Book reviews: non-fiction from Kennedy Odede and Jessica Posner, Michael Thomsen, and Nils Uddenberg
Odede and Posner, who founded the charity Shofco, reveal the resilience and courage of some of the world’s poorest people
by Kennedy Odede and Jessica Posner
Harper Audio (audiobook)
Even if you’ve never heard of Shofco before, you will not forget its name after this book. Standing for Shining Hope for Communities, it tackles gender inequality and poverty in Nairobi’s slums, helping also to improve education, health, water and sanitation and more for their inhabitants. Find Me Unafraid tells of Shofco through the unlikely love story of its founders, Kennedy Odede, a child of Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum, and American Jessica Posner, a Wesleyan undergraduate who worked as a volunteer in Kenya. Instead of staying in a middle-class neighbourhood where she had accommodation in a house with running water and electricity, she chose to live 15 minutes away in his slum. Their story, told in alternate chapters, is nothing less than gripping, and includes his fleeing violence in 2007 for Tanzania and entering Wesleyan on a scholarship. We hear of Kennedy’s natural leadership, how he modelled himself after Marcus Garvey and why community work was important to him. Posner’s account of the women she meets at Kibera, and their stories of rape, unplanned motherhood, hardship and death, is harrowing. This book is also important for insights into development and why foreign handouts alone can fail.
by Michael Thomsen