Mukoma wa Ngugi will be publishing a new novel with Cassava Republic Press. Titled We Unbury Our Dead with Song, the novel centers on four competing Tizita musicians and is set in Kenya and Ethiopia. In a tweet announcing the news, Mukoma describes the book as his “love letter to African creativity and imaginations,” and shared a playlist, via Cassava Republic Press’s YouTube channel, of Tizita songs – a ballad form of Ethiopian music that focuses on themes of love and longing.
My Tizita playlist via @CassavaRepublic – in anticipation of my forthcoming novel, We Unbury Our Dead With Song. Its about four competing Tizita musicians and is set in Kenya and Ethiopia – my love letter to African creativity and imaginations. https://t.co/rExj8kpnTc
— Mukoma Wa Ngugi (@MukomaWaNgugi) October 14, 2019
Mukoma is currently an associate professor at Cornell University. He is the author of the poetry collections Logotherapy (2016) and Hurling Words at Consciousness (2006), as well as the novels Mrs Shaw (2015), Black Star Nairobi (2013), and Nairobi Heat (2011). The latter was recently suggested by Brittle Paper Readers to be adapted into film. His latest work of criticism is The Rise of the African Novel: Politics of Language, Identity, and Ownership (2018). He has contributed to several anthologies and writes regularly for The Guardian.
We cannot wait to read Mukoma’s novel about this fascinating aspect of African music culture! In the meantime, we’ll content ourselves with his playlist.
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