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· A look at Carol's world
of poetry
By WAYUA MULI
Few people are brave enough to
leave permanent employment and
do what they love best. Perhaps,
even Caroline Nderitu, who is in her
mid-20s isn't, except that by the time she
was forced to make a choice between a teaching
job and a stab at being a freelance poet,
things had gone too far.
"I can remember the time when I realised that I
had gone too far to turn back," she recalls.
"I was teaching creative writing and poetry at Premier Academy, Nairobi, and I was also travelling a lot doing different poetry shows," she continues. Having already taken a lot of time off for these other shows, things got even tighter when she was nominated to teach Kenyan drama at the Interplay workshop in Australia.
"At my age, I thought, any involvement in this project would be as a student, not a teacher. I was honoured to have been chosen as a tutor," she says. However, she could not go because she did not want to risk taking more time off.
"But it made me think about all the offers that I was receiving to perform my poetry and even though none of them was paying millions, they were far-reaching." And that's how Caroline, arguably Kenya's first freelance poetry artiste, started her career. She had began by reciting poems while still at Kenyatta University where, oddly enough, she studied Home Economics. She helped launch the university's Poetry Lab club, which has now expanded beyond the campus and has incorporated more people who are not necessarily students. It was in 1996 that this thought was first planted in her head, when she recited a poem called Turning the Leaf during the inauguration of the university's Faculty of Home Economics. She was a first year student then, just discovering her love for writing and reciting poems.
It wasn't long before Poetry Lab, a low-profile club was formed. It was, perhaps, Caroline's emphasis on its performance that changed it and gave it a bigger profile than everyone thought it would get. Suddenly, the club was garnering media attention and one of their most publicised shows, I Need A Hug, was a watershed for both the club and for Caroline. Still in 1996, Caroline was invited to South Africa to recite poetry at a campaign against domestic violence sponsored by the University of Cape Town's Gender Institute.
By the time she was finishing university in 1999, she had been to Dar es Salaam, on a student's exchange programme, and was preparing to go to war-torn Southern Sudan for a workshop on women in war zones. She eventually got a chance to work full-time with an NGO called Purple Images, organising donor-funded creative workshops when she left campus. When the NGO folded and she started looking for full-time employment, Caroline turned to her mentor, Dr Eddah Gachukia, who had seen her perform during a Forum for African Women Educationalists way back in 1998 and had given her a job as a drama tutor at Riara Road Primary School.
A poet teaching creative writing would seem rather incongruous, but Caroline's entire approach to the issue is rather different. "I help children to nurture their creative sides through story-telling, debates, mimicry and other oral creative arts." Caroline says she learnt about the technical aspects of poetry at Kenyatta University, where she would spend most of her free time at the Literature Department. Poetry Lab had expanded as well; not being able to host shows at Kenyatta University ?about 25 kms from the city centre, Caroline found willing hosts at the Phoenix Theatre and at the British Council, where the club has since held subsequent shows.
Things got serious in July last year, when Caroline was holding a permanent job teaching creative writing at the Premier Academy. She was also touring various towns in the country with Unilever Industries' Fair and Lovely team, reciting poems about beauty, as well as taking care of a few other projects.
Time to make a decision "I'd been away so many times that the management asked me to make a decision." She chose to freelance, and immediately started working on her first book, Caroline Verses, which was launched in November last year and has since sold about 300 copies. Since then, she has been busy reciting poems at various social functions and teaching part-time at Riara Road Primary School, Makini School, Brookhouse and Premier Academies.
Caroline is the first-born in a family of four children. Her parents, Peter and Charity Nderitu, live in Nyeri. She studied at Temple Road and Consolata Primary Schools in Nyeri before she joined Bishop Gatimu Ngandu Girls' High School for her 'O' Levels. She joined Kenyatta University in 1995, where she attained a diploma in Food, Nutrition and Diatetics. In her career, however, criticism is not rare. A critic recently dismissed her work as not being serious enough to qualify as poetry. "It's very difficult for me to present deep poetry on stage, because it is only a performance and people don't have time to review my work and absorb it there and then."
Caroline is currently in Switzerland, representing Kenya at a Girl Guide world convention on the adolescent girl (Caroline is a Ranger Cadet).
In future, Caroline plans to establish an NGO called Childspeak, that will host workshops for children. Her biggest project for this year, though, is set to blossom in May. She hopes to select a number of poems from secondary school setbooks and recite them on stage.
*The Lifestyle magazine is published every Sunday as a pullout in the Sunday Nation by the Nation Media Group Limited, Kenya.
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The approaching flood
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Poems to save the world
Poems to save the world
RANGA RAJAH
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2002 3:02:39 AM ]
hat will I show my children? / Ivory rings, ivory bangles, / Shall I show them pictures and skeletons in the museum? / I speak for the elephants, / I speak for tomorrow.
This is one of Caroline Nderitu's poems; poems that are a cry to save the world. An active environmentalist in Kenya, she was invited by Suresh Heblikar and his Eco-Watch to read and enact her poems in various schools in Bangalore.
"India and Kenya have similar concerns. If you have tigers, we have our elephants to worry about," says Caroline, tall and striking in the traditional khanga. On it are printed Swahili proverbs about the need to protect nature. "Environmental awareness begins with every one of us," says this eco activist.
It was the girl guide camps she went to as a young student that made her fall in love with nature. So much so that she began to write essays on the subject and to participate in competitions and debates. At the various camps she also learnt the basics of recycling, garbage disposal and how to preserve trees.
"I remember as a child that an older relative or teacher would point at a splendid tree or a group of animals and say it would not last forever. That used to hurt me so badly," says Caroline.
She shares these cares with like-minded environmentalists whenever she gets to meet them. Involving children in environmental protection is also one of her key concerns. "In keeping with the inspiration for Eco-watch, I too believe children can make a difference," she says.
Children, with their ready love of flowers and butterflies and animals and birds are very receptive to this message, she says. As for adults they need to get back in touch with nature. "These days not many people go to the forest or take a walk in the wild," she says. That way, we'll all be more aware of the pitfals of unchecked urbanisation.
Caroline's environmental awareness is not limited to the forests and camping sites alone. She believes in leading an eco-friendly lifestyle. Suresh's home, too, is a perfect example of an eco-friendly living space, she says.
Even in day-to-day living Caroline believes in using alternatives to chemical disinfectants and aerosprays. "For instance, one can buy dry cowdung cakes and burn it to kill insects and mosquitoes instead of harmful pesticides."
She can be contacted at www.carolinenderitu.20m.com
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Stormy Fields
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Venetian Streets
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Dreams
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