Richard Oduor Oduku: Nonfiction Editor

“I first met extreme adventures as a young boy on the pages of Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon Tiki Expedition – adventures I’m yet to live, but it imprinted on me the need to map our footprints. I take solace in the knowledge that each step always opens a door. Travel writing, for me, is to regain the freedom to see for myself, to drift beyond stifling prescriptions and escape the spectacle of prepackaged news about Africa. It is to welcome a new sense of seeing, to make baby steps to new imaginaries and peculiarities of places, spaces, and faces.”

Richard humanist, researcher, poet and writer. He has been published in Jalada Africa, Saraba Magazine, Kwani? Storymoja, and This is Africa among others. His story eNGAGEMENT, published in the Jalada Afrofutures anthology, was longlisted for the BSFA Awards 2015. He writes periodic book reviews for Wawa Book Review, commentates on topical issues via #MaskaniConversations in the Star Newspaper, and judges Slam Africa Spoken Word Poetry competition in Nairobi. He is a Founding member of Jalada Africa, a Pan-African collective, and Hisia Zangu, an artists’ society.