Led by founder and Editor-in-Chief Munyao Kilolo, Ituĩka Literary Platform is an online and print platform pioneering original works in African languages; producing translations from, into, and between African languages; and cultivating a network of instructors to promote education in African languages. Named from the Gikuyu word meaning rapture, revolution, transformation, and transition, Ituĩka Literary Platform aims to transform African societies by centreing and bringing greater visibility to African languages in their literary canons. In this interview, Asymptote Editor-at-Large for Kenya, Wambua Muindi, sits down with Editor-in-Chief Munyao Kilolo to discuss his career and the path that brought him to his current position at Ituĩka. This conversation seeks to review the platform’s current engagements as well as what lies ahead, hence the conversation will be two-fold: concerning the present and the future.
Wambua Muindi (WM): How has the transition been, coming from Jalada Africa Collective, where you were Managing Editor, to the founding of Ituĩka?
Munyao Kilolo (MK): Jalada was founded by a collective of writers whose vision was very clear: to publish African writers widely and effectively. However, that vision was not specific to African languages. Even so, while I worked as their Managing Editor, I conceptualized the language and translation project for them, and this is what birthed the translation project that went on to make literary history. The inaugural edition led to the single most translated short story in the history of African writing. The story, which is called The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, was translated into one hundred languages from around the world.
For several years after that, I thought a lot about this story and how African languages are represented in African literature, and it became apparent that we needed a platform that was solely devoted to African languages and translation if we were to enhance the work—work that would include publications, translations, and supporting projects enabling the production of literary material in African languages. So, I envisioned holding workshops, having databases, spotlighting people who are working in different African languages, and engaging in the formulation of theory in African languages—especially translation between one African language and another.
I spoke a lot with my friend Professor Mukoma wa Ngugi at Cornell University about these things, and eventually, the Ituĩka Literary Platform started to take shape.
WM: Could you also tell us about the other venture with which you are involved, the Safal-Cornell Kiswahili Prize?
MK: I am currently the director for the Kiswahili Prize, which for a long time was called the Mabati-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature. In the last year, we changed that to the Safal-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature to represent the bigger organization which, in collaboration with Cornell University, has been sponsoring the prize.
I came on board in 2019, and I joined the team of Mukoma wa Ngugi, Lizzy Attree, and Mwalimu Abdilatif Abdalla, who were the main people involved with the prize. The prize itself was founded in 2014 by both Dr. Attree and Mukoma, with the express goal of promoting writing in African languages and encouraging translation into and between African languages. For the last six to seven years, we’ve been awarding writers writing in Kiswahili, both fiction and poetry. The winners of the fiction and poetry categories get five thousand dollars each, with respective runners-up taking home two thousand and five hundred dollars as prize money.
We have also partnered with Mkuki na Nyota in Tanzania as the main publisher for the winning manuscripts. Where we can, we support Mkuki na Nyota in their editorial processes; we love their work because their publications are produced as works of art. They are also very keen on editing, to create a good reading experience.
So, the Kiswahili Prize has been running for the last few years. We are particularly grateful to the MRM-Safal Foundation for their sponsorship and to the teams of Mabati in Nairobi and Alaf in Tanzania whom we work very closely to ensure that the prize meets all its objectives in supporting writers.
WM: Should we expect a prize for African writing from Ituĩka?
MK: Well, this is a possibility, but not in the near future, because we want to maximize what we are doing at the moment and see how the work grows from there.
WM: Could you speak in a general sense to the status of African languages as you see it, as someone who has been involved in Jalada and now Ituĩka, as well as your work with the Kiswahili Prize?
MK: There is a lot of important work that is being done in African languages, but it is not enough or visible enough.
Writing and publishing in African languages is not where we want it to be, because there are so many challenges facing this work. People are unable to find publishing opportunities for their work, and very little funding is made available for those working specifically in African languages. So, not enough material is being written, translated, or published in African languages—but we are also seeing a lot of effort being made by different writers and translators in smaller capacities to produce work in these African languages.
So, each of these efforts contributes to ensuring that there is attention being paid to the people producing work in African languages. Platforms such as Ituĩka, therefore, ensure that the writers are motivated to work in an African language. They know there is a possible home for that work. When you have a writer writing or translating an entire book, say, from Kiswahili to Kiduruma, and they do not know to whom they can go in order to get published, it becomes quite complicated for them to actually do the work or even feel the motivation to devote themselves to that work. So what these platforms are doing, especially what we are doing with Ituĩka, is creating the space for people to have an opportunity to publish their work done in African languages.
WM: We are talking about African languages, and we know that writing is grounded in language. Why is it important, then, to write in our own tongues?
MK: In some ways, a lot of the writers around the world write in their wn mother tongues, their first languages, whichever way one wants to put it. We have English writers writing in English—they are writing in their mother tongue. We have Italian writers writing in Italian, their mother tongue. No one stands in the way of each one of these writers who are writing in their mother tongues! If we have a Kamba writing in Kikamba, they are writing in their mother tongue, so no one should stand in the way of that, whatever their reasons. As a starting point, I think everybody should feel the comfort of being able to express themselves in the language they choose, and if they so choose, there shouldn’t be an issue if that language is African. I don’t see why the African mother tongue is different from a Russian, Chinese, or European mother tongue, or from a Latin American mother tongue. Yet, African languages continue to be sidelined while European languages are seen as the standard of excellence.
We must write in the language we are most comfortable with, without being constantly questioned. Every writer needs to have the opportunity and the support to do that. And no one should stand in the way or want to take that away from them simply because it’s an African language.
But, in a larger sense, I know that writing in Africa comes with a particular set of challenges because we are still so much under the influence of our colonial history, where African languages are consistently undermined by the presence and the overbearing investment in European languages. English, French, Portuguese, and so forth, are prioritized. So much so that the development of these languages within our contexts makes it very difficult to effectively use our mother tongues in writing and publishing. Historically, continuously bringing down our languages has made it difficult for us to have consistent production of literary material in African languages.
Why is it important then? I’d say we want to counter the damage that has been done over the years, as it has made it impossible for us to publish in African languages effectively and easily. We also do not want to only focus on dominant languages such as Kiswahili, which has an already established literary tradition; we want to grow the literary tradition of many other African languages, as much as possible. One way to do that is by creating more platforms for publishing; this will be an encouragement for writers to continue producing work in their own language.
WM: I actually considered having this conversation in Kiikamba; I thought, we’ll be talking with Munyao, he is a Kamba and so am I. Why not do it in Kamba, however much we need to reach a wider audience, and then translate it later? But it is what it is, I mean, you’ve mentioned the different histories which compound the reality we live in.
MK: That’s an interesting observation. I think about it a lot too. It would be fantastic for us to be able to contribute to these kinds of literary debates and literary thinking in our languages, but we have a diverse audience for conversations such as this. We want them to be able to understand. But I agree, it is possible for us to think in Kikamba and see how we can articulate these concepts, and then have them translated into English or any other language.
That is why, within Ituĩka, we have a theory section to address this challenge. African writers are writing creative work in African languages, but there is very little in terms of literary criticism that is being produced or theorized in those languages. We want to welcome and encourage literary theory in any of the African languages. It enables those who wish to center African concepts, aesthetics, and theories in African languages to originate their works in these languages, and then be translated.
Or, alternatively, we can produce translations of already existing works into our languages in order to enrich how we understand things. If we do not develop this, it will be a difficult conversation when we are trying to speak about these concepts. But we have the chance now to encourage people to start producing and engaging in literary criticism in our languages, and we go there from there, one step at a time.
WM: Knowledge production and systems have always been possible—even using our own African languages—but it is something that has been missed by our literary tradition and the canon with which we continue to view our literature.
MK: That is very true, and that is why we need to work on contributing to the literary canon and try to change that kind of deficiency: to increase that which will enable us to continue theory and knowledge production in our African languages.
WM: Exactly. And one way of doing it, I think, is what Ituĩka does, which is focusing on the teaching aspect—such as in the teaching database you have been setting up. Talk to us a little bit about the database and your experience with it.
MK: One of the things I thought about, in relation to my own struggle in learning and using Kikamba as a language throughout my schooling, is that I didn’t have any formal instruction in it, my mother tongue. That meant I knew this language orally, but when it came to reading any written form, I had a bit of a challenge.
Before the pandemic, Mukoma was thinking about the same idea, and he put out a tweet asking if there were people who would be interested in teaching African languages. There was an overwhelming response. Many people were interested in that concept. I began a conversation with him about what it’d look like to have this database widely available online, so that anyone willing to learn could access the resources they would need.
Of course, the pandemic happened, and the concept of online teaching became very prominent; online instruction was available on a wider scale throughout the pandemic and after, so we took advantage of the Zoom classroom and created a database, connecting people teaching these languages online to students willing to learn remotely. As they could choose from various modes of instruction, it was very easy to connect virtually.
The first part of this database is to have people connect with each other. We have languages from Igbo, Somali, Kimeru, Yoruba, the KhoiKhoi, and languages from across the continent. Many of the teachers are themselves well versed and have extensive knowledge as writers, teachers, and translators of these languages. We connect them with interested students, and the process of learning continues.
Anyone willing to produce work in an African language can be better equipped by connecting to teachers. It helps them think about the challenges in these languages, and how they can solve them. While this is not a school-based or formal setup, it enables one-on-one instruction between teachers and students; they can then identify the language learner’s needs. Among the instructors listed, we have people who have been teaching for a very long time, and we have people doing graduate work in literature who also contribute. The language needs of the students, varying from beginner to advanced, can be met by these teachers, and that helps in strengthening writers to do the work they need to do.
WM: That goes to show the scope of the work Ituĩka is doing, despite the enormous magnitude that still needs to be covered. Not so long ago, you had a writing and translation workshop in Kenya. What were the key takeaways?
MK: The workshop was the first of its kind to be held because it concentrated specifically on Kenyan languages other than English and Kiswahili. We had seventeen writers working in different Kenyan languages who were brought together to learn from experienced instructors, such as Professor Kimani wa Njogu and Jane Obuchi who are themselves accomplished, having done extensive work in Kiswahili and Kikuyu, and Kiswahili and Ekegusii respectively, both in writing and translation. We brought these seventeen to be in conversation with each other, a kind of fellowship of people with the same kind of vision about language and the production of literary work and short stories in Kenyan languages, so they could talk among themselves and think about the challenges of translating from and into African languages, as well as how African languages interact with European languages.
Over the course of three days, they worked on skills to further develop their stories, as well as improve their understanding of the typical issues of translation. The workshop was held last year in November, and there have been a lot of activities post-workshop. For example, each writer was assigned a mentor, who has continued to help them understand the language, develop stories in their language, and ensure that the stories are translated into three languages. The idea is to have someone with an original story in a Kenyan language, and then to translate that story into English and Kiswahili so that each would be written in three different languages, hence the multilingual aspect of the anthology we are working on. The writers have been given mentorship since the time they left the workshop and continue to put great effort in as we work towards publication for the anthology, possibly in the coming year.
This workshop was a turning point in our dialogue between African languages and multilingual publishing. We are trying to move away from a literary space that is defined by European languages, where very little privilege is given to African languages. This anthology is rightfully ensuring that we have African languages—and Kenyan languages to be specific—as the focal point. English is more annotative and useful as a connection to a wider reading audience, but is not necessarily the focus of the work. In a way, we have prioritized Kenyan languages and writing in African languages.
WM: Now that Ituĩka centres translation with and between African languages, going into the future, what trajectory do you see the platform taking?
MK: First, we want to have theory produced in African languages, and we want to have literary criticism in African languages. Two, we want to further develop the educational database so that we cover as many languages as possible. Three, we want to publish a lot of stories in all manner of African languages, and by doing that, we are also developing editorial processes in work that’s been produced in African languages. In addition to that, we want to have translation projects where we have short stories and other kinds of works made available in as many languages as possible. All these things are just a starting point to the possibilities we can explore when it comes to working in African languages.
WM: The opportunities abound, as you say. And maybe to borrow from self-publishing, what do you make of self-translation?
MK: We must encourage self-translation. People can be multilingual. Writers can be multilingual, and they can produce work in any language they want to produce in. But, that does not mean that they have to lock themselves out of wider reading audiences, and one of the ways for people to have their culture interact with other cultures is by translating their works into other languages—hopefully other African languages, or even European languages. Then, the work that is originally produced in an African language can travel around the world and interact with other languages, so there can be this dialogue between different languages. Often, people writing in an African language now are beginning to translate their work into English (in the case of East Africa), and that work starts to spread across other languages of the world.
But one of the challenges we have—and one that I have been working on for the last couple of years—is in developing the kind of mechanism that would allow the translation between one African language and another African language, without necessarily relying on English or any other European languages. We must create a connection between these languages by using widely spoken African languages as the bridging languages. For example, in East Africa, we could use Kiswahili as a bridging language between one Kenyan language and another, or we could use it as a bridge between a Tanzanian language and an Ugandan language. There is a lot to be developed with time, but I think translation is one of the starting points in ensuring that works can travel beyond their original language.
WM: Thank you very much for the pioneering work you are doing with African languages.
MK: Thank you very much. And this is not a solitary effort, really. So special thanks to Lucy Njeri Irungu, the Communications and Digital Strategist at Ituĩka, for her incredible work in making Ituĩka and the work in African languages we do visible to the world through our social media channels.
Wambua Muindi teaches at the Institute of Languages and Literatures of the University of Southern Somalia. He is a writer who received his Bachelor’s degree in literature from the University of Nairobi where he is currently reading for his master’s degree in literature. He has been engaged with various literary spaces like Writers Space Africa-Kenya, Africa in Dialogue, and Isele Magazine.
Munyao Kilolo is the Founder and Editor in chief of Ituĩka, a literary platform devoted to African Languages and Translation. He previously served as the Managing Editor of Jalada Africa, where he conceptualized and led their inaugural translation project. The project saw one story, originally written in Gikuyu, translated into 100 languages. His writing in his mother tongue, Kikamba, has been published in the twenty-sixth issue of Absinthe: World Literature in Translation.
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