8/9/2019 Blue Mothertongue-Ngwatilo Mawiyoo -Book Review

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Blue MothertonguePoetry by Ngwatilo Mawiyoo

Reviewed by Mutheu Mulinge

Blue Mothertongue. The title was enough to make me look twice at the little book and wonder at whatexactly would cause ones mother tongue to take on a hue. I was then informed that blue alludes tostate of mind rather than to a hue. Thus having had my blonde moment swiftly dispelled, I found BlueMothertongue to be a delightful and uncomplicated read in as far as Kenyan poetry anthologies areconcerned.

A collection of urban poems about growing up in Nairobi, it is quite the study in the diversity and richnessof variation that is possible with the open form of poetry. Blue mothertongue has a certain wandering inmeter from poem to poem that quite frankly will cause you to read from one poem to the next almost as ifit were a novel. I heartily wish this anthology was on the prescribed curriculum teaching list for Englishliterature classes in my younger years; when we struggled to find work by local poets whose open formedprose we could simultaneously dissect for an A grade and easily prescribe to.

Poetry teachers should have a look at this anthology and perhaps use it as an example of the evolution ofpoetry in Kenyan, especially in the urban space. Perhaps this is the reason why seasoned thespian andpoet John Sibi Okumu says of the anthology, When those of her generation have children, NgwatiloMawiyoo will have provided them with teachable, home grown specimens of the poets craft that will be aworthy testament to her times.

Each piece seems to stumble into the next almost as if it was not on designed so. Yet as you readthrough, you can identify many situations on living in Nairobi which we can all relate to. Her works evokememories of the myriad experiences of growing up in Nairobis sub-urban estates, of living alone in aforeign land, coming back home, going up country to your parents rural village and feeling a stranger asyou speak your mothertongue amongst your fathers people which resounds strongly through out thiscollection. It is almost as if she has taken the experiences of her generation and preserved them forposterity in sixty odd pages of emotionally bare and honest prose.

What is most endearing about this anthology is the simple use of imagery and other literary devices thatconjure up strangely vivid visuals of the situation, and emotions that carry through each individual poem.Ngwatilos subtle use of imagery to describe situations in a variety of settings is a testament to her skill asa poet.

The humour of eavesdropped conversations about the state of the nation that for a time was commonplace in public transport vehicles is unmistakable in the piece Heard: The traffic light monologue. Herrefreshing use of the popular slang language Shengin a typically Nairobi-speak fashion authenticates thefeeling that these are poems by a Nairobian for Niarobiansand Kenyans at large.

Reading the piece Sins we CommittedIm transported back to my own experience in my fathersupcountry place of worship, where the loud gasps of surprise that this town-bred girlshould know how to

speak her mothertongue so well we clearly audible when I was asked to stand up and greet the church.

After a time in America is a poignant reminder of the danger of the loss of identify caused by theenvironmental changes that surrounds each of us that were raised in one country and educated inanother.

The collection is not without its share of loves lost and sometimes not fondly remembered, as embodiedin Migrant dream and Dear E, while mourning the loss of a loved in Silver Bristle (Your voice). Ngwatiloinfuses a bit of comedy with the piece Heard: African Violet Monologue and the wisdom out mothers passon to us even when we are far away in Mothering Long Distance.

8/9/2019 Blue Mothertongue-Ngwatilo Mawiyoo -Book Review

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Ngwatilos honest representation of life and living in Nairobi in the self published Blue Mothertonguepoetry anthology is definitely a time piece that we, and (I suspect) our own children, will be able to relateand refer to for a long time to come. It also does help that the collection comes in a compact booklet,perfect to slip into your handbag or your back pocket, perfect for a little light reading.

(WC 724)