Wambui Otieno-Mbugua fought valiantly for freedom and women’s rights, writes Anne Njogu who describes the fallen Kenyan heroine as robustly nationalist, progressive and feminist.
Dave Zirin, writing in The Nation, asks a series of questions about the US execution. 'Can Troy Davis, who fought to his last breath, actually be dead this morning? If we felt tortured with fear and hope for the four hours that the Supreme Court deliberated on Troy’s case, how did the Davis family feel? Why does this hurt so much?'
If I sing you a song whose words
You have heard in the west
You will forget that I come from the East
You will tell me that I am a confused Afrikan woman
Who has learned from the west to sting with venom
deriding cultures and speaking in borrowed tongues
Failing to stem Lawino’s tide for all that sharpness
Relying on papers instead of oral wit...
‘In this special issue of Pambazuka News we seek to bring to the fore the layered nature of Wambui’s life and the opportunities it in turn offers to understanding the social, political and economic factors that are contested, influence and shape Kenya … Through these pieces we gain some insight into how the brazen defiance of one woman captured the imagination of a nation, writes Awino Okech. ‘Love or hate her, you could not ignore her.’
