Kitsch Magazine: Fall 2015

OFFICE SPACE:
mukoma wa ngugi
by Yana Makuwa
the african literature english professor talks books and binaries
kitsch: So I was wondering if you could start by introducing
yourself—what you teach, and what you study.
MwN: My name is Mukoma Wa Ngugi. I’m an assistant
professor of English at Cornell University, the co-director of
the Cornell Global South Project, and also co-founder of the
Mabati-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature.
kitsch: Could you describe what it’s like balancing being a
successful fiction writer and a full-time professor?
MwN: Well, they complement each other. For example I’m very
interested in the question of Africans and African-Americans,
questions of identity, questions of race and class, and so on
and so forth. And part of my research is on that. But then
my novels end up being on the same topics. For example,
Nairobi Heat is about an African-American detective who’s
investigating a murder case that takes him all the way to
Kenya. So he becomes an African-American in Africa, right?
And so all sorts of questions of identity will arise from that.
Even my next book Mrs. Shaw takes place half in the US and
half in Kenya as well. It’s about an exiled pro-democracy
activist. So in that one it’s more an exploration of nationalism,
of how nations, countries like Kenya, use nationalism to hide
the real history. And some of the post-independent betrayals
of workers and so on and so forth—the betrayal of the dream
of independence.
But that’s something I also explore in other [non-fiction]
writing. So I’m saying eventually they complement each
other. Even where it doesn’t seem for that to be the case—
for example I just finished a novel on the tizita, which is a
form of Ethiopian music. It’s all about music but it’s also an
exploration of how people relate to each other. So I don’t
know, I would say eventually then it’s all interrelated.”
kitsch: Our theme for this issue is binaries. Could you talk
about some of your favorite binaries to think about, maybe
particularly the African/African-American binary, and how
that shapes or doesn’t shape your work?
MwN: I mean, myself, I’m very wary and scared of binaries.
So, for example, if you take Africans and African-Americans,
certainly there are ways in which their relationship is formed
by racism. In an article called “Somewhere between African
and Black” on The Guardian, I talk about how both groups
see each other through the eyes of racism, to the extent that
Africans grow up seeing very negative images of African-
Americans, and African-Americans also grow up seeing very
very negative images of Africa, you know we have war and so
forth.
But at the same time there has been a lot of solidarity between
the two. For example you have Nelson Mandela, who said
that it would have taken longer for South Africa to free itself
of apartheid if it hadn’t been for the involvement of African-
Americans. And you have people like W.E.B. DuBois who is
credited as one of the originators of the concept of Pan-
Africanism, who ends up dying in Ghana. You have Malcom
X and his tour. You have African-American organizations like
Africa Action and TransAfrica Forum that agitate for African
issues. And one of my favorite examples is Martin Luther King
being one of the first people to call for sanctions against
South Africa. And vice-versa, you have Black Panthers that
ended up in exile in Tanzania and Algeria. So there has been
that solidarity.
So there is the angst, because we’re seeing each other
through the veil of racism. But at the same time there is great
solidarity. But behind that—and this is where the question
of binaries becomes important—if you just look at the two
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