Kirinyaga

Kirinyaga is one of the best books I have read of any genre (I read just about anything). It made me think about many things:1. humans and where humanity is headed2. what gender roles mean and how changing them changes a society profoundly3. the past is a place that holds many charms and many restrictions4. the consequences of our choices, and the effects that those choices have on those under us-- who amongst us is wise enough to make the decisions?5. utopia, Resnick explored this topic in ways that I could never have predicted, and in very human ways without over-exaggeration (unlike the treatment in Candide, etc.)I was alternately fascinated, interested, angered, amused.... At one point I was so upset that I put the book down for about two weeks because of the emtions that it aroused in me-- I can't say that about many books that I have read. I finally picked it up again and was completely satisfied by the ending. The fact that it was written as a series of separate stories was effective as well. I have used this in class (adult ESL) and it was successful.

A highly educated man tries to, in effect, stop time for the Kikuyu tribe, on their own planetoid, where he can isolate them from the outside world (so-called "western" influences) and propagate their ancient customs.This is a remarkable book, written with so much wisdom and insight. The dialogue and prose is sharp and controlled. Resnick presents both sides of the arguments with such clarity and humanity, it's sometimes heartbreaking. Koriba's well-intentioned but ultimately misguided crusade against change is challenged again and again, not necessarily by the "outside", but by the "inside" - the minds and hearts of his villagers. It's fascinating to see how he resolves these challenges to his authority and his hopes for the Kikuyu ... and sometimes downright scary.The book also shows us the erroneous assumption of multiculturalism - that everything in every culture is worth saving and perpetuating. The modern myths of the Kikuyu - and indeed of many peoples on this planet - that "the West" is to blame for their condition and/or corruption (and everything "Western" should therefore be anathema) is not spared. It's tempting to carry on here about the general public's overwhelming ignorance of Africa's booming slave trade, because it's all in the same vein.The stories show that for all our differences in time and space, people are the same everywhere - and that is the "problem" that cannot be controlled by isolation.The reality is that every culture is always changing. The Kikuyu ways Koriba is trying to preserve are only a snapshot of a tribe that is both naturally degenerating (see "Eternity in Their Hearts", by Don Richardson) and gravitating towards "Western" ways - which, by the way, were largely exported from the Mediterranean, that is, from Israel! (See "How the Irish Saved Civilization", "The Gifts of the Jews", "Desire of the Everlasting Hills" by Thomas Cahill.) No culture is meant to live in statis, nor can it be done. Peoples and people are meant to grow, to mature. Multiculturalism can serve us by preserving, recording, or interpreting that which is worth saving; but it's self-evident (I hope) that it should stop at re-instituting human sacrifices, or some of the more subtle horrors we read of in this book. And that fact alone should make us question some of the sillier aspects of this trend.The view that everyone is of equal worth, that freedom, accountability, and responsibility are important clues about what it means to be human. The dangers inherent in free will, and the element of curiosity sometimes recalls the Garden of Eden, but this is no Paradise. The problems of humanity, it is shown, lie squarely within.

In the future, the savannas of Africa have been transformed into farmland, arid cities are no longer dry, many animals are extinct, mountains are devoid of any natural wilderness, and people in search of Paradise can move to unique terraformed planetoids.The planetoid in the story, Kirinyaga (Mountain of Light, the Maasai name for Mount Kenya), is home to a group of ancestral Kikuyu who wished to leave the bustling, high-tech Earth for a back-to-nature lifestyle. Koriba, an educated multilingual man, presides over this simple culture as the mundumugu (witch doctor). Dangerously cunning and self-righteous to a fault, he reads omens, blesses infants, performs marriages, negotiates dowries, places and removes curses, tells stories, operates the computer that controls orbital motions and weather, and generally controls the lives of all in the village. He is a complex man trying to show a simple face, he is a simple man playing a complex role. As anyone who wishes to leave Kirinyaga only needs to walk to the small spaceport and announce an intention to leave, Koriba rules with enough fear and charisma to keep most of the people under his thumb. The people are prisoners only because they allow it.While pure science fiction (complete with spaceships and undersea cities and asteroid colonies), these are extremely human stories. Human nature, not always pretty, is laid out here for all to see. Koriba will turn this society into a "proper" Kikuyu society, no matter what the cost. What can one do? He really *does* control the weather. There are casualties: a young girl who wants more from life than becoming a dutiful Kikuyu wife; a boy who wants to see the world he knows is out there but must choose between his freedom and everything he has known to do so; a civilized Maasai hunter who attempts to take advantage of the trusting and naive villagers; a Kenyan couple who immigrate seeking Shangri-La. Dreams of good people, shattered in the end because of greed, dominance, jealousy. Do they return to modern civilized Earth and live with a wife in a shiny high-rise with perfectly manicured gardens, or do they stay in the mud and grass hut and be tended by their multiple wives? Do they try to change an old and horrifying custom, or do they force mutilation on others? Do they keep people uneducated and illiterate to retain pastoral bliss? What is really lost, or gained? Perhaps technology and civilization aren't that bad, after all.These are moving tales, set in a beautifully imagined world. Koriba, for all his faults, is a tragic character. We come to understand him and sympathize with him. Will he really be happy if he stays only with his own kind? "I am not a Kenyan," he angrily tells his exasperated son (who stays behind in Nairobi), "I am a Kikuyu." In his modern world, that means he is alone.Each chapter begins with a short folkloric fable, these little tales of the god Ngai and his animals alone would make a fine book.Kirinyaga was an almost perfect book. I

Mike Resnick has an incredible understanding of tribal african thinking. I am a South African and I was absolutely positive that this had been written by a fellow White (South) African. If you read these stories you will understand the tribal thinking of the African culture which still holds sway over most of the older generation and some of the younger ones. Wonderful writing. Anthea Tarica Johannesburg South African.

It's a good--maybe even great--story cycle, but good lord, do yourself a favour and assiduously avoid reading the horribly arrogant and obnoxious afterward, in which Resnick basically lists all the awards the stories have won, along with fairly unpleasant commentary--this story WOULD have won the hugo, except that it was disqualified on a technicality. This one, too, would have won, except that another story of mine did instead. And the only thing capable of defeating a Resnick story is another Resnick story! God, I made the mistake of looking through this drivel before finishing the stories, and it really colored my whole perception of them. Oh well.