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Or— If you know your history

Sep 28, 2026

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Reader,

I have been thinking a lot (correction: more than usual) about history lately because of the books I have been reading and the events in my country.

We’re less than a year away from the 2027 general election in Kenya and history is being rewritten before our very eyes. As I mentioned last week, I have been trying to listen to the news 3 times a day (like medicine, ha!) and I am hearing narratives shift daily. Seeing the president and his wife on the sidelines of a WNBA match while sports is barely funded, witnessing the wife of the president at a church that was destroyed in 2007, hearing the deputy president say “this [political] violence is a recent thing”, hearing the immediate former (impeached) deputy president tell producers of illicit brews to make their money while they can, reading folks argue that constitutionalism isn’t a platform for political discourse… And that’s just over a 14 day cycle.

I worry, with every passing day, that there are people who are buying into these notions that history started in 2007, or 1992, or 1982 and that what comes before the years we’re being told to remember does not matter. As if we don’t all live downstream from the large and small moments in our personal and national histories.

And I’ve been reading, struck as always by how much US American literature so easily dominates my non-fiction reading yet reminded of the power of seeking books from outside that country for all the historical lessons they contain. And I don’t mean that they are didactic, or non-fiction.

I’m thinking here of my recently completed The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine which was such an interesting look at certain moments in Lebanese (especially Beiruti) history. In reading it, I was reminded of all the times I have learnt about a country’s history and been reminded of certain features of vast countries.

A short story I recently read - The Free Radio by Salman Rushdie - reminded me of Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance which was how I learnt about India’s Emergency period. I’m yet to encounter a country that uses its Emergency provisions to improve the lot of its citizens and that book played a not-insignificant part in my not just reading books set outside Africa and North America, but it was also a great reminder 15-odd years ago that so much of the world lives in the wake of imperialism, uniting us in unsavoury ways. Yet that unity provides us a chance to be in solidarity across what can sometimes feel like great differences.

I’m also thinking here of Flowers of Fire: The Inside Story of South Korea’s Feminist Movement and What It Means for Women’s Rights Worldwide by Hawon Jung which merges history and reporting to paint a picture of the place of women in South Korean society. I have had a glimpse of it by reading some of the big books to emerge from South Korea into translation to English but it is quite something to see the events in those books written about on a broader scale and to think about all the directions a country can take in the wake of dictatorship, in a time of great technological advancements, with misogyny so central to the everyday lives of women. A lot of it is familiar and I am taking notes and learning a lot.

I hope someone is writing about this time we find ourselves in, or somebody does, because there’s nothing I wouldn’t give to pick up a book and say “I remember when this happened.” All the best to anyone writing – a lot of writing is historical fiction, when one thinks about it.

Quick news/ things that may be of interest:

This exhibition, which I worked on behind the scenes:

Go see this cool show!!!

poster featuring a wooden sculpture on a poster that reads: National Museums of Kenya presents Wahenga na Sanaa - Dec 2025 - Tracing Two Centuries of Artistic Legacy/ The Makers Who Shaped a Nation/ Iconic Museum Collections | Pioneers of Kenyan Art (1800-1980) | Creativity Gallery, Nairobi National Museum

Treat someone you like (me, for instance, I have a Switch) to the Tiny Bookshop Game (which is also on Discord)
Subscribe to my WhatsApp channel for texts I find while I spend time online
Film folks: Solidarity Cinema, for your consideration
If you’re in the Global North and would be open to engaging in the North-South solidarity that is sharing a library card, please email or message me so we can figure things out. Thank you!

The Queer Liberation Library 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️, which is free to join here
Digital Library of Korean Literature, which is free to join here
Film folks: Check out the Japan Foundation’s JFF Theater online streaming platform
How to Write Alt Text and Image Descriptions for the visually impaired
An interactive self care flow chart
Since Elon seems to want (some of) us gone, I’m trying to post more often on Bluesky. Follow me there if you’re on it!
You can send me books, postcards, letters, and assorted items via PO Box 102439, Jamia Posta 00101, Nairobi, Kenya (I write back!)

I have finished two books since I last wrote to you: Necessary Fiction by Eloghosa Osunde (audiobook narrated by Eloghosa Osunde, Tumi Olufawo, Leo Anifowose, A’rese Emokpae, Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong, David Ijiti, Jerry Iwu, Arit Okpo, Akin Omotoso, Anthony Oseyemi, Atta Otigba, Uzoamaka Power & Ifeyinwa Unachukwu) and The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, translated from German (original title: Nachts ist es leise in Teheran) by Ruth Martin (audiobook narrated by Dana Haqjoo & Anoushka Rava). I’m primarily using Storygraph now (passively updating Goodreads as I read most e-books on Kindle via the library).

I also broke my YouTube silence (please clap!) with a round up of books read in the week ending 24th September. You can find it below:

As ever, please write back to me and tell me what books you’re reading or looking forward to reading — it’s always a great time talking about books.

I Know You Think This Newsletter Is About Books

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