Latest Posts
The Colonial Myth of Development: The Circle Not the Line
For too long, the story of Africa has been told in a straight line, from “underdeveloped” to “developed. But what if this line doesn’t exist in the first place? Thinkers like Julius Nyerere, John Mbiti, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o remind us that African thought moves in circles, in rhythm with people, land, and memory. To…
Swahili time and temporal disobedience
Western clocks begin at midnight, but Swahili time starts at sunrise. In Kiswahili, time isn’t something abstract, it begins when life begins. This way of telling time doesn’t just measure hours; it measures relationship between people, the sun, and the rhythm of life itself. This is a quiet rebellion, a form of temporal disobedience that…
Temporal Disobedience: Decolonizing the Future Through African Time
What if time isn’t something we measure, but something we live? For many African societies, time doesn’t rush forward into an infinite future, it circles, returns, remembers. In this essay, I trace what it means to disobey the clock, to think through Mbiti, Tamale, and others who remind us that maybe time, too, can be…
The Case Against Rap Lyrics as Evidence in Court
The intersectionality between American HipHop and Gang Culture runs deep, but freedom of speech and expression cannot be understated. It’s art.
Occam’s Razor; you already know wtf is going on.
Sometimes, it’s exactly what it looks like.
A Penthouse in Senegal
Nura has travelled across the continent to live with her new husband and his two wives. I see why.
WALKING FROM DIANI TO TANZANIA
“Njia ya siku zote haina alama” An everyday path has no signpost. Experience makes things easy.
LIVING WITH 394 THINGS: I COUNTED EVERYTHING I OWN
I recently counted all the things I own, and this happened.
JULIANI: A MASTERPIECE MASTERING PEACE
Potential: Exponetial. I recently had a conversation with iconic Kenyan rapper Juliani, and here’s everything we talked about!
Backpacking through East Africa – everything you need to know
For a year, I did a good amount of budget travel across East Africa. In this blog post, I tell you how I did it.
Ngeli ya u-wii: re-reading an insha I wrote in school
I recently came across a Kiswahili exercise book from my school days, here’s an insha I found written in it!
About Me
My name is Mumbi Macharia. People know me as a performing spoken word artist, and this blog is to let you inside what goes on in my mind when I’m not on stage. I write about mostly interesting stuff, I promise.
Email me at machariamumbi1@gmail.com
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Mumbi Macharia 