'To be a Man' Anthology Review

'To be a Man' comprises of poems from the Kwani Poetry Competition 2007-2008 of the same title but also poems on sexuality, gender and human rights. Judged by John Sibi-Okumo, Stephen Derwent Partington, Muthoni Garland and Garnette Oluoch-Olunya, it brings out the best and the most stark perspectives on manhood with poems such as _____ revealing the sickness of debased humanity, with "Mercy Don't You Understand That I Am A Man" by Samuel Munene and _______ by ______ detailing the skewed priorities men have of their role and importance in marriage, fatherhood and society at large.

Tom Odhiambo, Professor of English at the University of Nairobi asserts in an AMKA forum that our poets are our historians and that they take a special importance where our history is not being written. This anthology presents a snapshot of Kenya's "disturbed masculinities" with poems such as ______ providing the reverse of our expectations of men, in our forbidding them to cry or to fall in love, in our disapproval of their empathy for women.

'To be a Man" is important for pronouncing our societal norms and ills as regards the role of our men and our women and in Part 2 for denouncing the gender and human rights abuses that occur only too often.

I hope to see more iniatives of this kind from Kwani and other publishers in the future. Poems from this collection will also be performed at the next Kwani Open Mic.

[author's apology: i have lost my anthology :( but once i buy another copy, i'll fill in the blanks. but i thought i should put it the draft up anyway to encourage debate]