We think of politics in terms of power and who has the power. Politics is the end to which that power is put.

Of course it's very, very important for me to feel Kenya, to feel, every day, this is where images come from. So to be taken away from that by political pressure or other means - one is taken away from the area, which is the basis of inspiration - is difficult.

What's good about writing is that when you write novels or fiction, people can see that the problems in one region are similar to problems in another region.

Life, struggle, even amidst pain and blood and poverty, seemed beautiful.

I'm writing for those people in Kenya, but in Irvine and in New York.

Writing in African languages became a topic of discussion in conferences, in schools, in classrooms; the issue is always being raised - so it's no longer "in the closet," as it were. It's part of the discussion going on about the future of African literature. The same questions are there in Native American languages, they're there in native Canadian languages, they're there is some marginalized European languages, like say, Irish. So what I thought was just an African problem or issue is actually a global phenomenon about relationships of power between languages and cultures.

I was wondering why I was put in prison for working in an African language when I had not been put in prison for working in English. So really, in prison I started thinking more seriously about the relation between language and power.