Writing Africa: Archiving African and Black Literature

Chief Nyamweya

Chief Nyamweya’s ‘Art of Unlearning’ launches at the Goethe-Institut Nairobi.

Chief Nyamweya’s graphic novel Art of Unlearning launched at the Goethe-Institut Nairobi on February 7, 2019.

Chief Nyamweya is a Kenyan graphic artist best known for his crime-fiction comics characterized by themes of freedom, justice, and environmentalism like Roba. He also founded Emergency Webcomic, based on the life of Kenyan National hero Dedan Kimathi set amidst the Mau Mau uprising in British East Africa from 1952 -1960.

Kenyan lovers of the graphic form who rarely get to see their own in this genre were on hand to enjoy the newest production from Chief Nyamweya at the Goethe Institut in Nairobi on February 7. The new publication called Art of Unlearning was produced during his residency with 360ed in Myanmar. It is a graphic novel about a young person’s creative journey, told through the prism of the inhibitors of spontaneous self-expression.

Chief Nyamweya with Aleya Kassam
Chief Nyamweya with Aleya Kassam

The evening moderated by Aleya Kassam included an audio-visual display of Augmented Reality (AR) as well as the audience asking questions from the author. After the questions fans got copies of the new title and the author signed them.

For those who couldn’t make it in Kenya, you can now purchase the graphic novel through Mpesa from The Art of Unlearning website: www.artofunlearning.com. A payment service for international readers will be set up very soon.

All images in this post were taken by Wamwiri Kimachia and are courtesy of Goethe-Institut Nairobi.

Goethe-Institut Nairobi's Elizabeth Wichenje
Goethe-Institut Nairobi’s Elizabeth Wichenje
Chief Nyamweya with a fan
Chief Nyamweya with a fan

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