I wish I was in her shoes right now. I would have responded to that letter with a more than ten-page response. I would quote the law, the constitution, Paulo Freire, Ngugi wa Thing’s, Wole Soyinka, Thomas Hobbes, Rousseau, Karl Marx, Spinoza, Ernst Hemingway, Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett, Bertlot Brecht, etc
I would begin thus:
“The man dies in he who does not fight tyranny,” as Wole Soyinka states…
The principal is covering her ass. She has been forced to do this. They tried to fix the principal for allegedly allowing Malala a non-teacher to direct the play with Mrs Mungatana saying Malala was visiting the gals dorm at night. But Malala wrote the script but the director is the drama teacher and the principal is the producer. Now the principal is cornered for allowing the play so she has to say it was altered midstream. Hii ni play-within-a-play, so Ms. Okumu should ride the wave and in her letter her audience should be not the principal, because obviously she is not the principal’s intended audience
Nothing will happen to her labda transfer to Ortum Boys. That’s why I’m saying acheze sasa nayo. Show tour knowledge of literature and the politics around literature. Quote George Orwell who said, "All art is propaganda,* explain the never ending debate on whether all art is political, and quote Ngugi wa Thiong’o who wrote that all art is political as did Wole Soyinka. Quote Christopher Okigbo’s po, "Before you, oh Mother Idiot, naked I stand/ Watchman for the watchword, and how Okigbo joined the Biafran war as an artist driven to act by his own poetry. Then quote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights… Hakuna kufutwa hapa, call their bluff and start packing your bag ready to go to Ortum Boys
That was about millions sent to the school that an old gal wanted. Hii no sasa tu. But the risk is there. Lakini kineumana so play the Russian roulette
Ukiwa a true artist, playwright, revolutionary or activist, you must internalize that one day your beliefs will be tested. Otherwise holding such beliefs is folly and a reckless pursuit.
This is a concept many people don’t comprehend. Ideological and moral prostitution corrupts society.
One small act of defiance like Rosa Parks can’t start a revolution about how people do and think about things.
Sometimes teachers should just teach and go home. Avoid all this drama which may lead to unnecessary trouble. It’s not like they get paid extra money for engaging in these co-curricular activities. I would have forfeited such responsibility if you know politics will be involved
