David Gian Maillu (born 19 October 1939) is a Kenyan author and publisher. He is considered East Africa's most prolific writer, having published over 60 books between 1972 and 2021.
Most of his work is in English and Kiswahili, and he also published the first book of poetry in Kikamba.
At first I didn't even know whether an African could write...I had nobody to tell me how to write. I just kept on writing, first traditional stories, and then fiction, even science fiction, and then poetry and anything else. At a later stage I developed an interest in philosophy and practical psychology; in fact, human relations are what I mainly write about now.
David G. Maillu was born in Kilungu Location in what was then Kenya Colony. He was the first child of Joseph Mulandi and Esther Kavuli. His parents were poor and illiterate, and their son's exact birthdate was uncertain. [2] [3]
Maillu taught himself to read and write before joining Machakos Technical School in 1951. Four years later, he earned the Cambridge School Certificate, having studied privately through the British Tutorial College. [2]
Maillu then considered enrolling at the University College of Nairobi to study literature, but changed his mind when he discovered the syllabus featured only Western writers. His interest lay with Kenyan writers, including Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. [2]
In 1964, he joined the Voice of Kenya radio station as a graphic designer. He soon became dissatisfied, but remained in the role until the early 1974 due to financial constraints. [4] [5]
In 1971, he married Hannelore Nuthmann, a German woman who moved to Kenya in 1967 to work for the Kenya Council of Churches. In 1974 their daughter, Elizabeth Kavuli, was born. Elizabeth was Maillu's second child. His first daughter, Christine Mwende, was born seven years earlier. [3] [4]
When David Maillu could not get any of the established publishers to accept his manuscripts, he set up Comb Books to publish his own work, with typesetting machinery paid for by Danish aid. He also started the cult of the tiny book for the handbag. One of his runaway sellers was After 4.30 which revealed the sexy experiences of secretaries after the office doors closed at the end of the working day; it was bound in a tiny format so that the secretary could discreetly slip the book into her handbag along with her comb when the boss came in.
David Maillu's earliest writing appeared in a magazine called Risk, based in Geneva, and in the East African Publishing House's Ghala magazine. [3] [7] He went on to publish over 60 books between 1972 and 2021. Many of these were self-published, first by his Comb Books imprint, then by David Maillu Publishing. By the 1980s his work was published by Macmillan. [3]
Despite the scope of his work, Maillu has not been taken seriously by academics. Many of his early works were considered sexually explicit, and some were banned in Tanzania in June 1976. [8] [9]
Maillu established Comb Books in 1972, publishing dozens of books over the next five years. These were mostly written by Maillu himself.
The first release from Comb Books was also the first book of poetry ever published in Kikamba. Appearing under the title Kĩ Kyambonie: Kĩkamba nthimo, the book sold poorly due to the limited market, and Maillu quickly turned his attention to writing in English. [10] [ full citation needed ]
It was Maillu's 1973 thrillers, Unfit for Human Consumption and My Dear Bottle, that brought him his first success as a writer and publisher. These two publications also demonstrated Maillu's versatility, with the first written in prose and the second as a long narrative poem. [3] My Dear Bottle proved controversial, with Maillu presenting AIDS as a new scourge of Africa. [11] These early titles appeared as 'Comb Mini Novels'; small format novellas measuring 3.5 x 5 inches and sold for five East African Shillings. [12]
In 1974 Maillu wrote and published After 4.30, which would again prove controversial. After 4.30 is long poem narrating the troubled life of a single mother, Emili Katongo, who is forced into prostitution. [3] [13] Schatzberg considers Maillu: 'remarkably ahead of his time in his acute perception of gender consciousness'. [14]
In 1975 and 1976, Maillu published his epic verse narrative The Kommon Man over three volumes. The Kommon Man is narrated by an average Kenyan struggling to survive in the difficult economic climate of the day. A series of injustices occur, illustrating the corruption and inequalities faced by many in the country. [3] [9] Maillu's status as one of Kenya's most popular authors was clear by this stage, with the first print run of The Kommon Man running to 10,000 copies. It included a 20-item questionnaire to capture his readership's interests. [5]
1976 also saw Maillu release two epistolary novels, Dear Monika and Dear Daughter, which again proved popular. [3] By this stage, Comb Books employed seven or eight full-time staff and had purchased computerised typesetting equipment. The possibility of establishing offices in Europe and West Africa was considered. [5] [15] But a Tanzanian ban on his work that year, combined with political instability elsewhere in the region, marked the beginning of the end for Comb Books. No books were published in 1977, and in 1978 only two titles appeared. These were released under Maillu's pseudonym Vigad G. Mulila. The firm declared bankruptcy later that year. [5] [15]
Literary critics have not been very generous in their assessments of Maillu's work. No one has lavished praise on him, and few have admitted finding any redeeming value in what or how he writes. The general feeling among serious academics appears to be that such literature is beneath criticism for it is wholly frivolous, the assumption being that a scholar should not waste his time on art that aims to be truly popular. Yet Maillu cannot be ignored in any systematic effort to understand the evolution of an East African literature, for he has extended the frontiers of that literature farther than any other single writer.
Maillu quickly establishing a new publishing company, this time under his own name. David Maillu Publishers first book, Kadosa, was released in 1979. Maillu considered this his favourite work, and it presents a blend of romance, adventure, science fiction, metaphysical speculation, and hallucinogenic horror. Lindfors considered Kadosa as 'remarkable' and 'utterly unlike anything he had written before'. [17]
David Maillu went on to publish for Macmillian and others from the early 1980s.
Titles included the popular Benni Kamba 009 books as well as 1991s Broken Drum, which is the story of a European traveller who believes Africans have AIDS simply because they are African. [11]