RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Kenyan president calls press conferenceto deny polygamy

dear Brother Bangura:

Naguib Mahfouz is a Nobel Laureate in literature from Egypt (died in 2006--see wikipedia). Talib al Salih is a famous novelist from Sudan. I may have his name mispellt. Both wrote in Arabic, but English translations are readily available.

Dr. Mario D. Fenyo
University Professor of American History
Department of History and Government
Bowie State University
Bowie, MD 20715
USA

________________________________

From: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com on behalf of theai@earthlink.net
Sent: Wed 3/4/2009 6:45 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com; USA Africa Dialogue Series
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Kenyan president calls press conferenceto deny polygamy


Big deal! Soon to be President of South Afrika, Jacob Zuma, has five wives, the late Siaka Stevens of Sierra Leone had three, and the list goes on.


> [Original Message]
> From: Hetty ter Haar <oldavenue@googlemail.com>
> To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
> Date: 3/4/2009 4:56:04 PM
> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Kenyan president calls press conferenceto deny polygamy
>
>
> Kenyan president calls press conference to deny polygamy
> Media-shy leader dogged by rumours he has second wife and daughter
> Xan Rice in Nairobi
> Wednesday March 4 2009
> guardian.co.uk
>
>
> He is one of Africa's most media-shy leaders, never giving interviews
> and very rarely addressing the press. So when Kenyan President Mwai
> Kibaki called local journalists to State House it was to address that
> most serious of matters ? his own rumoured polygamy.
>
> "I want to make it very clear that I have only one dear wife, Lucy,
> who is here, and I do not have any other," he told a televised press
> conference, with the stony-faced first lady at his side and the police
> chief behind him.
>
> Local media have frequently suggested that Kibaki, 77, has a second
> wife, Mary Wambui, who is normally referred to as a "political
> activist" in the president's party, and a daughter by her called
> Winnie. While polygamy is not uncommon in Kenya, particularly among
> the older generation, Kibaki has always denied the claims.
>
> He said that he had "gotten into this foul mood" over the mention on
> television on Monday by a former politician of his alleged
> relationship with Wambui, whom he is rumoured to have married under
> customary law in the Seventies.
>
> "I want to say quite frankly anyone who is bent on that course will
> see me in court. And we shall deal with him, no other way whatsoever,"
> he said.
>
> Lucy Kibaki, who slapped a government official in 2007 after he
> mistakenly introduced her in front of dignitaries as "first lady Mama
> Lucy Wambui", then weighed in, accusing the privately owned Kenya
> Television Network of "tormenting us".
>
> "I nearly came to your studio last night to attack you like I did with
> the Nation," she said, referring to a notorious incident in 2005 when
> she stormed the offices of the country's biggest newspaper at midnight
> and slapped a cameraman.
>
> Commenting on the Nation's website today, some readers sympathised
> with the first family about the lack of privacy. But many questioned
> why Kibaki was willing to call a press conference over a personal
> matter when he never did so to address serious issues in the country,
> from high food prices to corruption and police brutality.
>
> Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited 2009
>
>

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