Book: Butterflies of the Nile
Author: Jane Musoke-Nteyafas
Publisher: Cook Communications
Reviewed by Joshua Masinde
SHE writes poetry, short stories and plays. She is 
distinctly feminine, describing the African woman's beauty with a passion. Such is her description, "In the beginning, God populated the earth with black women and he made them a rich embellishing combination of all colours and shades. They were beautiful rainbow complexions of coffee, cocoa, ebony, chocolate…” she writes on and on, "and the Devil came along and created skin lighteners…"
Butterflies of the Nile by Jane Musoke-Nteyafas, is drawn from a poem by the same title. The poem is an artistic praise of African beauty. To all African women, I dedicate the poem.
Despite the beauty the African women are endowed with, it is strange but uncommon how the natives of Africa, especially the men who live in exotic lands, have alienated many things African and embellish themselves in exotic tastes. Muhwezi, in Prom Night, passes for one of such alienated blokes. He is a Ugandan born, Canadian bred chap who does not appreciate his Ugandan born Canadian girlfriend Aisha. Despite her breathtaking beauty, which is a wish for many men, Muhwezi does not appreciate such African beauty.
Aisha is authentically beautiful. She however, puts on make-up and uses lots of beauty enhancing elements to appease Muhwezi. The chap does not still appreciate. In his drunken stupor, he abuses her instead.
She writes of deep love and affection in Nakimera's Love. Nakimera and Rwomushana, both from Uganda but live abroad, meet in an online chatting site. Though, they live continent apart, they fall deep in love such that Nakimera does not object to his suggestion of going to England to stay with him. Nakimera's Love is a tender love story of the African love, which brings together Nakimera and Rwomushana. Through Nakimera, Rwomushana appreciates how beautiful women from his home country are.
Modernity has brought with it myriad make-ups, which most women use to appear 'beautiful'. The Face presents such a scenario. Katrice an African woman, though beautiful in her natural way, uses a lot of make up to fake artificial beauty, which unfortunately, she cannot attain. She had the body and features, which though she disliked, presented her as more beautiful than one would ever think. After adorning the make-ups, she appears quite ugly and is abandoned by her boyfriend. 
However, her second boyfriend dissuades her, just like her mother did sometime back, to stop using make-ups as they exaggerate her looks and make her appear ugly. Once, when she decides to rid herself of all make-ups, her authentic African beauty stuns her boyfriend. He vows to keep by her side forever.
Jane Musoke-Nteyefas is potently feministic, championing the rights and place of women in the modern society. In her simplicity, she writes strongly and passionately of the beauty of African women, love and relationships. The themes run through the plays, poems and short stories, with a touch of biblical allusion, thrown in some stories. She writes to heal he distorted stereotypes and misconceptions attached to African beauty. It is powerfully written, passionately moving, truly sensitive and ecstatically moving.
Monday, 29 September 2008
Sunday, 7 September 2008
Smoking by force
EVERYBODY is a smoker. We smoke everyday. It depends on what we smoke, either instinctively, coercively or knowingly. Everywhere you go, you can't fail to confront that waft of smoke, whether thick or thin, however much you try to avoid it. Despite your tastes and preferences, you inhale it, anyway.
Some people smoke many brands in a single occasion or on different occasions, depending on their everyday lifestyle and the situations they happen to be in. As a result, our bodies may be intricately smoke-polluted, just like the environment. It is not just an issue of global warming, a subject of pertinent debate in the world today, but it narrows down to 'human warming'. The many modern diseases might be a testimony to the circumstance of smoking by force. Here is a look at the situations in which we smoke with or without our will.
BARS, RESTAURANTS, BIBANDAS: These are free zones, where there are no limited restrictions on people's enjoyment. Smokers have the most earnest determination to smoke as much as they want. Here, many different brands are smoked with impunity. Someone could even be smoking marijuana and you mistaken it for the normal cigarette. No wonder, the smell is too horrible to bear. . The non-smokers have no choice but to join by asides, in inhaling the stray smoke that keeps wafting their side in an endless stream. The smoke leaves them with serious pangs of headache and polluted stomachs.
SMOKING FRIEND: If you walk with a friend who smokes whenever you are in his company, you are a chimney. He or she is so close and comfortable with you that you seem indifferent even when he or she smokes a whole packet in your company. Occasionally, just to let you feel how pleasantly addictive and bitterly enjoyable the nicotine is, he gushes a mouthful or two of smoke your way. You feel the punchy smell eating its way into your lungs. You smoke, anyway. You don't complain, much as he/she is your friend.
PUBLIC PLACES AND STREETS: The smoking fellow just in front of you. You try to overtake him, so as to get out of the irritating, cancerous smoke, but no way. The pedestrian paths are so narrow and highly populated, from the newspaper and magazine vendors, hawkers, street beggars and open doors that even an inch of you cannot overtake the smoker.
Occasionally, the boda bodas eat more than enough of the pedestrian path and you, in the name of overtaking the smoker right in front. You can't cross the road either. It's packed with vehicles. You persist until the smoker is finally done with his cigar. You pray he doesn't pull out another cigar, a temptation that he suppresses, anyway.
SMOKE GUSHING AUTOMOBILES: From boda bodas, taxis, heavy load trucks to private vehicles. Whether you are in the taxi or on the pedestrian path, the smoke manages to steam your way. Some vehicles emit too much smoke you swear they should be written off forthwith. The smoke leaves you with serious complications like a stinging headache, a polluted stomach and the prospect of cancer.
SMOKE FROM BURNING DIRT OR GARBAGE: You pass near burning garbage. The smoke is so much that it engulfs you as you pass by. Incidentally, the burning garbage is either outside your residence, your office or a few inches from the only route you usually use. As the smoke engulfs you, you smoke by force.
FUEL: Using wood or charcoal as fuel making everybody in the home smoke by force. From the mother, who is cooking, the children warming themselves beside the fire, to the father waiting for food, in the next room or in a corner nearby. There are many smoking families in areas where they use food or charcoal as fuel.
COUPLES WHOSE PARTNERS SMOKE: Wife or husband. One smokes in the presence of the other. The other one does not complain, has complained to no avail or is just trying to persevere, being nice by not interfering or distracting the comfort of the smoking partner.
TEARGAS: You smoke as you shed tears simultaneously. You cough and inhale much of it a as you scamper for safety. It's too much when the crowds are highly charged and the anti-riot police is determined to submerge them in a cloud of the stinging smoke.
BUILDING BURNS, PROPERTY BURNS: We do not mind the smoke. We mind our safety of the young ones and our neighbours. We inhale gushes of smoke while carrying out rescue operations.
A FACTORY IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD: It emits smoke day and night. The whole neighbourhood smokes chemicals and other weird concoctions. This often results in stunted growth in children who grow up in such areas.
So, watch out which places you hang, which routes you use if you wish to avoid smoking the numerous brands on a daily basis.
Some people smoke many brands in a single occasion or on different occasions, depending on their everyday lifestyle and the situations they happen to be in. As a result, our bodies may be intricately smoke-polluted, just like the environment. It is not just an issue of global warming, a subject of pertinent debate in the world today, but it narrows down to 'human warming'. The many modern diseases might be a testimony to the circumstance of smoking by force. Here is a look at the situations in which we smoke with or without our will.
BARS, RESTAURANTS, BIBANDAS: These are free zones, where there are no limited restrictions on people's enjoyment. Smokers have the most earnest determination to smoke as much as they want. Here, many different brands are smoked with impunity. Someone could even be smoking marijuana and you mistaken it for the normal cigarette. No wonder, the smell is too horrible to bear. . The non-smokers have no choice but to join by asides, in inhaling the stray smoke that keeps wafting their side in an endless stream. The smoke leaves them with serious pangs of headache and polluted stomachs.
SMOKING FRIEND: If you walk with a friend who smokes whenever you are in his company, you are a chimney. He or she is so close and comfortable with you that you seem indifferent even when he or she smokes a whole packet in your company. Occasionally, just to let you feel how pleasantly addictive and bitterly enjoyable the nicotine is, he gushes a mouthful or two of smoke your way. You feel the punchy smell eating its way into your lungs. You smoke, anyway. You don't complain, much as he/she is your friend.
PUBLIC PLACES AND STREETS: The smoking fellow just in front of you. You try to overtake him, so as to get out of the irritating, cancerous smoke, but no way. The pedestrian paths are so narrow and highly populated, from the newspaper and magazine vendors, hawkers, street beggars and open doors that even an inch of you cannot overtake the smoker.
Occasionally, the boda bodas eat more than enough of the pedestrian path and you, in the name of overtaking the smoker right in front. You can't cross the road either. It's packed with vehicles. You persist until the smoker is finally done with his cigar. You pray he doesn't pull out another cigar, a temptation that he suppresses, anyway.
SMOKE GUSHING AUTOMOBILES: From boda bodas, taxis, heavy load trucks to private vehicles. Whether you are in the taxi or on the pedestrian path, the smoke manages to steam your way. Some vehicles emit too much smoke you swear they should be written off forthwith. The smoke leaves you with serious complications like a stinging headache, a polluted stomach and the prospect of cancer.
SMOKE FROM BURNING DIRT OR GARBAGE: You pass near burning garbage. The smoke is so much that it engulfs you as you pass by. Incidentally, the burning garbage is either outside your residence, your office or a few inches from the only route you usually use. As the smoke engulfs you, you smoke by force.
FUEL: Using wood or charcoal as fuel making everybody in the home smoke by force. From the mother, who is cooking, the children warming themselves beside the fire, to the father waiting for food, in the next room or in a corner nearby. There are many smoking families in areas where they use food or charcoal as fuel.
COUPLES WHOSE PARTNERS SMOKE: Wife or husband. One smokes in the presence of the other. The other one does not complain, has complained to no avail or is just trying to persevere, being nice by not interfering or distracting the comfort of the smoking partner.
TEARGAS: You smoke as you shed tears simultaneously. You cough and inhale much of it a as you scamper for safety. It's too much when the crowds are highly charged and the anti-riot police is determined to submerge them in a cloud of the stinging smoke.
BUILDING BURNS, PROPERTY BURNS: We do not mind the smoke. We mind our safety of the young ones and our neighbours. We inhale gushes of smoke while carrying out rescue operations.
A FACTORY IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD: It emits smoke day and night. The whole neighbourhood smokes chemicals and other weird concoctions. This often results in stunted growth in children who grow up in such areas.
So, watch out which places you hang, which routes you use if you wish to avoid smoking the numerous brands on a daily basis.
Joshua Masinde
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