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Soon enough I found myself outside the airport in what felt like a market – a wall of people shouting and heckling, selling newspapers, phone cards, even boiled eggs. But it wasn’t the people that stopped me in my tracks, it was the heat. The heat made New Orleans on a hot summer day feel like spring. Humid, thick and salty to taste, that was Nairobi heat.

 

When a beautiful blonde girl is found murdered on the porch of an African university professor in Maple Bluff, Madison, USA, hard-working detective Ishmael Fofona knows immediately that it will be the news event of the year. What he cannot know however is that the discovery of the dead girl will change his life forever and that barely seventy-two hours after being called to the scene he will find himself on African soil, hunting for clues in a case that seemingly makes no sense. Why would Joshua Hakizimana – a hero of the Rwandan genocide, a man who had saved hundreds of people from the machetes of the genocidaires – kill a random white girl and then dump her body outside his house? The answers, it would seem, lie in Africa. And there is only one way to get at them.        

Kenyan author Mukoma wa Ngugi’s debut novel is a gripping and hard-hitting detective thriller that questions race, identity and class.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mukoma wa Ngugi was born in Illinois and is the son of African writer, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. He is a Political Columnist for the BBC Focus on Africa Magazine.

His essays and columns have appeared in the Guardian, International Herald Tribune, Los Angeles Times, South African Labour Bulletin, South Africa’s Mail and Guardian, Kenya’s Business Daily Africa, amongst others. He has been a guest commentator on Democracy Now and the BBC World Service. He is the author of an anthology of poetry titled Hurling Words at Consciousness (2006), as well as Conversing with Africa: Politics of Change (2003). His poems have appeared in the New York Quarterly, and in several anthologies.

Nairobi Heat will be released on the 1st of October 2009

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I hand you over to Ross Garland!!!

I see John has been insulting me on his blog for my procrastination.

So here is an update for your blogging delight.

Spud the movie feels like it has passed its watershed moment in its journey towards being made. We have a real international star on board to play the GUV. I’m hoping to be able to reveal his name in the coming weeks. I see that BBC is doing reruns of his top tv show at the moment.

On the back of this news, the money to make the film is starting to piece itself together. As soon as I get confirmation that all is on track for our target shoot date of December we will be rolling out our casting for all the teenage roles, both at certain schools around the country and online. I wish we could do a full on Idols style process because I have no doubt the talent out there will be overwhelming but with the usual limitations of money we are going to have to be smart to give everyone a chance to have a go at auditioning for the film. So we will also launch a web process where people can go online and try out that way. Just like Spud’s audition for Oliver…the long shot at fame and fortune.

Other news is that the same Hollywood distributor that distributed “Tsotsi” to the world has picked up the film, which certainly confirms our view that the film has international legs.

Meanwhile we slowly put together the behind the scenes team – cinematographer, editor, art director – who will all play their part in the 57 person crew who will ultimately make the film what it is. And we are also starting to look at the more mundane issues of where the crew will all stay in the KZN Midlands whilst we shoot, and whether our star should stop over in Rio or London on his way from LA.

And for me, the producer, it’s the usual thing of trying to hold it altogether in the face of constant questions about whether anything we are doing is right – is the budget too high? Is the budget too low? Is the script too commercial? Is the script commercial enough? I too would love to disappear in Vietnam for two months but alas I am not a famous author.

Your man in Cape Town,
Ross

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