NGUGI WA THIONG'O AND WORD "GENOCIDE"

Irresponsible use of the word genocide inflames passions. In all declared genocides internationally, there has always been State complicity or collapse. Is the State complicit or has it collapsed? If the State can security-fence Uhuru Park as it has done, then surely it could have stopped the killings in the Rift Valley, Nyanza and Western provinces. Or is it Prof Ngugi wa Thiong'o?
Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o who is skewing the tale of the Kenya tragedy in the United States, needs to know what is happening before marketing his own version of the crisis. And that means thinking in context. So far, Ngugi has said nothing about the massacres in Mt Elgon and Kuresoi. If Ngugi is reading a ‘genocidal’ ideology then he is insinuating State collapse or complicity. Ngugi was never heard when Mungiki was killing Kenyans in Central and Nairobi Provinces. Ngugi needs the context of the crisis to tell a credible story. And on that note..recently 14/01/2008 at around 1.00pm in NPR "talk of the nation" he was interviewed together with prof. ALI MAZRUI about the tribe and politics in kenya dubbed "Political Clashes Put Focus on Kenya's Tribes"........

NPR'S Talk of the Nation, January 14, 2008 started and went on like this..... As Kenya remains embroiled in violent disputes over President Mwai Kibaki's re-election, there have been frequent references to tribal allegiances playing a role in the unrest. Guests to discuss what a "tribe" is and why some people take issue with using the word in the 21st century.

Guests:

1)Caroline Elkins, author of Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya; associate professor of African studies at Harvard University

2)Ali A. Mazrui, chancellor of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Nairobi; director of Global Cultural Studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton

3)Ngugi wa Thiong'o, author of Wizard of the Crow; professor of English and comparative literature and director of the International Center for Writing and Translation at the University of California, Irvine.Their responses are recorded on tape and i am trying to get my hands on to give you the link so you can get to hear both brilliant men talk about this issue. Personally i was left going..what the hell! But i am sure others would have a different reaction to it....now let me try to get the link.

OK...here we go