Thiteen Curses on Mother Africa

Joseph R. Alila, the author of the novel, Sunset on Polygamy ISBN No. 1424166845(PublishAmerica), who gave us a rare peek into the mysterious world of polygamy and romantic experiences of an African polygamist and his modern perils (in AIDS), is at it again in the long-awaited poetry collection, THIRTEEN CURSES ON MOTHER AFRICA (ISBN: 978-14303-1592-6).

This eye-opening collection of poems is published by Lulu (March 2007) (http://www.lulu.com/) the world's fastest-growing provider of print-on-demand books. Thirteen Curses on Mother Africa is available at Lulu Storefront (http://www.lul.com;/) , and is available Worldwide in such online stores and outlets as http://www.amazon.com/ as http://www.barnesandnoble.com/, and http://www.amazon.com/,

http://www.bookfinder4u.com/; and http://www.campusi.com/

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http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=858545

In these mournful yet spiritually uplifting poems, Alila offers us a critical satirical exposition in verse of the causes of the maladies that continue to ail the African Continent. The poet mentally walks the reader through Addis, the symbolic home base to the lethargic African Union, and the absent African man and Leader, to the Longsuffering African woman. He then mourns the ravishing famine and debilitating disease epidemics in AIDS and Malaria of the East, Central and South, before crying over the Curses in Oil and Gems in the West and Center. If the readers have any tears left, they will shed them as the author mourns senseless brother-on-brother wars and the precipitous and dehumanizing and shameful child labor, that is seen all over Africa.
The common themes of Ebony’s deceitful Alien Lovers, the curses in Globalization and Free Trade, Institutionalized Corruption, and the African Dictator, are not spared by the poet’s pen. Notable numbers in this thematically-current, poetry collection are "The Longsuffering African woman," "The Thirteen Curses," and "Beautiful Ebony, Mother of All Mankind."

J R Alila

THE MILAYI CURSE

Dear Readers,

New at Lulu Books (http://www.lulu.com/): This Summer (2007), Joseph R. Alila brings to you a must-read spiritual novel, "The Milayi Curse" (ISBN No. 978-14303-2441-6), about the exciting ministerial life of a legendary pioneering White Priest, Father James O'Kilghor among the Jokamlai (an African Clan).

Synopsis:

When an orphan, Charles Milayi, excels in his middle-school examinations, Father James O’Kilghor finds himself as the keeper of a secret involving members of two related African sub-clans (The Milayis and The Jamokos) gripped in a century-old, spiritual/social-class cold war. The victims of this spiritual war are said to be under the spell of "The Milayi Curse." So intense is the century-old, silent war that no male could inherit a widow from the opposing side of the clan divide. Those who tried to break this jinx either lost their way to their lovers' houses, or broke their legs in freak accidents. And the few who successfully "wormed" their way into widows' houses had perilous experiences that never would yield a son. (It is left to you, the reader, to discover the genesis of the dreaded Milayi Curse).

In "The Milayi Curse," Joseph R. Alila (the Author of Sunset on Polygamy ISBN No. 1424166845) poses the questions: Must Father James O’Kilghor have revealed the secret to demonstrate that a good-hearted Jamoko (David) had sponsored a scholarly Milayi boy (Charles) at a time when his own son (Councillor Thomas Jamoko) could not manage to graduate out of middle school? Had Father James O’Kilghor gotten himself dangerously involved in alien, spiritual disputes, even as he was a Christian Priest whose duty was to minister to any soul?

Read one

Joseph R. Alila

The Wise One of Ramogiland

Dear Friends and Fans,




Dear Friends and Fans,
As promised a couple of weeks ago, here comes Joseph R. Alila's last Summer 2007 literary installment in the new novel "THE WISE ONE OF RAMOGILAND" (ISBN 978-1-4303-2554-3, published by Lulu(www.lulu.com).

In The Wise One of Ramogiland, Alila employs mild satirical comedy, in an attempt to explore the life of a wise spiritual counsellor and kingmaker, The Wise One , who must strugle with the "people's burdens" and the pangs of political patronage. Very old, Nyangi The Wise One must suffer due to her longevity and the unseemly conduct of her son, and her heir-apparent (Thomas), whose ascendancy to The Stool of Inner Knowledge is long overdue.
As a Seer's Regent, she must suffer the burdens and unfulfilled political hopes of her Ramogi people. However, she must teach the Ramogi Warriors the virtues of self-abnegation and patience in leadership, even as she understands their pain and perils under the complex politics of cohabitation in a young, multiethnic, multiparty democratic space. In Alila's Ramogiland, spirituality (The Ramogi Factor) is not only central to life in general, but also to the lives of the modern political animals known as the Ramogi Warriors.

In this novel, Alila speaks to the past, the present and the future of his Ramogi (Luo) people of Kenya. He offers a rare peak into the workings of the "enigmatic" Ramogi mind (and collective communal psyche), in a carefully crafted mental tour of such themes as spirituality, health, governance and culture within the context of complexities presented by a multiethnic, multipaty democratic space.
Read on

Joseph R. Alila

"THE WISE ONE OF RAMOGILAND"

Readers,

Joseph R Alila's latest novel, "THE WISE ONE OF RAMOGILAND," ISBN 1-4303-2554-3 (www.lulu.com) is published.
Check on-line outlets such as www.campusi and www.amazon.com for it. Also Barnes and Noble, and Borders Bookstores will call it for you.

Joseph R. Alila

The Ramogi Wisdom in Politics

Hi Friends,
The storyline in Joseph R. Alila's "The Wise One of Ramogiland" is playing itself out (live) in the Orange Party, the so-called ODM-Kenya. The Orange is rapidly disintegrating slice-by-slice. Pundits are not sure if any of it will be left by Dec 31, 2007. Unlock the workings of the Ramogi (Luo) psyche in Kenyan Politics: Read Joseph R. Alila's "The Wise One of Ramogiland" (ISBN 978-1-4303-2554-3).
To order go to www.Campusi.com; www.lulu.com; www.amazon.com; www.borders.com; www.barnesandnoble.com.
Loyal worker,
Joseph R. Alila

The Longsuffering African Woman

The African woman is lionised in several poetic verses in Alila's Thirteen Curses on Mother Africa, perhaps justifiably so: The African woman is largely localized, often passed by rural urban migration, yet she must feed, protect and mould the character of her son only to lose him to the corrupting influence of urban life. The African woman must continue to walk 5 miles to the spring for water, must till the same piece of barren land of thirty years before, she must feed her orphaned grandchildren the way she fed her children, only with even fewer resources. The African woman must face the vagaries of weather, disease, hunger and poverty, often alone, as the husband is either inebriated, lost to some urban center, or simply overwhelmed by his situation

Do you aggree?

JR Alila

Africa in Poetry Week

To My Friends in the Diaspora:

In our apathy-in tragic apathy,
We watched between mouthfulls of corn and peanuts
As demented women, mere bones, wasted away
Fried by the hot noontime sun
In the simmering sand dunes of the Sahel.

How could we have cared?
How could we have cared about distant events
In Faraway African wilderness?
We watched in our tragic melancholy
As child mothers of Virunga, and Shaba
were caught in the quagmire and swampy squalor
Of Disease and War.

Africa crumbles as her demented son AU,
Dines off Selasie's golden platters
Unconcened.
Aa...a! AU, Africa's son:
AU fetted in the spirit of Non-interference
As Virunga erupted in violence,
And Azania mourned her dead
Victims of Ayaki, perhaps a curse of her gems.
AU adjourned for dessert in the Founding Heroes Hall
As the Sahelean sand
Baked her destitute mothers and Children.
And the Atlantic glowed red with victimsof oil and gems
As AU supped in the full glare of his fallen heroes.

Where is our Africanness?
That Africa should crumble
As you and I in the Diaspora blog
In empyt words from the comfort
Of our alien hideouts;
Quick to change our Cable channels
to football or a Soapy Opera
Whenever a destitute child
Visits our comfort zones.

We saw them;
You and I saw them;
The world saw them,
But our Apathy had turned tragic.

Joseph Alila.

(Author: Thirteen Curses on Mother Africa (A poem), ISBN 978-14303-1592-6)
http://jaramogialila.blogspot.com