Kijabe

To portray the issues and crises of a Diaspora culture in East Africa is one thing, but to write about them using the tools of various genres is quite another. Pally Dhillon has written a story about the clash of divergent cultures, of diametrically opposed religious beliefs, of the political and social struggles of a man who journeyed across the Indian Ocean to help build a life, a family, and a society. Kijabe is an impressive effort. Borrowing devices from popular genres--from murder mysteries and love stories, from political thrillers, Dhillon tells the story of his grandfather, a poor Sikh emigrant who went to Kenya to work for the railroad industry, operated by the British at the beginning of the twentieth century.Kijabe is the fictional account of Dhillon s life-long research into the life of his ancestor. The history and culture underscoring the narrative greatly enrich the reader s experience and keep the story from falling into the trappings of genre fiction.