On Thursday, October 10, 2025, Naija Poetry Fest founder, Godson Osarenren had a pleasant literary engagement hosted by Quramo publishers with Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ, a Kenyan-American poet, author, and academic as Special Guest.
Ngũgĩ is a professor of literature in English at Cornell University and co-founder of the Safal-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Writing. His father is the author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. His family was deeply impacted by the British suppression of the Mau Mau revolution.
On the agenda was the topic: “Culture and politics – what is left after a contaminated handshake?” The big question remains, “A lost African child, who will find you?”
Osarenren added: “Having observed keenly in the course of my teaching profession, my fourth book “The Smiles and Scars From Schools”, states clearly that by 2050, we will have children in Africa who are completely western in their entirety but left with a dark skin that they are totally oblivious of; the final burial of African cultures and traditions”.
What can be done at this point? These are real conversations that cannot be ignored.