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KATAMA
MKANGI
BRILLIANT
ENGLISH AND KISWAHILI SCHOLAR
Coastweek
- - The death of Katama Mkangi
has robbed Kenya a brilliant scholar and a literary giant whose
contributions in both English and Kiswahili have definitely built for
him an indestructible monument.
He was one of the few
Kenyan intellectuals who used to enjoy mixing with upcoming artists
and aspiring writers.
He was a thorough
gentleman who committed his precious life to the service of promoting
unity among the divergent ethnic groups of Kenya.
He did this with an
unfaltered sense of bravery for which he terribly suffered during the
last Nyayo regime.
He was an illustrious
epitome of Coast personality; amiable, good natured, decorous,
hospitable and easily approachable.
Students of Kiswahili
Literature will never forget the pearls of wisdom enshrined in his
master piece novel: "Ukiwa".
His writings were
markedly simple in style and argument; appealing to common sense and
common experience; rather than to authority.
Mkangi was great teacher
and would go out of his way to protect any Black cultural value with
his all intellectual might.
He was a peripatetic
think-tank whose philosophic and fascinating ideas have been indelibly
absorbed into many educated brains.
Today Kenya is poorer
without him around.
- Faraj
Dumila, Mombasa.
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