arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got its neck nicely straightened out, and
55. We watched, in the 80s, with only one television station, one radio station, as teenagers…
was going to give the hedgehog a blow with its head, it WOULD twist itself round and look up in her face,
56. Michael Jackson’s face melt slowly.
with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out laughing: and when she had got its head down, and was going to begin again, it was very
57. There was so little to watch. We had to wait months for the next development.
provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled itself, and was in the act of crawling away: besides all this, there was generally a ridge or furrow in the way
58. Kama Kama Kama Kama Kameleon, you come and go, you come and go-o –oh-oh.
wherever she wanted to send the hedgehog to, and, as the doubled-up soldiers were always getting up and walking off to other parts of the ground, Alice soon
59. President Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi banned toy guns and other foreign inFluenzas.
came to the conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed.” (Alice in Wonderland)
60. Wangechi goes to The Carnivore for the first time in a friend’s stolen car wearing shoulder pads
49. The tractor spareparts make really nice earrings.
and bopping to Milli Vanilli. Early morning, sun
Wangechi wonders why butterfly wings leave powder
is up, they crawl out scared and full of alcohol
on the fingers.
and Wangechi notices a crushed chameleon next to the ladies toilet. She leans to pick it
50. “The Kikuyu were Matriarchal – power in the hands of women – before men finally overthrew them.”
up and thinks about cannibal butterflies, and giggles. It is leathery like silk. Driving past the Military hospital on Mbagathi Road, where,
51. 1978. In a glorious three days of measles, Tree-Top
every few months, drunk teenagers in their
Orange Squash, Ribena and House of Manji biscuits,
parents’ borrowed cars, crashed, died, or were
Wangechi read Alice in Wonderland.
dismembered. They kissed. “Nyeri chics are really brown,” he said, “and when they grow up they
52. Rich ripe jewels, like screaming ovaries, and crushed
beat their husbands.”
iridescent insects in the sand on your verandah. She has a famished African Baby, like Madonna.
61. Girl! Behind your crawling back, the lowering sun is heating up, not above the head where it is just
53. Barbie dolls are imported at great expense for a world starved Moi Kenya.
everybody’s. It is yours now. It burns the skin of your neck. In the distant world outside this tunnel, the cattle have gathered together waiting to go back to
54. “I know not to go too far and over-complete it
the boma and they shuffle restless, complaining in
because at that point it’s quivering and almost has a
your earlobes as you creep forward, in your private
vibration.” (Wangechi Mutu)
tunnel, with your private last sun.