Moraa Gitaa
Kenyan novelist, Peace Studies and Conflict Management researcher, cultural advocate and arts curator
Moraa Gitaa is a Kenyan novelist, born in Mombasa. She is also a Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution researcher, cultural advocate and arts curator. She is the author of the YA novels Let's Talk About This, The Kigango Oracle, Hila and The Shark Attack
Quotes
edit- One of my best friends in Mombasa was HIV positive in the late 90’s. In 2000 she met a German man in Malindi who was HIV negative and they fell in love. As we shared all our secrets, she confided in me how hard it was revealing her status to him. They had safe sex for months, but eventually she told him and they still got married. Unfortunately she passed on a couple of years ago. Their love became my inspiration for Crucible.
- I got interested in this genre coz in the early and late 90’s in Mombasa and in my travels across the country, I realized that once a girl was infected with HIV/AIDS, most of the parents blamed men, thinking their daughter was the innocent victim. I thus decided to explore this and reversed the status. So in Crucible it is the lady protagonist Lavina who is HIV positive while the main male character Giorgio is HIV negative
- I am an avid reader and for my research for Crucible, I read ALL novels published in Kenya on HIV/AIDS and gave them out to young ladies. Interestingly most took weeks to progress past the 3rd chapter and some didn’t finish reading the novels. I asked them their reason and they said that they didn’t identify with the characters. Yet when I gave them the first 5 chapters of Crucible, they got back to me in two days time demanding for the rest of the manuscript. I knew I was on the right track and finished writing the book.
- Like most writers, I usually hold a day job mostly 8-5pm. If in between jobs, I offer proof-reading and copy-editing services for raw manuscripts and also carry out transcriptions and translations.
- The hardest part is making time for my writing, given the above scenario. This calls for immense discipline like cutting down on my social life – that means no partying!! Sacrificing my sleep on most nights to write and type. No outings on weekends!!
- To me literature is the truth and I am thus able to give a human face o stereotyped and marginalized groups of people. My writing is also a form of self-therapy as I have passed through most of the situations I write about. Also writing is extremely exciting as it is to place time and place in chains.
- My next novel is titled ‘Shifting Sands’ – it is about Kemunto or Kemu as her 3 girlfriends call her. Shifting Sands is about a young African lady growing up and coming of age. Her tribulations and triumphs. It will be published mid this year.
I’m also working on ‘Devil in the Detail’ – This novel is about international terrorism. It is a narration by the main character Latifah, a Kenyan mother and wife who is arrested alongside her husband and five-year old son on alleged terrorism charges.
- Aspiring writers need to read other authors extensively. I also practice what I have come to call for myself the 4 Cs and 3 Ps – Constant revision, Creativity, Consistency & Constructive criticism / Perseverance, Persistence and Patience.
- My favorite authors are Indian and Arabic/Mid Eastern. Because of their descriptive style and the way they have a way with making words so colorful and turn the words into their very own language. I guess I am also biased towards their writing because I grew up and schooled in the coastal port city of Mombasa whose inhabitants are predominantly Indian/Swahili/Muslim-Arabic. There is some influencing force about a coastal culture. On top of my Christianity, I would fast on Ramadhan, celebrate Diwali, have Muslim and Indian friends for sleepovers at our place and cook a wicked chicken biryani and mutton pilau!
- WHAT AILS KENYAN WRITING? Kenyan writers need to stop being so timid and safe as if nothing cutting-edge ever happens to us. We need to be more bold the way our musicians are doing their own thing. We might blame local publishers who I know overly concentrate on the school text book market, but if as a writer you believe
- Giorgio thought that a sojourn to Kenya's coast was the perfect way to kick back and relax, luxuriate in the sun, scuba-dive, take big-game fishing trips or a dhow cruise, but it turns out to be a break filled with mixed fortunes. On the other hand, Lavina's sabbatical for soul-searching in Malindi turns out to be a Herculean task of grappling with a moral dilemma of epic proportions. When their paths cross and their lives become intertwined, their emotionally charged struggle to connect with each other is challenging and turbulent. This story deals with various socio-economic issues ranging from the institution of marriage and multi-racial relationships, to amazing Kenyan art & culture, to historical land injustices brought about by the pre-nineteenth century, 99 year old colonial crown land leases, absentee landlords, and the long overdue land reform agenda on land tenures, the cause of many a conflict in the country. The first scene opens on the Kenyan coast with captivating miles of pristine sandy white beaches, lapped by clear turquoise waters, providing the backdrop for your typical tropical beach holiday, but gets marred with a near-tragedy. Here is a compelling and descriptive narrative that will pull at your heartstrings, but one that offers a message of hope to a moral dilemma that has bedeviled the world. Here is what others say about this From an an author clearly proud of her heritage and the beauty of her country comes a romantic tale set in Kenya. Featuring a jaw-achingly handsome Italian man and a beautiful, talented, but troubled local girl, the romance unfolds in a light teasing manner until the twist in the tale turns out to be a moral dilemma that would test the strength of any relationship.