One of the common fables told to boys that grow up in the rural areas is how Nairobi is the big city filled with terrors and theft, just ask Ngartia Bryan – the guy from Timau, Meru and Mitunguu. Yes! He’s from all three localities.
Ngartia was raised in Timau where he spent most of his time reading popular newspaper comics and The Ladybird book series. In these worlds of fiction, his mind was opened to possibilities that would otherwise be deemed impossible for a rural Kenya kid. But that’s the thing about dreams, they cannot be limited, hence Ngartia imagined himself as an astronaut or, a surgeon.
The books also gave Ngartia the excitement to write – and in class 7, he wrote his first exercise book novel. Unfortunately, his work was enjoyed so much by one of his classmates that they ended up keeping it for themselves before it made its way to a publisher.
The sadness was short-lived, and Ngartia had to shift his focus to KCPE.
Ngartia’s pubescent years were spent on the rolling fertile lands of Imenti South. New scenery encouraged new ideas and cognitive approaches. The discovery of platforms such as annual music festivals fascinated Ngartia and enabled him to discover one talent: on-stage presence.
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KCSE was months away when Ngartia felt the pressure of not only completing his high school education with flying colours but finding a suitable career to guarantee satisfaction. The days of building a spaceship or dissecting insects were gone, but his heart was still in love with writing. The only dilemma was, he hadn’t heard of any successful writer in Kenya. The dream seemed far-fetched.
One day as Ngartia browsed through the newspaper, he came across a full spread feature on poets in Nairobi. The feature excited him and fed into his desire to pursue the creative idea. In addition to this positive find, Ngartia’s father was making plans to move to the big city. Ngartia tagged along, all the while looking into universities that offered something that would allow him to tell stories accordingly. It took a lot of convincing but eventually he enrolled at Kenyatta University to pursue theatre and film studies.
The long break that followed his first year gave him a chance to work on establishing himself as a poet. He was, after all, still writing and had his mind set on becoming a performance artist. This meant keeping an ear on the ground. He acquainted himself with places and groups that shared his interest and began perfecting the art of performing while interacting with other poets.
By 2013, he was a regular attendee of Slam Africa – a poetry showcase that welcomed poets from all around Kenya. He was also a member of the Sanaa Book Club. Here he met researcher and writer Morris Kiruga. Morris (popularly known as Owaahh) had gathered stories on Kenya’s history; an extension of the known and new material that Kenyans may not have been familiar with. The stories excited Ngartia, and together with Owaah and two friends (Gathoni and Abu), they collectively brought forth the idea of turning some of the stories into a TV show. It was a wild idea but one worth pitching to media houses. The feedback was generally “Can’t work, won’t work”, but this only fuelled Ngartia to explore other ways of telling the stories.
With minimal theatre experience at the time, much less the fact that scripting was a daunting task, Ngartia was hesitant. However, he had come this far. It was a dream that he could make happen.
Ngartia reached out to a friend from Slam Africa, Abu Sense, who was thrilled by the idea. Towards the end of 2016, they began scripting some of Owaahh’s stories for a stage show. The beginning of 2017 was dedicated to sending out the scripts to editors.
Then came practice. Days turned into weeks. There was much that needed to be done, but nothing was impossible. In May 2017, Ngartia’s dream had become a reality.
‘Too Early For Birds’ (TEFB) became the new on-stage series that showcased stories that would otherwise remain unknown. Stories about Kenya, for Kenyans and the world to see. Stories that piqued an interest into the time of yesteryears.
Today TEFB has gained national recognition, with the team even organising inter-county editions to allow non-Nairobians to enjoy the troupe.
Ngartia’s dream intertwined with his Paukwa positive spirit has allowed Kenyans to enjoy history. In his words, “Dreams come true, just not always in the way we expect them to. I just want to keep telling stories.” – that’s his little hummingbird thing.