Shailja Patel, Nordic Africa Institute Guest Writer 2009, will appear in the series Writers’ Africa at an event in the Institute library, Kungsgatan 38, Uppsala, on Thursday 23 April from 6.00 to 8.00 p.m.
Shailja Patel will discuss Poetry, Performance and Resistance in a Kenyan and African context with Mai Palmberg, co-ordinator of the Cultural Images in and of Africa research project at NAI.
Shailja Patel is a Kenyan poet, playwright, spoken word artist and political activist. Shailja Patel is also the founder of a Direct Action Training Program in Kenya to empower grassroots activists with skills for political engagement.
Her central work, performed as a one-woman show, is known as Migritude. The name, which she has composed as a play on the words ‘negritude’ and ‘migrant attitude’, “asserts the dignity of the outsider status, and captures the unique political and cultural space occupied by migrants who refuse to choose between identities of origin and identities of assimilation, which channel difference as a source of power rather than conceal or erase it”.
‘Migritude’ has already found its way into the discourse on Africa and the world. The first part of Migritude was premiered in 2006 in the San Fransisco Bay Area. It is conceived as a cycle in four parts, and draws on the artist’s spiritual and cultural heritage as a third-generation East African of Indian Gujarati descent.
Read more about Shailja Patel on the NAI web site
About the Author
I was honored to attend Ms. Shailja Patel’s presentation last evening. She is not only intellectually gifted, but also quite knowledgeable about what ails Kenya politically, and proposed various ways for worthwhile change.
Even though she is a third generation Indian born and raised in Kenya, I was impressed with her Global identity which transcends narrow ethnicity. She sees herself as a nomad who could move anywhere in the world if there is so much pressure on her in Kenya due to her vocal nature; thus her concept of “Migritude”. She networks with many people globally and is inspired by the music of Kenyan singer Eric Wainaina among others.
She is “super fluent” in the English language and I got nostalgic listening to her because I was mentally back to my good old days of literature in English classes. I bought her DVD covering Part 1 of her concept on Migritude: “When Saris Speak”. This will familiarize me with her work and get to watch her literary performance.
Shilja does not mince words and tells it “raw”. She reminded me a lot about Ms. Ory Okollo, another Kenyan activist and pioneer blogger of http://www.kenyanpundit.com/
Ms. Patel uses her poetic talent to disseminate powerful and empowering thoughts, which are not only political, but touch on day to day life.
It was a pity that apart from me, there was only one other Kenyan in the audience. Her message would have inspired more to move away from the detrimental stereotypes we have made part of our lives here in the Diaspora.
Many of her works are available for purchase through her Website at http://www.shailja.com/