Formerly | East African Literature Bureau |
---|---|
Type | State owned corporation |
Industry | Publishing house |
Founded | 1947 |
Founder | British High Commission |
Headquarters | , Kenya |
Website | kenyaliteraturebureau |
The Kenya Literature Bureau (KLB) is a publishing house and state corporation in Kenya founded in 1947. It is located in South-C off Popo Road in Nairobi.
The Kenya Literature Bureau was initially established by the "East Africa governments (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda)" [1] in 1947 as the East African Literature Bureau as an "offshoot" of the missionary-owned Ndia Kuu Press in order to publish books for the general public in Kiswahili, East African vernacular languages and English. [2] [3] The Bureau's first director was Charles Granston Richards, who held that post for fifteen years. [4] [5]
The regional status continued after independence with the establishment of the East African Community (EAC). In the early 1970s the Bureau published many pioneering anthologies of English-language poetry from East Africa:
It is significant of East African writers' indifference to political boundaries that such anthologies were all compiled, without a single exception, on an inter-territorial basis, with Kenya and Uganda supplying the greater part of the material. They [were] often multiracial as well, incorporating contributions by European and Asian writers. [6]
However, in 1977, the EAC collapsed and the reins of the bureau were transferred to the Kenyan Ministry of Education thereby making it a department under that ministry. In 1980, the KLB Act was passed by the Kenyan Parliament making it a state corporation—a status it holds to this day. [3]
The Uganda Railway was a metre-gauge railway system and former British state-owned railway company. The line linked the interiors of Uganda and Kenya with the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa in Kenya. After a series of mergers and splits, the line is now in the hands of the Kenya Railways Corporation and the Uganda Railways Corporation.
Sheng is a Swahili and English-based cant, perhaps a mixed language or creole, originating among the urban youth of Nairobi, Kenya, and influenced by many of the languages spoken there. While primarily a language of urban youths, it has spread across social classes and geographically to neighbouring Tanzania and Uganda.
The East African Community (EAC) is an intergovernmental organisation composed of seven countries in the Great Lakes region of East Africa: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Republic of Tanzania, the Republics of Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Uganda. Évariste Ndayishimiye, the president of Burundi, is the current EAC chairman. The organisation was founded in 1967, collapsed in 1977, and was revived on 7 July 2000.
Lamu or Lamu Town is a small town on Lamu Island, which in turn is a part of the Lamu Archipelago in Kenya. Situated 341 kilometres (212 mi) by road northeast of Mombasa that ends at Mokowe Jetty, from where the sea channel has to be crossed to reach Lamu Island. It is the headquarters of Lamu County and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Taban Lo Liyong is a poet, academic and writer of fiction and literary criticism from South Sudan. His political views, as well as his outspoken disapproval of the post-colonial system of education in East Africa, have inspired both further criticism as well as controversy since the late 1960s.
The East African Railways and Harbours Corporation (EAR&H) is a defunct company that operated railways and harbours in East Africa from 1948 to 1977. It was formed in 1948 for the new East African High Commission by merging the Kenya and Uganda Railways and Harbours with the Tanganyika Railway of the Tanganyika Territory. As well as running railways and harbours in the three territories it ran inland shipping services on Lake Victoria, Lake Kyoga, Lake Albert, the Victoria Nile and the Albert Nile.
Peter Nazareth is a Ugandan-born literary critic and writer of fiction and drama.
Grace Emily Ogot was a Kenyan author, nurse, journalist, politician and diplomat. Together with Charity Waciuma she was the first Anglophone female Kenyan writer to be published. She was one of the first Kenyan members of parliament and she became an assistant minister.
The Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), is an institution of the East African Community, which is a regional intergovernmental organisation of the republics of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan. IUCEA aims to foster collaboration between universities in the EAC region. It has its head offices in Kampala, Uganda
Rail transport in Kenya consists of a metre-gauge network and a new standard gauge railway (SGR). Both railways connect Kenya's main port city of Mombasa to the interior, running through the national capital of Nairobi. The metre-gauge network runs to the Ugandan border, and the Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway, financed by a Chinese loan, reaches Suswa.
The East African Federation is a proposed political union of the seven sovereign states of the East African Community in the African Great Lakes region – Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda – as a single federated sovereign state. The idea of this Federation has existed since the early 1960s, but has not yet come to fruition for a variety of reasons. In September 2018, a committee was formed to begin the process of drafting a regional constitution, and a draft constitution for the confederation was set to be written by the end of 2021 with its implementation by 2023; however, it is likely that this deadline will be missed.
Kenya–Uganda relations are bilateral relations between Kenya and Uganda. The two African Great Lakes countries are partners in many areas, particularly in the trade, infrastructure, security (military), education, agriculture and energy sectors.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Nairobi, Kenya.
The Kenya–Uganda–Rwanda Petroleum Products Pipeline is a pipeline that carries refined petroleum products from the Kenyan port city of Mombasa to the country's capital of Nairobi and continues to the town of Eldoret in the Eastern Rift Valley. There are plans to extend the pipeline to Uganda's capital, Kampala, continuing on to Rwanda's capital, Kigali.
Austin Bukenya is a Ugandan poet, playwright, novelist and academic administrator. He is the author of the novel The People's Bachelor, and a play, The Bride. He has taught languages, literature and drama at Makerere University in Uganda and universities in the UK, Tanzania and Kenya since the late 1960s. He has also held residences at universities in Rwanda and Germany. Bukenya is also a literary critic, novelist, poet and dramatist. An accomplished stage and screen actor, he was for several years Director of the Creative and Performing Arts Centre at Kenyatta University, Nairobi.
Pio Zirimu was a Ugandan linguist, scholar and literary theorist. He is credited with coining the word "orature" as an alternative to the self-contradictory term, "oral literature" used to refer to the non-written expressive African traditions. Zirimu was also central in reforming the literature syllabus at Makerere University to focus on African literature and culture instead of the English canon.
Kenya – Rwanda relations are the bilateral relations between Kenya and Rwanda. Kenya is a partner of Rwanda in many areas, particularly trade, security (military), education, agriculture and energy.
Kenya–Tanzania relations are bilateral relations between Tanzania and Kenya. Tanzania is a partner of Kenya in many areas, particularly trade, security (military), education, agriculture and energy.
The Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway is a standard-gauge railway (SGR) in Kenya that connects the large Indian Ocean city of Mombasa with Nairobi, the country's capital and largest city. This SGR runs parallel to the narrow-gauge Uganda Railway that was completed in 1901 under British colonial rule. The East African Railway Master Plan provides for the Mombasa–Nairobi SGR to link with other SGRs being built in the East African Community.
"Wimbo wa Jumuiya ya Afrika Mashariki" or "Jumuiya Yetu" is the national anthem of the East African Community. It is a Swahili language hymn.