A review by ebonyutley
Nairobi Heat by Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ

3.0

It was hard to find this story in the midst of all the violence. When I did find it, it wasn’t because of the novel’s wordsmithing, but because of the main character’s development. When he finds himself in Africa, when he finds out why he had to go to Africa, when he finds out what it means to be black, when he finds love, when he finds justice, when he finds himself, the parameters of the story zoom out just a little bit more to reveal a tangled web of other characters obsessed with murder, money, and missions that crosses continents.

I read the book before a trip to the said places and it helped me put black Americans in Africa and the Tutsi genocide and reconciliation in a context that I wouldn’t have had without it. Is it geniusly presented? No. Is it thought-provoking? If you want to think, absolutely.