By Ogova Ondego
Published July 7, 2023
David Maillu, Kenya’s father of popular literature, invites participants to his inaugural public lecture on witchcraft, development and Africa.
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Asked to explain why he intends to talk about witchcraft Maillu, who also doubles up as a painter, musician, poet, playwright, essayist, palmist, philosopher, theologian and politician, says it is because witchcraft, though useful, ‘has been gravely misunderstood since the British colonists gave it a bad name as primitive superstition’.
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Whereas witchcraft is a universal subject, Maillu contends that the ‘black man has been so heavily associated with witchcraft to the extent of implying the black man is the genesis of witchcraft’.
“The fact is that witchcraft is both real and integral to African cultures,” Maillu stresses. “Witchcraft is a household subject in Africa. Unfortunately, scholars have failed us by not researching on the
subject.”
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“From my long scholarly research across Africa, I have come up with amazing revelations that I wish to share with society,” Maillu says. “The information I have unearthed is crucial for people involved in social matters and in community development. It is invaluable information for people interested in medicine and in the dimensions and depths of African cultures. The lecture is a move to debunk prejudices against the subject. I can say, without any single doubt, that you can’t understand what the psychology of the African is until you have understood what witchcraft is!”
Inviting members of the public to the lecture to be held on August 5, 2023 in Mathemboni (shrines), his home in Koola Village, Makueni County in eastern Kenya that is also home to African Comb Books, Â Centre for African Aesthetics and Neterian African Religion and boasts a book museum, a botanic garden and unique architecture, Maillu requests interested parties to contribute Sh5000 per head by July 25, 2023 via mobile money (M-Pesa to 0729 505203 0r 0707 810329) that shall cater for the lecture, cultural tour and lunch.
