Kirjahaku

In the novella WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART, Joseph R. Alila, the author of "The Milayi Curse", tells a story about two eighteenth-century Luo widows who battle against great odds to become mothers of a future people. In this moving story, the desire of one woman to honor the wishes of a fallen husband, and another woman's resolution to establish a legacy of a fallen son, unify the widows into a purposeful whole; that oneness enables them to survive the pain and humiliation of rejection (by their husbands' male kin), and they triumph in the end. A young widow (Apiny) is the bearer of the damning spiritually untouchable label in a patriarchal eighteenth-century African (Luo) clan. Ejected alongside her widowed mother-in-law and ridiculed by friends, Apiny waits for fifteen years before she receives another man in her bed. Even then, Apiny's moment of triumph only comes after her old mother-in-law (Nyandeje) remarries and raises a miracle son (Otin), who answers the call to redeem his fallen brother's honor. Even after Apiny gets all the handsome sons and beautiful daughters she wishes to get from her youthful lover, she still is not at peace in her heart. She mourns and struggles, in her heart, as her youthful husband inevitably bows to Luo cultural demands and receives a virgin wife (Nyogola). In Apiny's senior years, the reality of her age and jealousy against young Nyogola (and her sons) motivate her (Apiny) to eject Otin from her home, publicly. She instead opts for the company of one Onjuo, an older man.

In JR Alila's NOT ON MY SKIN, the all-American Harmony City is not exactly harmonious. Individualism, prejudice and arms-length neighborliness greet Ochome--an alien poet and suburbanite, who has staked out his evenings in one of the city's downtown cafes. Harmony City's peace hardly is skin deep: There is a daily stalemate at the fertility clinic, and wherever Ochome turns, he sees, hears, and constantly feels souls cursing "Not on My Skin"-- a protest mantra against nuances of prejudice he sees, hears and feels in the city caf and beyond. The caf crowd has a few regulars who, like most urban neighbors, remain verbally unengaged individuals. But the sense of peace is often compromised by one Alex, a man considered a mad nuisance by all, but who, in reality, is the only mirror in which Harmony City perhaps can see herself. Alex is the lone gong off which the city can hear herself, the same way a child's innocent words are the real measure of the moral quality of life in a home.

In the historical novel, THE LUO DREAMERS' ODYSSEY: From the Sudan to American Power, a journey that started more than five centuries ago in the Sudan has ended in the White House. Along the way, a child and a troubled dreamer, Ajwang' the Dreamer (a.k.a. Ramogi) survives the knife of ire of a man robbed of his bead of wisdom. Decades later, the sons of Ajwang' must part ways with a child dead between them because of vengeance over a "bead of passion" and a "spear of power." Centuries later, an orphan must "develop wings," fly out of Colonial Kenya to Alaska, and plant his seed, a boy dreamer named Hassan Ajwang'. This boy lives to be the President of the United States of America.In the historical novel, Joseph R. Alila, the author of NOT ON MY SKIN, pens yet another drama of life, of survival against great odds, of victories as improbable as the sun rising from the west.

In Joseph R. Alila's first anthropological novel, SUNET ON POLYGAMY, marital cultural lore and spirituality combine to breed a tragic confusion in a land faced with a deadly new disease epidemic, with public debates raging as to whether the killer is ancestral chira (curse) or Acute Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). In this work of fiction, Joe Ochom, a young man testing his verbal skills in the art of seduction, soon realizes that corralling an educated girl (Megan) requires more than adorning his high school blazer in the marketplace. He proves cowardly-a weakness his principal competitor, polygamist Jim Kokech, is quick to exploit. With his attention on Megan, Jim suddenly faces a revolt from his wives. Felicia, the first wife, resolves to punish him; she locks him out of her bedroom, just when they must celebrate the planting season as the principal "spiritual co-owners" of the home. Jim's pastoral calendar comes to a sudden halt-reminding him that the Luo "Mikayi"-the first wife-is key to a healthy spiritual life in a home. The home enters a conjugal lockdown. However, the crafty second wife, Milka, comes to the rescue: she engages Jim in a believable romantic ruse that fools even Felicia. Wrought with jealousy at her female archenemy, Felicia yields to Jim-prompting a stampede for access to him. He is not having fun.Baby boom A year later, Felicia looks on in anger as the home welcomes three newborns, with Maria, Milka, and Nyapora presenting a child each to their shared husband. Felicia has reached menopause, but instead of embracing her new physiological reality, and aging gracefully as the matriarch of her home, she becomes angry at Jim and her co-wives. Struggling with a broiling bout of jealousy at her co-wives and nursing unpredictable desires of her husband, Felicia brews one immoral "romantic" mischief after another and nearly kills her husband while trying a cultic remedy to her marital problems. Depressed, Felicia flees to the Big City to escape the shameful spectacle she has become among the women of Korondo Ridge. Korondo Ridge still has no rest: Gina-a young widow who has just delivered the body of her late husband, George Amolo, from the Big City-refuses, to the utter dismay of elders, to welcome any man into her bed, arguing that her husband died of "a strange new disease." The elders refuse to listen, asserting that George died of his father's "chira" (curse), which only the very wise among them could cleanse. Amolo protests, saying Malaria killed George. Concerned for the spiritual health of their Korondo House, the elders eventually convince Gina to enter a one-night "marriage" with a "Jakowiny" (a vagabond) "to settle George's restless spirit." Reacting to the "technical marriage," men troop to Gina's house to proffer their applications, believing the vagabond (like the Biblical scapegoat), has wandered off with the "chira" that killed their fellow warrior. Tragedy The killer malady the elders call "Chira" is AIDS-the killer the Luo aptly nickname "Ayaki"-I loot you. Gina soon develops loose morals and dispatches one man after another to his grave, their wives in tow. Tragic: Ayaki kills people and "chira," with which it shares symptoms, gets the credit. Gina's misleadingly healthy look, beauty, and longevity only add to the tragedy.Felicia returns to Korondo Ridge amid the Ayaki epidemic in the land, but even the epidemic has not changed people's ways: men still embrace polygamy; men still inherit sick widows, and sure, Jim has married young Megan, capping his conquest over Joe Ochom (the narrator). But as the Luo of old said, the ferocious buffalo provides the hide for a brave warrior's shield-Jim dies holding a toxic jewel, leaving behind a bitter lesson in vanity and immoderation.

In the historical fiction novel, A DREAM UNFINISHED, Joseph R Alila (Birthright: a Luo Tragedy) bleeds his satirical pundit's pen to capture a glimpse of political maturity in democratic discourse in Africa, where dictatorial regimes are falling without firing guns. In this novel, the hero, Rateng, is fighting for his political life while he pursues his lifetime dream to become the President of Ebonia against a background of tension and dissent in his political base of Lolwe and coalition-Democratic Order National Alliance (DONA)-in which he has to manage rival ethnic kingpins with egos larger than Lucifer's and anxious disaffected youths envying his position. Tensions in DONA aside, Rateng's odds aren't great; he has to contend with President Prince, a battle-hardened, internet-communication-savvy royal from Central Ebonia and one Akamu, his deputy, both of whom have the advantage of incumbency, and ethnic numbers. After a bruising campaign full of criminal intrigues against Rateng and his allies, and fought in virtual and physical spaces, Rateng's Canaan caravan hits the same digital firewall President Prince erected against him five years before. Rateng claims his votes have vanished, yet again, in digital clouds in Europe And Ebonian courts agree but to no effect on Prince's win. Rateng is not done, yet: encouraged by events elsewhere in Africa, where incumbents have fallen without anyone firing a gun, Rateng switches tact and adopts fast-paced, Gandhi-style civic disobedience and selective economic boycotts against businesses associated with Prince and allies. Tension and uncertainty grip Ebonia, with businesses reporting stress. Prince and Rateng have to seek compromises, and publicly shake hands for the sake of Ebonia's future. Both Rateng and Prince emerge from the handshake fighting corruption and preaching love of country, national unity and other egalitarian principles. Once again, Rateng confounds naysayers, as he manages to extend his political shelf life, for yet another presidential run. When sanity returns to the land, Rateng engineers and alternative democratic path to Presidency of Ebonia, thanks to Prince's support.