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| Weapon of Hunger is perhaps Meja Mwangi's best book yet. The picture he paints of the relentless quest for modern Africa is grim. What is most depressing, is that there seem to be no solutions. Western philanthropists, such as Jack Rivers, are portrayed in a favourable light as sincere people. All their energies, however, are expended on trying to understand Africa's problems and once they understand them they realise that the problems are beyond them. As for the Africans themselves, they could have provided solutions, but since they are lined up in warring factions, that is impossible. While the two sides fight on to the finish, will million of ordinary people continue to starve to dead? That is the questions which Meja Mwangi asks himself and which he asks the readers of weapon. Lyne Mansure, Weekly Review |
| Weapon of Hunger hm books 2008 ISBN 978-0-9796476-5-9 |
| Weapon of Hunger by Meja Mwangi |
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Weapon of Hunger
The trouble with Africa
Weapon of Hunger by Meja Mwangi
Reviewed by Okech Kendo
SECOND rate critics in their usually cliche-burdened language are
given to describing writers variously as: 'Promising', 'a talent to
watch', 'a dept to originality', and other catalogue of words that tell
next to nothing about the writer and his work.
And these writers are always 'promising' but do not seem to be
getting anywhere and the critics, more often than not claim to know
the story better than the author. . . Sometimes they prescribe what
the writer should have done.
Meja Mwangi — one of Kenya's prolific writers — has been in local
literary circles as a shy novelist, humour though, is hardly perceptive
and never committed to merit acclaim.
But with the publication of Weapon of Hunger, he has gone beyond
promising and graduates into those timeless humanist themes
transcending the confines of his place.
Through fiction, the world described in Weapon of Hunger has a
definite locale in the African continent held at ransom by multitudes
of problems, partly self-inflicted, partly caused by the ravages of
mother nature.
It is a drought-striken, famine-ruled, war-torn, strife-ladden land of
living corpses. Above this ruin, jet bombers roaring bazookas and
guns confront in a chorus of ... masses. These are the
responsibilities of the so called bandits and irresponsible
government manned by hardened soldiers bereft of human
sympathy.
They are killing and starving the people they hope to liberate: It is
the outsiders who see the ruin as they enter villages with relief:
"Doors squawked eerily. Out of their crumbling huts, almost as
though out of their graves, the survivors of the killer famine crawled
out to meet the strangers".
The hungry mill around the relief tracks like vultures around a
carcass. But the war drags on like nothing was happening. People
die of hunger while food rots at Port Sudan. The relief groups are
thought to be American gun-runners and mercenaries.
In this novel Meja Mwangi brings this genocide to world attention in
a manner that never declines to apathy yet the skill captivates.
Weapon of Hunger is an engrossing piece that takes us to this
dehumanised land of want.
Weapon of Hunger by Meja Mwangi
Reviewed by Okech Kendo
SECOND rate critics in their usually cliche-burdened language are
given to describing writers variously as: 'Promising', 'a talent to
watch', 'a dept to originality', and other catalogue of words that tell
next to nothing about the writer and his work.
And these writers are always 'promising' but do not seem to be
getting anywhere and the critics, more often than not claim to know
the story better than the author. . . Sometimes they prescribe what
the writer should have done.
Meja Mwangi — one of Kenya's prolific writers — has been in local
literary circles as a shy novelist, humour though, is hardly perceptive
and never committed to merit acclaim.
But with the publication of Weapon of Hunger, he has gone beyond
promising and graduates into those timeless humanist themes
transcending the confines of his place.
Through fiction, the world described in Weapon of Hunger has a
definite locale in the African continent held at ransom by multitudes
of problems, partly self-inflicted, partly caused by the ravages of
mother nature.
It is a drought-striken, famine-ruled, war-torn, strife-ladden land of
living corpses. Above this ruin, jet bombers roaring bazookas and
guns confront in a chorus of ... masses. These are the
responsibilities of the so called bandits and irresponsible
government manned by hardened soldiers bereft of human
sympathy.
They are killing and starving the people they hope to liberate: It is
the outsiders who see the ruin as they enter villages with relief:
"Doors squawked eerily. Out of their crumbling huts, almost as
though out of their graves, the survivors of the killer famine crawled
out to meet the strangers".
The hungry mill around the relief tracks like vultures around a
carcass. But the war drags on like nothing was happening. People
die of hunger while food rots at Port Sudan. The relief groups are
thought to be American gun-runners and mercenaries.
In this novel Meja Mwangi brings this genocide to world attention in
a manner that never declines to apathy yet the skill captivates.
Weapon of Hunger is an engrossing piece that takes us to this
dehumanised land of want.