Njoroge Kamau, a renowned writer over the weekend launched a book that he dedicated to the liberation struggle of the Rwanda Patriotic Front [RPF]. The book titled, ‘From the Heart of Africa’ contains 15 short stories that recapture the Rwandan culture of informal learning. “This book is dedicated to the long objective of the Rwandan Patriotic Front,-InkotanyiIf they hadn’t done it, I wouldn’t be in front of you,” he said. The 51-year old Kamau, despite spending most of his youth away from his homeland, said he had memorized the stories, three of which he vividly recalled were narrated to him by his mother. “I have had this book since I was young but I couldn’t write it when I was still in Kenya because it would have raised suspicion,” he said. Born in Rwanda, Kamau’s name isn’t Rwandese depicting the consequences of the past political instabilities that forced many Rwandans to flee their homeland. “I got my name from friends in Congo. We fled there from Rwanda and I last saw my mother at the age of thirteen,” he recalled. He was in exile for forty years and has lived in Congo, Uganda and Kenya. After completing a degree at Nairobi University, Kamau went on a postgraduate degree at the University of London. He majored in linguistics and later became a freelance translator for ten years. He has worked with the BBC and fluently speaks English, French and Kinyarwanda. While in Kenya Kamau wrote several books in different local languages and participated in developing the current Kenyan education curriculum. Currently, he is a consultant in Education and translation. At the launch, Peter Nkurunziza also a famous scholar whose agricultural literature is used in various schools in East Africa said that the book presents a virtuous Rwandan culture which was replaced by foreign vices. “The stories tell of bravery love unity in diversity, generosity but these traditional values were slowly eroded and were replaced by suspicion, mistrust and hatred,” he said. Ends
