Re-Posting: Yvonne Adhiambo and A God Who Wails and Dances

One can't help but shout out when all the stars align. A conversation between Erika Koss and a writer I respect, with mention of a book I loved, in a quarterly journal I devour the moment it comes online,then savour again at my leisure when the hardcopy arrives. It would be selfish to keep it to myself.

In the conversation with Erika Koos, Owuor Adhiambo is revealed as a post-colonial African writer of global sensitivity and deep spirituality. A post-modern soul intimately connected to the God who wails and dances.

Owuor Adhiambo, whom I met at the 2017 Iowa International Writing Program, is a generation younger than I am. Still when I grow up, I shall hope to be able to articulate all those I have about God, words and the world as clearly as she does.

The Dragonfly Sea, a coming of age story about a Kenyan girl descended from one of Cheng Ho's stranded sailors and her travels across Cheng Ho's ocean silk routes illustrates perfectly Adhiambo's global consciousness while being rooted in African beginnings. It's well worth a read.

As for the Koss's interview itself, it is here. You'll will however need a digital subscription to Image Journal to read it.

The quarterly Image Journal aims to foster contemporary art and writing which grapples with the mystery at the heart of religious faith. In their own words:

'Art has the power to shape individuals and cultures. It can expose injustice, force us to see our own private hypocrisies, show us the humanity of the other, challenge our ways of seeing and radically alter our framework and definition of what matters. From private encounters with works of art come personal change; from personal change, multiplied, comes cultural change. Art might be exactly what we need to imagine our way out of the tribalism and polarization that plague us.'

As we in Singapore struggle with physical distancing, 'isms' and 'silos', conversations such as those in the journal may be what we need to reach across the breaches caused by tribalism and polarization.

At USD 3.99 for a month's access to their entire archive since 1989, it's well worth taking a peek at.

Go on, have a look.

Then let me know what you think.