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    Dance of the Jakaranda
    Dance of the Jakaranda
    Dance of the Jakaranda
    Audiobook12 hours

    Dance of the Jakaranda

    Written by Peter Kimani

    Narrated by John Sibi-Okumu

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Kimani reimagines the rise and fall of colonialism in Africa by telling the story of the birth of Kenya's railroad. Set in the shadow of Kenya's independence from Great Britain, Dance of the Jakaranda reimagines the rise and fall of colonialism, and the special circumstances that brought black, brown, and white men together to lay the railroad that heralded the birth of the nation. The novel traces the lives and loves of three men: preacher Richard Turnbull, the colonial administrator Ian McDonald, and Indian technician Babu Salim, whose lives intersect when they are implicated in the controversial birth of a child. Years later, when Babu's grandson, Rajan--who ekes out a living by singing Babu's epic tales of the railway's construction--accidentally kisses a mysterious stranger in a dark nightclub, the encounter provides the spark to illuminate the three men's shared, murky past. Dance of the Jakaranda could well be a story of globalization--not just for its riveting multi-racial, multi-cultural cast--but also due to its diverse literary allusions: from Chekhovian comedy to Kafkasque caricatures, or magical realism popularized by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Yet, the novel is firmly anchored in the African storytelling tradition, its language a dreamy, exalted and earthy mix that creates new thresholds of identity, providing a fresh metaphor for race in contemporary Africa.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateFeb 7, 2017
    ISBN9781501945670
    Author

    Peter Kimani

    Peter Kimani is an award-winning Kenyan novelist and journalist. He received the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for literature, Kenya’s highest literary honour, for his children’s book Upside Down in 2011. Kimani was one of three international poets to compose and present a poem for Barack Obama’s inauguration in January 2009. A prominent journalist on Kenya’s national news circuit, Kimani’s work has also appeared in The Guardian, New African and Sky News

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    Reviews for Dance of the Jakaranda

    3.5/5

    45 ratings13 reviews

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    • 4/5
      “The gigantic snake was a train and the year was 1901, an age when white men were still discovering the world for their kings and queens in faraway lands. So when the railway superintendent, or simply Master as he was known to many, peered out the window of his first class cabin that misty morning, his mind did not register the dazzled villagers who dropped their hoes and took off, or led their herds away from the grazing fields in sheer terror of the strange creature cutting through their land Neither did Master share in the 'tamasha' boom from across the coaches where British, Indian and African workers - all in their respective compartments – were celebrating the train's maiden voyage. Master was absorbed by the landscape that looked remarkably different from how he remembered it from his previous trip.” p 2This historical novel written by Kenyan author Peter Kimani, depicts several key points in Kenyan history. Time periods alternate between the telling of the building of the railroad under the sometimes brutal colonial white rule, to the early 60's when Kenya became a self-ruling nation under the “Big Man”. We see the stories of African workers , the white master in charge of building the railroad named Ian McDonald , a white missionary John Turnbull, , and the Indians who came to Kenya to work on the railway, and who stayed on, often because their country Punjabi disappeared into India and Pakistan and they had no country to return if they wanted to leave. Ian McDonald, denied a title from the queen for his accomplishment of punching through the railway, is instead given his choice of a thousand acres of land. He chooses a prime location, between two natural wonders. His estate is known as Jakaranda ; and it evolves through many incarnations – from baronial estate and ambitious farmland, to wildlife preserve, hunting preserve for rich whites, and a night club where we see a musician grandson or one of the original railway workers .As the estate changes, so also do the people in the story until their stories are not separate but intertwine in often secret ways. Overall, I enjoyed this story although I did find the shifting time frames a bit confusing. Author Kimani paints an interesting story of the history of the country and the people. I definitely walk away with more knowledge of the region and respect for its multi-cultural past.
    • 3/5
      Although I really enjoyed Kimani's writing, I had a hard time really getting into this one. It seemed like the narrative would shift focus to a new character each time I was really getting engaged with one, so that took a lot of the momentum away as I kept reading. And although the story was interesting, it also got more and more predictable, and seemingly slower, as it progressed. All told, I imagine I might have taken weeks to finish it and kept wandering away from it, but for the fact that I'd taken it along on a weekend trip and didn't really have other choices. I do have a feeling that that would have hurt the reading, though--the number of characters and their relations were hard enough to keep track of even with having read the book over only the course of a few days, so I imagine putting it down for a week could have led to my not finishing it at all.All that said, I did enjoy Kimani's writing, so I probably would try another one of his books. I just don't know that I could recommend this one, which kept losing steam as it progressed.
    • 2/5
      A novel about the English and the Indians in the building of the railroad in Kenya.Peter Kimani was born in Kenya and earned a Ph.D. at the University of Houston. He now teaches at a university in Kenya and has published other fiction and poetry.Colonization of Kenya by the British around 1900 brought in workers from the Indian subcontinent to build a railroad from the coast to the Rift Valley. British administrators interacted with technicians from India as well as African laborers. Racial lines were sharply drawn and hostilities were created. The story of building the railroad is framed with events involving the children and grandchildren of the original builders in the 1960s as Kenya gained its independence.Dance of the Jakaranda is a man’s book. The male characters and their relationships are central. The men in the book frequently behave in degrading ways with women, as they probably did in that time and place. More troubling, Kimani finds repeated opportunities for describing women as sexual objects. I found this practice very alienating.While I usually appreciate Akashic books for making available a wide range of authors who are people of color, I do not recommend this book.
    • 2/5
      In Dance of the Jakaranda Peter Kimani constructs a model of Imperial Britain and its administration (plunder, despoliation, usurpation, oppression) of what was once called the British East African Protectorate, and is now called Kenya. It features an insecure and ambitious British grandee who controls, or, we should say lords it over, the hundreds of workers imported to build a railroad from Mombasa to the interior. The narrative follows the exploits and misadventures of a handful of characters, and creaks a bit as it tries to bear up under the pressure of betrayal, misunderstanding, and the larger forces of prejudice and political upheaval. Three generations of a Punjabi family figure prominently here: the grandfather is one of the artisans imported from across the Indian Ocean to Kenya to help build the railroad as the 20th Century dawns. The middle generation is not known in the story, for a couple of reasons, but the third generation reaps the unfortunate results of the sins of their forebears. For me these characters lacked depth; they apparently stand as totems or emblems of geopolitical actors: the old Englishman with his crippling doubts and weaknesses, least entitled to hold the position he comes into; the young besotted singer and musician, who we’re to believe inspires widespread protests and dies a political martyr’s death.The difficulties I found stem from a failure to put the reader on site with any effectiveness. The twists of the plot gain momentum toward the end, a momentum flowing from history, but came across to me as quite a bit less than inevitable - even a little forced. The strength of this book lies in its stark depiction of the human cost of colonialism. The construct of everyone’s tied-together fates is inadequate support for the themes developed.I found this an unrewarding read.
    • 5/5
      How great to have a novel of Kenyan's history written by a Kenyan. This one is told from the prospective of the men (both the British overseers and the Kenyan and Indian workers) building the railroad from the coast to Lake Victoria. It's filled with well drawn characters and is a joy to read.
    • 4/5
      Set in Kenya, this story centers around the building of a railroad linking Lake Victoria to the Indian Ocean. The British are colonizing Kenya and bring in Indian laborers to work on the railroad. Thus the lives of three individuals intersect. Edward McDonald is the man in charge of the railroad; Babu comes from India with his new wife, Fatima, to work; Reverend Turnbull is a white preacher whose aim is to make Christians of the natives. Their story and the story of their grandchildren, Rajan and Mariam is told with multiple story lines.This is a classic story of European colonization of Africa. The British hold the power and the guns, but are often confounded by the resources and culture of the natives. There are no "good guys" or "bad guys" in the story but each character is well-rounded, capable of great good and capable of evil. Although they are unaware, Rajan and Mariam are actually the descendents of Turnbull and McDonald and Rajan is the grandson of Fatima. The story is set in Nakuru, the city that develops because of the railroad and especially Jakaranda, a resort which was once the mansion home of McDonald.The story had everything I enjoy: exotic location, historical elements, interesting characters. Sometimes the skipping back and forth in time was confusing and there really were too many words in the native language.
    • 3/5
      I received this book as part of the LibraryThing ER program. I wanted to like it because I have an upcoming trip to Africa , but it didn't meet my expectations. I did feel that there as a good story in the novel, but it just didn't work. The beginning was interesting. The middle was overly long and complicated. It's not an easy task to weave 3 major characters through a 50 year period, and I found parts to be tedious. The ending neatly tied up the various story lines and I found that part compelling.
    • 5/5
      This story is extraordinarily well-crafted. It's like a spiral whose circles wind tightly from the previous circle, coming back to pick up a piece of the narrative then moving onward before winding back again.The Dance of the Jakaranda is the dance of the people who come to the British East Africa Protectorate to build a railroad, and their interaction with the people who already inhabit the land. The stories of the characters, British, Indian and African, intertwine in unexpected ways. It takes two generations for the story to be resolved (or is it resolved?), and for the secrets to become known.Through the people, we see the birth of the new country that becomes Kenya.
    • 4/5
      Three and a half stars.In Dance of the Jakaranda, Peter Kimani tells the story of three men who were involved with the building of the railway across Kenya in the early 1900s. One is the former British army officer leading the construction project, one is a missionary and the third is an Indian laborer. The story is told over a span of almost 70 years as these men interact from the days of the railway to Kenyan independence in 1963. Along the way, we see the weaknesses of these men play out, each in their own way.Kimani effectively describes the three-tiered society—white, brown and black—that defined the British colonial era. With great construction, he shows just how flawed that structure was—not just because of the order, but because of the divisions in the first place. Even more admirably, he does it without beating the reader over the head with it. He doesn’t endorse it but doesn’t defend it either. He presents it and lets us draw our own conclusions. He has some great side-stories and descriptions—I often found myself rather absorbed in the story.Unfortunately, this isn’t enough to carry the story for me. While I enjoy reading about African history, the story felt unpolished and meandering. The ending, while satisfying, felt almost too convenient by the time he finished telling it.Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book with the expectation I would provide an honest review.
    • 3/5
      While I am very aware that Peter Kimani's use of language in Dance of the Jakaranda was quite good, I didn't particularly like the book. The story is set in Kenya and flows back and forth through generations. It highlights the caste system between black Africans, Indians, and white Englishmen in the early 20th century. The focus is on two white men, a missionary and a supervisor of a railroad being built, and an Indian laborer. The lives of their descendants are interwoven into the tale, as well. I found that none of the characters were particularly likable, and I wasn't invested enough in any of them to care about their outcomes. So although I did enjoy Kimani's prose, the book is not one that will stay with me for long.
    • 5/5
      This was a story of the complex clashing of races and cultures during the 1900's in Kenya done with a sensitivity to the rhythm of language. The images were vivid. While some of the racism was disturbing it was written with and underlying humor and joy of life.
    • 4/5
      Kenyan author Peter Kimani has created a historical fiction around the building of the Uganda Railway—named for its destination as its entire original length was in what is now Kenya—as a vehicle for portraying the years leading up to Kenyan independence. Flipping back and forth in time across generations, Kimani has woven together several story lines to show action and reaction to the British Empire’s exploitation of British East Africa.It’s a vivid and frank picture of colonialism that turned my stomach a time or two. It’s also a picture of racism, which I suppose is obvious in one direction given colonialism, but which was equally present in the reverse direction. When the inevitable revolt against white rule occurred, the goal wasn’t to eliminate discrimination, merely to rearrange the oppressors and oppressed.It’s also a very well written story, having some of the tone of oral tradition about it. From my first meeting of the indentured Indian railroad technician, Babu, I was sucked into the story line.Until the end…and, there, I felt it let me down. It was if some musician was playing several strands of counterpoint and suddenly lost his place: the cohesion broke down into separate threads that no longer made a pleasing whole. Characters that were moving toward each other in a literary manner wandered off in different directions or just disappeared off the page altogether. The railway-as-a-symbol suddenly seemed displaced by a house that seemed symbolic...but of what, I’m not sure. Perhaps the most disconcerting thing was that the “I’m telling you a story” tone disappeared and Kimani ended several of the story lines with brief, dry epilogs. Those may work when the tale had its own, natural ending and the reader just wants a bit of what happened after but, here, I found them unsatisfying.It’s an enjoyable story that I’d recommend to others. I just wish the last 2% had been as good as the rest.
    • 5/5
      DANCE OF THE JAKARANDA by Peter Kimani. I received this ‘advance reading copy’ from Akashic Books in exchange for an unbiased, honest review. The book consists of a Prologue, 23 Chapters and an Epilogue.I was happy to read about the very distinguished author, Peter Kimani. He is a very important African writer; born in Kenya; the author of several works of fiction and poetry. DANCE OF THE JAKARANDA is his third novel.The story is set in a Rift Valley location. The land (in modern times) underwent several political changes - the East Africa protectorate - then Kenia Colony - then Kenya in June 1963. Geographic locations include the Rift Valley, Lake Victoria, Port Victoria, Mombasa, Nakuru, Lake Nakuru and many local villages. I mention these locations and the immense ‘sense of place’ of this novel because I know little of Kenya. I spent much time with an atlas and now feel better acquainted with this part of the world.Three main characters dominate this story - preacher, Richard Turnbull; colonial administrator, Ian McDonald (Master); and Indian railway worker, Babu Salim. Several events dominate this story - the construction of the railroad from Mombasa to Port Victoria and Master’s building of his ‘Monument to Love’ which morphed into the Jakaranda Hotel. Indeed, the railroad was compared to a gigantic snake making its way throughout the land. It ‘slithered’ throughout the story, also, providing context for its plot. Another event - damu zinavutana (a phenomena in Nakuru lore) - was the coincidental meeting of strangers who later discover that they are somewhat related.This story was fascinating for its ‘sense of place’, its use of language, and the immersion into the time period, this place and these cultures.It is very troubling to read. One reads about the colonial belief that, “In that age God and the white man were one and the same”; the sheer brutality of the colonial government; the lack of respect and disregard for human life; the slavery; the indentured servitude; the political chaos; violence; lies; wanton cultural destruction - one needs to put the book down from time to time in order to try to absorb all this and reflect on the human race.I am lucky to have read this book and would highly recommend it.