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piqer for: Global finds
Ciku Kimeria is a Kenyan author "Of goats and poisoned oranges" - (https://www.amazon.com/goats-poisoned-oranges-Ciku-Kimeria-ebook/dp/B00HBBWPI6), development consultant, adventurer and travel blogger (www.thekenyanexplorer.com). She writes both fiction and non-fiction focusing on African stories that need telling. She has worked on diverse pieces for various international and local publications including Quartz, Ozy, The East African etc. She has travelled to 45 countries – 16 of them in Africa. 153 countries to go and 63 territories!
"Of goats and poisoned oranges" has been extremely well received in Kenya and beyond. It tells the story of a Kenyan middle aged power couple and their complicated marriage. The novel explores issues of greed, revenge, betrayal and murder. It runs from the 1960s to 2013. It has been described as “Wicked, funny, poignant, wacky, human, a big ball of fun and danger”, “A unique and captivating book”, “Fun and intriguing”, “Impossible to put down once you start reading.”
She recently moved to Dakar, Senegal from Kenya to work on her second novel. She also works at as the Africa Communication Manager at a leading global strategy consulting firm.
She holds a B.S. in Management Science from MIT with minors in Urban Planning and International development studies.
For The First Time In 30 Years, There's A Book Celebrating Black Female Photographers
In photography, even laypeople understand the importance of the point of view of the photographer. This has been a reason why with the growth of Instagram, I have found myself drawn to pictures of my continent taken by other Africans. It is extremely difficult to take out one's biases when taking a picture. That's why I struggle to relate to the proliferation of pictures that captured the child with the fly in their eye, the images of people dying from HIV, the constant bombardment of war images in mainstream media. While all these images were the reality of various people's lives, they were not the full picture of life on my continent. In no way am I advocating for a type of storytelling and photography that only tells happy stories, but I'm asking for more objectivity and diversity when showing images of my continent. Much in the same way that the US cannot be simplified to a country where white nationalists are baying daily for non-white or Jewish blood, or in the same way Nazi Germany is not the only story that can be told about Germany. Everyone deserves to have their different stories told and not be caricatured.
Barrayn’s book, funded by a grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council as well as a crowdfunding campaign, features 100 female photographers of the African diaspora, including those based in the US, Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean. It’s named after Mmekutmfon ‘Mfon’ Essien, a young Nigerian-American photographer who passed away in 2001.
I'm looking forward to getting the book. Hopefully in the meantime the reader can look through the few featured pictures in the article and see black people in a way they might not have seen them before.
