What literature, the arts have to do with the 2022 elections

Since the beginning of time, literature has always poked its nose into the political affairs of the day. Under the veil of aestheticism, literature has never tired of speaking truth to power. And consequently, history is replete with tales of literary practitioners who invited trouble upon themselves for churning out ‘stinging’ works. In the most extreme of cases, such victims paid the ultimate price. The best case in point in the Kenyan context is the kind of persecution the state visited upon Ngugi wa Thiong’o and his publisher for publishing such works as I will Marry When I want (1970) and Matigari (1986), among others. In addition, many are the stories of publications that suffered state condemnation.

The infinite interest literature has in politics qualifies it to be an important influencer of the decisions Kenyans shall make in the forthcoming presidential vote. It’s up to me to hastily clarify that literature doesn’t exist in isolation. It is eternally betrothed to culture and the arts. The challenge, therefore, falls upon writers, publishers, culturalists, artists and artistes, among other creative industry players, to whip their numbers behind the presidential candidate who is a friend of these disciplines. Anyway, how can they pick this candidate when they cast their gaze on a field that is filled with motormouths who are armed with attractive manifestoes? There is no universally approved guidebook in this respect but aside from consuming and interrogating their manifestoes, we should review the postures and positions that each of the candidates has assumed in all previous discourses whose subjects were literature, culture and the arts.

Anyone who takes the prescribed route will have no problem isolating any candidate who has ever publicly professed their disdain for the arts. There is no doubt, too, that sound bites in which a candidate or two running for presidency ever confessed how retrogressive it is for our nation to invest in the preservation of her history will pop up. Indeed, one will effortlessly come across open expression of disdain for the arts. It shouldn’t be lost on anyone how emotive and sentimental university education funding has been in recent times. There are lots of records that will remind us of political leaders who, in their open expression of derision for the arts, have consistently insisted on funneling a lot more funds into sciences at the expense of the arts. Ridiculous! Such a candidate must be rejected at the ballot without any second thoughts.

Here are the qualifications of the political leadership that enthusiasts of literature, culture and the arts should entrust with power. It is the leader who will invest in more history and cultural centres in the mould of the recently renovated Uhuru Gardens National Monument and Museum. The leader I have in mind is one whose regime will broker such public-private partnerships as the one that gave the Kenya Cultural Centre a facelift. I am rooting for a president whose government will not only facilitate the tabling of pro-creative industry bills in the National Assembly but the subsequent approval and implementation of such laws.

Let’s vote in the president who, upon their assumption of office, will revisit Chapter 2 of the Building Bridges Initiative and appreciate our national ethos deficiency. To cure this deficiency, the president will, as the chapter proposes, invest resources in the construction of an official and inclusive history of our nation. Besides other initiatives, my president of choice, as guided by the chapter, should replace the Kenya National Archives and Documentation Service with the Official Historian Archives Service. Most importantly, since, history is such a critical plank of our nation’s wellbeing, we need a president whose government will entrust the operations at the Official Historian Archives Service with the best of brains and talents.

The presidency we should all dream of is one that will not only have time to look into the grievances of artistes but also take authors seriously. Such a political leadership, it is my expectation, will slay the book piracy dragon and rid the publishing industry of rogue publishers who abuse intellectual property rights with impunity. And when all is said and done, the presidency I envision for my motherland is one that is not too religious to join artistes on stage and dance itself lame.

It’s pointless to belabor the importance of paying utmost attention to what presidential candidates in the forthcoming elections say about education. This argument is motivated by the obvious fact that it’s education that advances literature, culture and the arts. Most importantly, teachers will forever remain kings and queens of curriculum implementation. It, therefore goes without saying that anyone in whose head teachers are mere “watu wa a, e, i, o, u” is not fit for the presidency. Further, the competency-based curriculum (CBC) is a talent-based curriculum. In spite of what critics say, this is the curriculum in which literature and the arts will thrive. The president Kenya needs is one who will assemble an educational think tank to address the CBC-related teething challenges. Anyone who is dreaming of pushing CBC and all the resources that have so far been pumped into it down the drain, should not be allowed anywhere near State House, the seat of our government.

Saturday Nation published this article on July 2, 2022.