Author Q&A with Gathondu Mwangi
by Christine Nessler
December 7, 2023
Gathondu Mwangi is a Geographer and writer. Born and raised in Kenya, he travels occasionally to the US where he is undertaking his graduate studies. His work has previously appeared in World Literature Today, Worcester Review, The Fourth River and Kwani?
Tell us about yourself.
I am currently a Geography PhD student in Massachusetts, working on my dissertation. My life has been rather nomadic over the past two decades, shifting from one place to another. I am looking forward to returning to Kenya, which is where I’m from, and settling there once I am done with my studies. I am also a cat-dad, and hoping to be a ‘real’ dad soon.
La Niña addresses guilt behind sorrow. How did writing La Niña help you with the sorrow of losing your grandmother and your guilt over her “aloneness.”
I don’t know if it did. I still feel the guilt and sadness when I re-read it or think about her. We spoke on the phone the day before she passed away, and I told her that I was going to visit. But the next day when I went, it was too late. I had not really wanted to write La Niña, but felt compelled to, if only to let out that complex mix of emotions that I was feeling, so it helped in that sense. I wish that she were still here. In a spiritual sense, she is still here, in the realm of ancestors who walk among us daily.
What do you hope readers take away from La Niña?
Hopefully readers will gain some understanding about our inter-connectedness, with each other, with the more-than-human, with those who have gone before us. About the active effort needed to maintain that inter-connectedness. But I don’t want to be prescriptive, I’m grateful for the opportunity to be read and appreciate the people at TGLR for choosing to publish my work.
As a student of Geography, how did poetry and writing make its way into your life?
My initial encounters with poetry were in school in Kenya, where we read poems almost like puzzles to be deciphered. Later I came across writing by African, Caribbean and African American poets who wrote about their worlds and experiences in forms and registers that I recognized. These writers made poetry a lot more welcoming for someone like me, navigating life in a post-colonial context. I neglected reading and writing poems for a long time though, until the pandemic lockdowns of 2020-21. I was in the US at the time, having started the Geography PhD. Like many other people, I (re)turned to poetry to try make sense of that difficult time. Of course, Geography and poetry or writing in general are closely intertwined. This is obvious when you think about how much has been written on people’s relationships to place. I would say though that I used to compartmentalize the two, treating them as distinct from each other, another carry-over from my schooling. But in the course of my PhD studies, I came across geographers who also dabbled in poetry, and read a lot of writing by geographers that had a poetic sensibility to it. It was liberating to realize their symbiotic potential.
What are the differences of geography between your home country of Kenya and the state of Massachusetts, where you travel for your graduate studies?
I am currently in Kenya and this question reminded me of my upcoming trip to Massachusetts in December. I am definitely not looking forward to the much colder weather, but you know, sacrifices have to be made. I was talking to a friend recently about how quickly this year has gone by, something that I’d found harder to notice here in Kenya after spending the last few years in Massachusetts where the distinct shift from one season to another made me more conscious about the passage of time. Climate change has only added to the blurring of the seasons here. For instance, it’s supposed to be the rainy season right now, but so far it has been more hot than wet. There’s a lot to be said about the differences in geography between Kenya and Massachusetts, but that unpredictability induced by climate change is something the two places have in common.
What is your favorite form of written expression and why?
I find writing poems to be deeply satisfying but also very difficult. I wouldn’t really say that it’s enjoyable, but it’s more of a necessity, something that I feel compelled to do. The results have been mixed, a few good poems sprinkled among many that are not. I would really like to be able to write about the intoxicating sensorial excess that is life in Nairobi, I am still feeling my way about that, deciding whether the best genre for that is poetry or prose, we’ll see.
What has writing poetry taught you?
It’s definitely taught me a lot about handling rejection! And about writing to genre. Generally speaking, my academic training has taught me to strive to make my writing as transparent as possible. Meanings should be clear, arguments built up systematically, and the take-aways legible. Writing poetry has taught me to resist that academic impulse to over-explain and to embrace the truths that lie beyond the rational. Also to follow the sound of words, not necessarily their meaning. More broadly, poetry has taught me to approach life with a spirit of openness and generosity which I hope I can live up to.
What do you think of when you hear the phrase, “The Good Life?”
I’ve associated “The Good Life” with the future, something yet to come. But the events of the past year, with Cũcũ’s passing, have shown me that the good life should be lived in the present. Right now, I am also thinking about the people in Palestine who have been denied the opportunity to make a life for themselves, let alone a good life. Can we claim a good life for ourselves given all the pain in Palestine?
Gathondu’s poem, La Niña, is available in Issue #13 ~ Autumn 2023.
Thank you, Gathondu. We’re grateful to you for your willingness to spend extra time with us on this Q&A and for trusting us with your poem. We wish you the best!
