Abstract

This thesis is a collection of eight short stories steeped in Kenyan and East African history, connected by a specific location – the School for the Blind in a village in Western Kenya, which is a character of sorts in its own right, rather than a mere element of plot – and by a recurrent theme of time’s inability to break the cycle of its returns.
The stories offer vivid snapshots of Kenya and the East African region in manifold aspects of their reality. They trace Kenyan life and its political and historical developments and lack thereof, as viewed in the place of my childhood, in a village in Western Kenya called Aluor (In my native Luo language, Aluor means ‘I’m afraid’), steeped in eternal genial simplicity, as well as from the bustling megapolis of Nairobi: a complex, panoramic picture.
All the stories in the collection take place in post-independence Kenya. Both structurally and stylistically, they present a combination of fiction and historical facts, events imaginary and real, hopefully offering the reader true insights into how the pivotal moments of Kenya’s history reverberate and currently manifest themselves both in the lives of ordinary people and their families and the country’s governing institutions.