How does embracing a reading culture ultimately lead one to embracing their Kenyan identity? Muthoni Muiruri, book reviewer and founder of Soma Nami Book Club and Soma Nami Bookstore, speaks to Cheruto Rono about the impact that reading African-authored books has had on her.
[divider height=”30″ style=”default” line=”default” color=”” themecolor=”0″]
Cheruto: You have been reading and reviewing books for a while now and interestingly enough, your reviews are not paid for but are instead a leisure activity. I’m curious about when and how you began this journey.
Muthoni: Simply put, I love books and I love making people care about the books I care about. I began reading at a very early age, and as any avid reader will tell you, it’s never enough to just read and leave it at that, move on to the next. There’s always this incessant and inherent need to engage in discussions, to help contextualize your thoughts and feelings about issues brought about by any particular book you are reading. Reviewing books, for me, started as an outlet for expression – to share my thoughts and engage other readers, to challenge my understanding, interpretation and perspectives on certain issues.
I would engage my ‘reader’ friends informally to discuss and share reading recommendations, but I posted my first review online on Goodreads about seven years ago. There is such a diverse and engaging reading community on the platform, it just fueled my need to keep sharing and engaging. I have been doing it since.
Cheruto: As you read and write your reviews, you undoubtedly interact with the story objectively. Once it’s time to engage with other readers there must be quite a number of unique points of view about the story. By engaging in these conversations and sharing your opinions about a book, how have some of your perspectives evolved over the years?
Muthoni: Oh! My perspectives on a myriad of things have definitely tremendously shifted over time. And they keep shifting. Reading is a continuous process of learning, unlearning, and relearning and every new book I read or discuss challenges my convictions. I also find it quite fascinating how no two readers read the same book in the same way. That’s how the human mind works – there is always variance in understanding, in interpretation, in application. And the biggest gift I think reading has bestowed upon me is developing empathy and being able to live and experience things outside of myself and see things from newer perspectives or from somebody else’s standpoint.
Cheruto: I agree. For me, reading has also given me the ability to step outside my own reality and be someone else whenever I needed to be. I think that this form of literary escapism has played a great role in growing my own creativity, especially when I resonate with a character or the world created by the writer. And because of this, I find myself revisiting the story often and wanting to hold discussions with other readers to find out whether they were affected in the same way that I was. Is this true for you as well?
Muthoni: Absolutely! This informed my motivation in setting up a bookstagram account and forming a book club – to create a platform where readers can engage with each other to discuss books, share perspectives and engage in stimulating conversations over a range of socio-cultural issues.
Cheruto: Let’s talk about your book club a bit more. You’ve already mentioned the reason why you founded Bookish Pipo, but something really amazing about the club is that since its inception, the books you pick as your monthly reads are authored by Africans. How and why did you come to the decision to solely read African?
Muthoni: Bookish Pipo, which now goes by the name Soma Nami, is a book club that had been alive and active in my mind way before it became a reality in 2017. I know that sounds ridiculous but it’s true. I started on my journey of reading and rediscovering African and Black literature a number of years ago and I was pleasantly surprised at how rich African Literature is. The depth, the scope, the diversity, the relatability and versatility of it. This of course, considering, and being very aware that for a significant part of my life I had only been reading Western-centric books because that is what is easily accessible and what we’ve been conditioned to pick as leisure reads. I felt duped when I found African literature, almost like I had lost a large chunk of my life not knowing and I wanted to make up for lost time and share! share! share! The idea of a book club focusing specifically on exploring African Literature formed in my mind and I reached out to a few friends. I was initially apprehensive because I knew most people associate African Literature with the set books we were made to read for literature class but I was glad that they were all on-board and it’s amazing how far we have come as a book club, how we have grown and all the precious jewels we have discovered in our reading journey.
Cheruto: What about Books and Brunch? Tell me a little more about that and how it came to be. I’m also interested to know why you decided to have Books and Brunch and Soma Nami Book Club as two stand-alone events when both serve the purpose of embracing a reading culture in Kenya.
Muthoni: Books and Brunch is a forum intended specifically for women. As a platform where women can come together and share in conversations affecting us, connect, build friendships and empower each other over cocktails and brunch. What a fun concept right? I am a strong believer that women supporting women is a powerful force that if harnessed can literally change the world.
Another significant difference between this and the book club is that Books and Brunch is not book-centric per se. We don’t pick a book of the month as we do in the book club, rather we pick themes and can draw from whichever book speaks to us. Multiple books even.
It’s such a shame though because we had our maiden event this year on International Women’s Day on 8th of March where we were celebrating women friendships, keeping in line with this year’s theme – Each for Equal. Covid happened literally a few days later and we had to hold off on future planner events. Hopefully we can still keep it moving even in these unprecedented times.
Cheruto: The effect of the pandemic has reverberated in all spaces, but like you’ve said, all we can do is keep moving and do our best to adjust to the new normal. I think Books and Brunch is a wonderful space you’ve created for women. The fact that you can find the themes you have picked within the pages of several books really holds a mirror up to society. Speaking of books, what are you currently reading and what is your most recent read authored by a Kenyan?
Muthoni: Thank you! And yes, books are indeed a reflection of our society and our collective experiences. I have just finished reading an amazing book from a Mauritian author, Ananda Devi – my first from Mauritius called Eve Out of Her Ruins which revolves around the lives of four young Mauritian teenagers living in fictional Troumaron; an impoverished part of Port Loius, who bound together by their need to transcend the misery of their lives and environment.
I’m currently reading Washington Black by Canadian author of Ghanaian descent Esi Edugyan that is set in the early 1800s in a slavery plantation in Barbados. And, my recent Kenyan authored book is The Havoc of Choice by Wanjiru Koinange which is a book that reflects on Kenya’s 07/08 PEV. My book club read it in October and for the first time since the book club’s inception, we all agreed it is a five-star read. Personally, I was truly moved by this book- it makes you reflect on a lot of things and forces you to truly remove your blindfold and biases in regards to post election violence. It boldly confronts our history of silence and selective amnesia. It’s an essential read for Kenyans! And how great it is that it has been published here in Kenya as well?
Cheruto: It is really great to see a book that is written by a Kenyan for Kenyans published in Kenya! There is a wholesome feel to it which gives the book so much more depth, I believe. And while the story of The Havoc of Choice unfolds in Kenya, the themes tackled are very relevant to many other nations – even beyond the continent. Just like we’ve said, it is reflective of the societies we live in and reminds us of how far-reaching the ripple effect of our actions can be. With this in mind, how do you think intentionally reading African-authored books has shaped your Kenyan identity?
Muthoni: It has definitely made me more self aware. More reflective in my identity as an African and a Kenyan. It’s also made me question so much of what I loosely held as my understanding of the African identity. How much we see of ourselves is shaped by the colonial legacies we have inherited. Reading primarily African-authored books has been eye opening and I am still doing a lot of learning and unlearning.
Connect with Muthoni Muiruri online