by Mwende Kyalo, reposted from Mwende Kyalo Book Reviews
A few months ago, I shared a call for submission for this collection. And I don’t remember how I got the collection- but they delivered an anthology of suppressed Realities as promised a couple of months later.
What has caught my attention the most about this collection, is how they’ve stuck to the theme. Most times when I read volumes or collections from a magazine, the theme is always a suggestion that can be loosely interpreted. But not for this one.
In suppressed Realities, every single entry is talking about a people that deserved more but have received less. A people whose reality has become a press release for the masses while the people in the pictures suffer untold injustices.
And even though most if not all, of the poems were tragic and sad, I’ve actually immensely enjoyed reading it. And I couldn’t fathom why on earth the makers of the collection made it to be around 40 or so pages. It should have been double – in the least. Deliciousness should never be measured in small cups.
The other thing that caught my attention, was how diverse the poems were. In terms of the subject matter.
We were taken to South Sudan burning, and then to a pothole in Entebbe that gained notoriety, to Chiloba, an activist killed brutally in Kenya, to an Olympian runner killed by her boyfriend. Gaza also showed up as we discussed the genocide. Femicide also shows up as it’s a scourge that doesn’t leave women and daughters safe. Then we also had the Kenyan state violence, be it PEV or just implied in stories.
The collection is also diverse when it comes to how the poems are written. It’s a poetry collection, yet I don’t think most poems share a format. Which made it interesting to read. You have the traditional stanza poems, followed by the modern half a page of what seems like prose but reads like a poem, to even multiple choice questions as poems. To narrations that flow in poetry.
I also loved the new poets that it introduced. Maybe they are not new to everyone, but to me. But there are names that I’ll be watching out for, simply because I encountered them here and fell in love with their work. Names like MK Kuol, Sheila Ngei, Chioniso Tsikisay and Natasha Muhanji among others.
I really could go on and on( which is what I wish the collection did instead of teasing us a bit), but it’s a beautiful collection that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading. I wish Africa had more of this sorts of collections. I suspect it’s online given that it isn’t a physical collection like books, so kindly google it and enjoy!
Mwende Kyalo is a Book Reviewer, Writer and Editor. Contact her at mmercymwende@gmail.com
Originally published on Mwende Kyalo Book Reviews on 12/24/2025