Note: this episode was recorded before the passing of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o.

What happens when you spend three days living with one of the most recognisable names in African literature, and the story you tell after doesn’t fit the public script?

In this episode of Sera na Sauti, we sit down with Kenyan writer Carey Baraka to talk about writing, literary memory, and the questions that followed his profile of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o for The Guardian.

We speak about what Carey expected going in, and what actually unfolded over the three days he spent at Ngũgĩ’s home in California. From conversations about class politics in Ngũgĩ’s children’s books to the missing Kampala section that never made it into the final draft, the experience raised questions that stretched beyond the piece itself.

The conversation moves into Carey’s own relationship with writing; the slow, deliberate process of shaping a piece, the challenge of finding the right voice, and the quiet satisfaction when it finally comes together. We talk about his obsession with forgotten African writers, the literary memory of 1960s Kampala, and his frustration with how African literature often gets framed, either through the lens of global prizes or reduced to political shorthand.

Carey also reflects on the place of gossip and quiet observation in writing, the small details that shape a story, and the lines writers constantly navigate between storytelling and intrusion. And he speaks about writing as literary preoccupation, the influence of other writers, the contradictions that sit alongside the work, and the simple, personal conviction that “I am a writer before anything else, and any sort of death that ended with me remembered as a brave protester rather than a writer would be a betrayal to myself.”

📌 Key themes from the conversation:

✅ Profiling Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, how three days in California led to a piece that sparked backlash, and what it revealed about public expectations and private lives✅ The literary memory of 1960s Kampala, and how that moment shaped a generation of East African writers, lingering quietly in Carey’s own work✅ Forgotten African writers, the personal work of tracking down names that history left behind, and what it says about how African literature is remembered✅ The Nobel Prize and literary politics, what global recognition means for African writers, and the tension between aesthetics, politics, and expectation✅ Carey’s writing process, how a piece can take months to settle, what gets cut in editing, and the search for the right tone across different publications✅ The place of gossip in writing, how quiet details, overheard moments, and ambiguity shape good storytelling, and where writers draw the line between intimacy and intrusion✅ Writing as literary preoccupation, grounded in a deep commitment to the craft, and driven by the freedom to explore ideas beyond national duty or political expectation✅ The economics of writing, from side gigs to disappearing magazines, and what it takes to keep going in an industry that rarely pays

This is not just a conversation about Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. It is about the quieter, messier questions behind writing itself: who gets remembered, what gets published, and how stories are shaped in the hands of editors, institutions, and time. It is about the writers who came before, the ones we forget, and the ones still trying to make it work, balancing rent, rewrites, and a deep love for the craft.

📚Reading Materials:

* Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: three days with a giant of African literature by Carey Baraka

* Reading The Most Secret Memory of Men in Venice by Carey Baraka

* The Many Faces of Binyavanga Wainaina by Carey Baraka

* Remembering Kampala by Carey Baraka

* ‘Gossip Is at the Heart of Any Good Story’ by Carey Baraka

* Inside the Kenyan cult that starved itself to death

* Nairobi to New York and back: the loneliness of the internationally educated elite by Carey Baraka

* Carey Baraka’s Website

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit seranasauti.substack.com

How did Kenya's debt spiral so far out of control that 60% of government revenue now goes to debt service, and how did the constitutional safeguards designed to prevent exactly this get steadily bypassed?

In this episode of Sera na Sauti, Cheptum Toroitich sits down with economist and policy analyst Kwame Owino to unpack how Kenya arrived at this crisis — and whether the country can still pull back from the brink.

The 2010 Constitution set out a clear vision for how public money should be managed: transparent borrowing, strict oversight, and citizen participation. But over the years, those protections have been steadily set aside. Parliament, entrusted with guarding the public purse, has instead enabled reckless borrowing, approving budgets, endorsing loans, and avoiding the hard conversations.

The consequences are now impossible to ignore: households crushed by the cost of living, strained public services in healthcare and education, and protests that signal Kenyans have reached the breaking point of how much they can be taxed. The harder question is whether there is still a credible way out.

Kwame trace how we got here, the uncomfortable choices Kenya now faces, and why, despite political resistance, restructuring may be the only viable option left.

📌 Key themes from the conversation:

✅ How Kenya’s debt crisis was built through political choices, weak oversight, and ignored constitutional safeguards✅ The promises of the 2010 Constitution on transparency, accountability, and public participation, and how they have been steadily undermined✅ Parliament’s failure to carry out its oversight role, and what that has meant for public finance✅ The human cost of the crisis, from strained public services to a rising cost of living✅ Why the protests signal more than frustration. They mark a tipping point on taxation, governance, and public trust✅ The uncomfortable debate on debt restructuring, and why avoiding it may leave Kenya with no way out

The crisis may feel inevitable now, but as Kwame argues, it is still the result of choices, and it can be undone by choices too. Whether the country charts a way out depends on how quickly leaders, institutions, and citizens confront the reality of where we stand, and whether there is the political courage to take the difficult, but necessary, way forward.

📚Reading Materials:

* If You Keep Doing … A new macroeconomic strategy for Kenya, now by Kwame Owino, Maureen Barasa, and Peter Doyle

* Two Immediate Monetary-Framework Imperatives for Mr. Mbadi by Kwame Owino, Maureen Barasa, Peter Doyle

* Tracing the Economics of White Elephants Using Kenya’s SGR and Nairobi Expressway by Kwame Owino

* Gen Z Collective Action on Taxation and Economic Policy by Leo Kipkogei Kemboi

* Is Kenya’s Tax System Efficient, Optimal, and Equitable? by Leo Kipkogei Kemboi

* The Case for More Effective Fiscal Rules in Kenya by Maureen Barasa

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit seranasauti.substack.com

🗣️ What do we really know about Tom Mboya—and why does his assassination still remain unanswered?

In this episode, we sit down with Ngartia—writer, performer, and co-founder of Too Early For Birds—to revisit the life, assassination, and evolving legacy of Tom Mboya through the lens of theatre.

Mboya, the play first staged in 2019 and revived in 2024, isn’t just a tribute. It’s an excavation. We discuss what the team uncovered about Mboya’s political life, his assassination, and the forces around him—details that rarely make it into textbooks or public memory. What happens when theatre dares to tell a version of history that challenges the official narrative?

Ngartia walks us through the creative risks of staging Mboya’s story, the rigorous research behind it, and how current political unrest—from police brutality to tax protests—shaped the tone of the 2024 restaging.

We also trace the founding of Too Early For Birds, its bold voice in Kenyan storytelling, and why memory—especially of figures like Wangari Maathai, the Nyayo House Survivors, and Zarina Patel—remains central to their work.

🎭 And finally, we turn to art as activism. From the energy of maandamano (protests) to the government’s censorship of Echoes of War, a school play by Butere Girls, we reflect on theatre’s enduring role as a site of resistance and public dialogue. When the streets speak, the stage often reflects—and sometimes, it's silenced.

🧑🏽‍🏫 Echoes of the ClassroomPlus, in our new segment Echoes of the Classroom, we ask Ngartia a series of quick-fire questions about his high school experience—bringing in moments of high school horrors, unforgettable memories, and the early sparks of interest in theatre.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit seranasauti.substack.com

What does it mean to trace a family line through silence, absence, and war? In this episode of Sera na Sauti, we sit down with writer Lutivini Majanja to explore the untold stories of African conscripts in World War I—through the personal and haunting story of her great-grandfather, Odanga.

Drawing from her evocative essay Odanga Is Still Fighting, Lutivini shares with us the forgotten world of the Carrier Corps—over 90,000 men conscripted from western Kenya to support Britain’s war effort. Many never returned. Many were never named.

This is not a history we’re taught in school. It lives instead in fragments: in family memory, in children’s rhymes, in funeral rites, and in the words not spoken. We talk about the challenges of reconstructing erased histories—and how storytelling can become a practice of memory and history, making space for the lives history tried to forget.

Lutivini takes us beyond the familiar imagery of European trenches to center East African landscapes and legacies. She shares how her great-grandfather Odanga wasn’t selected for conscription but insisted on going, an act that reveals the complex ways Africans responded to colonial recruitment. Meanwhile, her other great-grandfather fled and hid until the war ended—two very different responses to the same call, within her family.

📌 Key themes from the conversation:✅ The forgotten African soldiers of WWI and the systematic erasure of their contributions✅ Two great-grandfathers: one who escaped conscription, and one who insisted on going when his younger brother was chosen✅ The politics of archives: Lutivini’s search for Odanga and the barriers to accessing African war histories✅ A creative nonfiction approach that blends oral histories, family interviews, and archival research✅ How funeral recitations, naming practices, and oral traditions preserve what colonial archives overlook✅ How war, silence, and colonial violence echo across generations

This is a conversation about war and memory, grief and recovery—and what it means to search for someone history tried to forget.

📚 Reading Materials:

* Odanga is Still Fighting

* Kariakor: The Carrier Corps by Goeffrey Hodges

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit seranasauti.substack.com

What happens when centuries-old governance systems and a long-standing economic way of life like pastoralism meet a modern state still in formation?

In this episode of Sera na Sauti, we sit down with Dalle Abraham, a Kenyan writer documenting the complex realities of Northern Kenya, to explore how pastoralism, traditional governance, and national borders shape identity and governance.

Drawing from his piece Bordering on Borana, Dalle unpacks the artificiality of colonial borders, the resilience of traditional governance systems, and how literature challenges dominant narratives about pastoralist communities.

📌 Key themes from the conversation:

✅ Pastoralism as an adaptive, sustainable economic system that continues to thrive despite state-imposed constraints.

✅ Borderlands as spaces shaped by transnational networks, informal economies, and overlapping governance structures, rather than a singular source of power.

✅ Northern Kenya’s traditional leadership structures, which have governed communities for centuries, while the modern state struggles to impose its systems.

✅ Colonial legacies and post-independence policies that continue to shape governance and identity in the region.

✅ Writers from Northern Kenya reclaiming narratives, challenging media portrayals of pastoralist communities, and documenting stories often erased from mainstream discourse.

Northern Kenya’s story is not just about one region—it’s a lens into how borders, governance, and identity interact in Africa’s peripheries. This is a conversation for anyone interested in history, identity, governance, and the power of storytelling.

📚 Links to Reading Materials:

* Bordering on Borana

* A Story of Marsabit: A Study of Home

* Another Country: The Cultural and Religious Struggle between Northern and Southern Kenya

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit seranasauti.substack.com

What do the origins of a city tell us about power, resistance, and identity? In this episode of Sera na Sauti, we sit down with A.K. Kaiza, a renowned Ugandan writer and journalist, to unpack the hidden histories of Kampala—its colonial violence, its evolution, and the legacies that still shape it today.

Drawing from his powerful essay The Violent Birth of Kampala in Debunk Quarterly, Kaiza takes us through the city’s contested past, the role of storytelling in reclaiming buried histories, and how urban spaces become battlegrounds for power and resistance.

📌 Key themes from the conversation:

✅ The brutal origins of Kampala and how colonial legacies persist in urban design

✅ How history is erased, rewritten, and reclaimed through storytelling

✅ The role of writers in confronting uncomfortable truths and challenging dominant narratives

✅ The intersection of art, memory, and activism in shaping African cities

Kampala’s history is not just about one city—it’s a mirror for how African urban spaces carry the weight of the past into the present. This is a conversation for anyone interested in history, politics, literature, and the ongoing struggle for identity in African spaces.

📚Reading Material

Link: https://debunk.media/quarterly/the-violent-birth-of-kampala/

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit seranasauti.substack.com