Insight

Bloggers,

In the fictional novel, "The Wise One of Ramogiland," ISBN 978143032554-3 (http://www.lulu.com/), Joseph R. Alila (Author of such novels as "Sunset on Polygamy," and "The Milayi Curse") distinguishes himself as a social critic with a feel for mature satire with an understanding of serious problems of the past, the present and the future of his Ramogi (Luo) people of East Africa. His heroine, "The Wise One" is introduced to the reader as an unwilling inheritor of a male prophetic order (thanks to old prophesies in her favor). She then grows into a woman of wisdom, whose work ensures a harmonious and informed life for the people of her Kosoko clan within their spiritual, social, cultural and physical environment. From her simple abode on Ratil Hill (The Sinai) she also shepherds the leadership of Ramogi people and the Nation in transitional times. She struggles with such issues as "Can a Ramogi be the President of the Nation?" and "Should the Ramogi Circumcise or Not in the face of the AIDS crisis?
Through his heroine (The Wise One) Alila struggles with such issues in Luo leadership as the often misunderstood "political sycophancy" towards the Modern Political Luo Warriors (pako Thwondi), and the Collective Luo Psyche in national politics. Alila illuminates the workings of essential elements of the Tripodal Luo Leadership in 1) The Warrior Leader (Thuon), 2) The Wisdom of Seer’s Stool (Kom Jabilo); 3) The Elder Leader (Ker) and his collegiate Council of Elders, and which three helped to maintain a united Ramogi front in the lowest of their political times.
Through the services offered by his heroine, "The Wise One," Alila demonstrates, in warm comedy, the making of a modern Ramogi Leader: When the young Warrior visits with "The Wise One," he is put on the Seer’s Stool to empower him with "hidden knowledge;" then he has to carry the heavy javelin (nyol) and full-body shield (kuot) both of which are symbolic of Warrior Leadership and the enormity of the people’s burdens. And when The Young Warrior returns a second time to commune with the New Seer, he is given the rough Shepherd’s Crooked Stick (Luet Nyabola). The Young Warrior symbolically graduates into the tempered Elder Leader. After these visits, the Young Leader attains full empowerment as a modern Luo Leader: a relentless, tempered and informed fighter for the people’s rights, nationally and internationally. The Leader must look North to the Cradle of the Luo, the Sudan, for new challenges, because leadership is about solving problems.

J. Alila (Author)

Interesting Times

Joseph R. Alila's Novel The Wise One of Ramogiland (ISBN 978-1-4303-25543) is now available Worldwide. Amazon.com, BooksAmillion, Barnes and Noble, Borders and many other stores offer some of the Lowest Prices. Barnes & Noble, and Borders can call in the book for you. Online Orders take less than five days within the United States of America and most European Countries.
Read this entertaing book if you want to understand the history and the direction of the Presidential Politics in Kenya, and by extention, other African and Third World countries in which Ethnicity and Clanism still rules.

Alila

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