They Are Us

AvKatama Mkangi

Inbunden, Engelska, 2027

Del i serien African Language Literatures in Translation

2 288 kr

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First published in Swahili as Walenisi in 1995, They Are Us is an Africanfuturist take on Kenyan politics from real-life political prisoner Katama Mkangi.It begins with a death sentence for Dzombo—but not in the traditional sense. Instead of firing squad or hanging, Dzombo is shoved into a rocket and blasted into the sky for “talking too much.” While Dzombo assumes that he will explode like all the other political prisoners sentenced to the same fate, he instead pilots the vessel of death through an asteroid belt of allegorical maladies, such as the “Rock of Ignorance,” and crash-lands on the utopian planet Walenisi.Faced with remarkable technological advancement and egalitarian prosperity, Dzombo is convinced he has arrived in Heaven. His hosts, however, believe that Dzombo himself is an emissary from Heaven. What follows is a journey, farce, romance, cross-cultural encounter, and self-discovery.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2027-01-15
Mått:127 x 203 x undefined mm
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Serie:African Language Literatures in Translation
Antal sidor:212
Förlag:University of Georgia Press
ISBN:9780820374697
Översättare:Richard Prins

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KATAMA MKANGI (1944–2004) was a sociologist, activist, and Swahili novelist born in southeast Kenya. In the 1980s, during the authoritarian regime of Daniel arap Moi, he was among several members of the underground Mwakenya Movement to be arrested, imprisoned without trial, and subjected to torture in Nairobi’s infamous Nyayo House. Although he worked as an academic sociologist for most of his life, Mkangi is best known for his novels and has been described as “the founder of the ‘new’ novel in Kenya.” In addition to Walenisi, he wrote the coming-of-age love story Ukiwa and the absurdist allegory Mafuta.

Recensioner i media

Sentenced to death, Dzombo is thrust into a whirlwind journey of enlightenment on the utopian Theyrus whose residents have ridded themselves of the tyrannical system established by the repressive Flayers. His humanity restored, his resolve to enlighten his people leads him back to earth. In They Are Us, Richard Prins’s brilliant translation brings Katama Mkangi’s Walenisi to English readers.