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 Nkirote Laiboni is a Kenya-based writer and humanitarian worker, and grew up surrounded by books. She began writing poetry and fiction as a teenager to let off steam about the injustices she observed around her. With a background in law and human rights, Nkirote has always been interested in exploring how creative writing and other arts can be used as a vehicle to promote social justice, human rights and peace.
She is inspired by such African writers as Chinua Achebe, Ben Okri and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and hopes to see more African women writing and getting published.
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Kiswahili version
Njoo
Njoo kwangu, wewe husema
Moyo wangu mzito naubeba
Kwa uchovu, tabasamu nimelichora
Kwenye uso huu uliochakaa
Najaribu kutoangaika
Na huruma natarajia
Navuta maungo haya yaliyovunjika
Naja kwako, na ninatikisika
English version
Untitled
Come to me, you say
And with heavy heart,
A smile painted on this tired, old woman's face,
Struggling not to fall apart
Yet,
Hoping for a coup de grace
I drag my broken limbs -
I come to you
And come undone.
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English version
See How They Stare
See how they stare
See how they stare
See how they dare
Stand there,
and without a care
eye me, with
that mix of fascination and disgust
only preserved for
the one-eyed ogre,
the two-headed monster,
the three-legged man,
the four-breasted woman.
See them stare,
with bulbous noses up in the air
Watch how they look
at me,
their mouths agape, and
eyes wide like saucers
As if am some mammal
that is extinct, like
that lioness that adopted a dik dik
Ready to click click
their cameras
Like it is their first safari
Or, they have just seen a rastafari
in deep meditation
See how they stare
Heads bobbing side to side,
like puppets on strings
Amazed, as if
a prodigal son has returned
Stupefied, as though trees grow on the pores of my skin,
and mountains sprout out of my head,
instead of hair
See their chests puffing with self-importance
See them point
See them shriek
See how they laugh
At this skin,
That is two shades darker than theirs.
© N.L., 2009
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