Author of ‘The Case for Colonial Reparations’, Edwin Chege, believes in a ‘supranatural’ writing process, ‘that ideas should flow easily and freely.’ ‘Writing often involves an ethereal, otherworldly process of tapping into some consciousness that is greater than the self.’
Our questions are italicized.
What books or kinds of books did you read growing up?
I grew up in a time of frequent power outages and scheduled analogue TV programming, and the next best thing after TV was books.
My father was a lover of true crime and detective literature, so our house was stockpiled with books from the likes of John Grisham and Mario Puzo which I peeked into from time to time.
However, in my younger days I gravitated more towards comics, folk tales, and ‘moral lesson’ stories. I read illustrations of Aesop’s Fables and had a Beano and Dandy collection.
Some books I remember fondly from that time include Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Meja Mwangi’s The Mzungu Boy and various African folk tale compilations—The Adventures of Anansi the Spider, for instance—were a personal favourite.
Also, when my very religious mom wasn’t looking I’d try to sneak in some Goosebumps.
What book from your childhood would you pass on to someone younger?
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