exist before – but also wade in the anxiety of not being like other people. For the longest time, you had noticed that you did not like boys the way other…

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The disciples of Benga

The disciples of Benga

Towards the end of the turbulent forties, men came back from the great war slinging more than just gun. They came with guitars too. They came with music. They were African soldiers who had been drafted from their homes to go fight in a war they barely understood. But then you see, wartime is not always about death and destruction round the clock. And these men were not necessarily on the…

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[themagunga]

Finding Home

When you start approaching 30, it feels like everything is closing in on you. Life develops a certain urgency to it. Wherever you look, people start talking about what you should or should not do. What you need to have achieved by now. On social media, they tease endlessly. Every day you are reminded to take your supplements and multivitamins before your bedtime…at 8pm! Then there is your family…

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A city of war

Often, history is told by the people leading the conversation. The problem with the history of Mombasa, however, is that there have been so many people who have had something to say about how this island became a city. Perhaps it does not also help that Mombasa is a city as old as memory. But if you are looking for something to thank for the remembrance of Mombasa’s ancient moments, then you…

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[themagunga]

Unpacking

The call came in when I was at my cousin’s place. It was during those early days of the pandemic when tissue paper was more valuable than common sense, curfew was at 7pm, and the roads were clearer than a glass of twenty-twenty vision. We were having a small get together, and as it happens these days, I was the designated bartender for the evening. Problem with being the bartender at parties is…

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You will always have bread

#NEWPOST You will always have bread

“I know his brother, Magunga, is seeing what Deo is doing and is now challenged to also perform better this term.” That is what Mr. Odipo, the head of Careers Department (and also my mother’s cousin) said when he called out my brother to receive his second badge. He had already received Best in Biology, and now he was being given the Best in Geography badge. It used to happen that way every…

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