You will never find me standing in the middle of the room. I’m that guy who stalks the borders of a room. I belong in the darkened embrace of the shadows. The problem with standing in the middle of the room is that you become part of the narrative and there the power to tell the story of that room is perpetually stripped off you.

And so I’m the guy who relishes watching that narrative unspool from those borders of the room. Then capture it in words; the best seat in the room is where there are no seats.

I love music, food, travel, children (even those that don’t belong to me), clothes, cars, gadgets, whiskey and watching someone hula-hoop. There is something defeatist about that thing, like a dog trying to bite its own tail. But more than loving all the aforementioned, I love to write about these things.

However, am I an authority on any of these things? Hardly. But I have an opinion. And I prefer to share it. Let’s agree that you have your own and it might not be compatible with mine, but let’s agree that we can at least be civilised about it. I think the universe demands that of us.

My name is Jackson Biko. I’m a writer with the Business Daily, True Love magazine and The Saturday Nation. I also edit Msafiri Magazine, Safaricom Foundation’s Msingi Magazine and a scattering of other writing jobs that keep writers like me afloat.

Welcome to my world, to my room, but it’s not really mine when you occupy the middle of it, is it?

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Bikozulu.

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94 Comments
  1. Hello Biko,

    I enjoyed reading your article about the prostate exam… Very refreshing! I really enjoy that style of writing where the reader is allowed to explore the jungle that is the writer’s mind, as most minds are. I have a blog as well, not half as exciting as yours: mnagawa.wordpress.com.
    Thanks!

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  2. Simply awesome; especially because you do not realize the ripple effect of your words on the lives of those who read them.

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  3. Thanks chocolate Man for adding alil spice to life with your witticism. Am in “Love” with the blog, I always read each and every article though not a frequent commenter. Since I “discovered” you my appetite for reading has ever grown and am never without a book (hard or soft copy) thanks to you. Did I also mention that I relish this “new house”? . Long live “Baba Tamms”

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  4. One day at the end of my University Internships at an advertising firm, I was asked if I know Biko Zulu, I was a little confused, but the conversation that followed was about how to be more creative and that started my journey into writing.

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  5. I love how you have clearly defined (top-notch) the online writing scene of East Africa. I doubt anyone can mention a creative writing blog without mentioning Biko… I am waiting for your books.. to share as many hard copies as i do the soft copy links.. The world world must read Biko.

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  6. THE GONG
    “I forget, sometimes I forget and when I don’t forget, I don’t I remember”. That’s how I thought my father was. But he had a super memory with minute ram slow to process quick to listen and slow to talk but what he does it’s permanent. But that is not one of things that I remember about my father. How do feel and do when your father is a teacher in same primary school you are, teaches same class. That’s is cool. What about when he is on duty in morning.
    Awesome
    But wait when you late for school
    Being learned in a remote school was a running experience. Gong goong gooong goooo….ng. Damn it. That’s word did not exist then and I then if it existed, I would have said ten to the power of six times. Those in shags can understand the gong.it is like modern Marlaw nightmare, pipii. Do the rims cars still exist? If seen one around recently, inform me urgently for a tour. That is national heritage and Matiang`i ……..backspace. Ahem.
    “Good morning SIR, mwacha mila ni mtumwa. It’s our concern that most prestigious manual alarm o`clock is at the verge of extinct. Time is precious and this artefact is not preserved some of us may become extinct”. Or how should say it. The gong still rings in my since I used bang it. A privilege for the `biggest worm catchers’. The thing I hated most was waking up. But who cared! My father.
    Kindly come back. It is or do I say was 7.50 am, 10 mins to time, you guessed it right. Mind you who was on duty?
    To the point. I was late for school. Still, the worst happened to me.
    “You boy! Always, tell, your, mum, to, wake, you, very, up, in, the morning.”(Read in kikuyu and pause after every word). I was beaten in front of everyone and ghost available at the time in the school parade. To deepen the incision, I was beaten on the feet. Imagine how I was walking and try it. Did I tell you how cold it was in the morning, story for another day, and I was in School where wearing shoe was against the school code for boys (internal memo-pun in)
    I don’t know if father, sorry teacher told my mother but I did not tell my mother. For sure I was never late for school; self-automated waking system forever charged by massage on the foot.
    Screech and ‘peepeep’. In Nairobi, that’s how you know it`s 7.50 AM in morning and everyone is running to arrive to work early whereas they at Belleview. Am already late, got to go.
    Do he still remember that day?
    Happy father’s time!!!
    NB-that”s how i imagined my father would be,if i was lucky to be brought by both parents.

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  7. Hi Biko,

    Sorry for calling you Biko. I feel I know you well enough to use your first name. Keep up the good refreshing writing.

    Maina

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  8. Hi Biko,
    I enjoy reading your articles;very captivating.
    I’m a struggling writer in need of a way forward to get a target audience like yourself.
    I have a blog, porkeynote.com
    Kindly share some insights.
    Thanks

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  9. Great work.
    Your writing always gets me into good spirits
    I love how your stories turn and twist but always remain captivating.

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  10. As a creative person, i always gravitate to people who understand my logic. That’s how i ended up being hooked to Biko’s blogs; They’re witty, educative, touching, smart and are not predictable like a soap opera…
    Keep up the good work Mr. Man.

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  11. I have fallen head over heels with your writing and the blog. You are remarkable. I have found a home in your work. Thank you.

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  12. Your style of writing is very..raw… open…words spilling over..\I love it.
    Check out my new blog..I share random thoughts .
    theredescape33.wordpress.com

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  13. Hie, I purchased Drunk at the fireplace via mpesa, no response on how to get the book… What’s the way forward?

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  14. Hujambo Biko
    I may not have a big say here, given I’m through with highschool the other day. But its my wish to be like you. Not with no hair-glasses-and-south-african-ish-name look ofcourse. (Ujana ni moshi.Let me keep this tuft on my head till its time comes). Back to it, I’m at crossroads and would like your experienced hands to steer me to port. Happy Easter Sir. Maybe I’ll have a coffee with you in 2030…

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  15. Av Been a ghost reader but this question today have to be passed out. “How the hell do you write for all those materials and still find time to be here?.

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  16. Just discovered your blog and am trying to read everything at a go. Am just asking myself where I’ve been all this while.
    Thank you for the inspiring stories and more specifically the one on mental illness.Thank you for bringing it existance to light.people hardly understand it.
    Nossim

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  17. Woow! stories here are eye catching and guess what? i have fallen in love with them, cant miss to read any day

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  18. Biko (I feel like I know you enough to call u so…i mean i look for you in true love, business daily…lol!)…thank you for allowing us in your room. I always an “aha!” Or “mmmh?” Or “sob” moment when I read your articles. Please don’t ever kick us out of your room!!

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  19. I love your creative writing style… I love when people are able to take me on a mind journey through words…

    Lakini, where’s the subscribe button? Sioni…. Mimi ni yule Mkenya

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  20. In my search for great blogs in Kenya your blog came up in a number of sites as the best blog in Kenya.
    So far, I have read two articles of yours, but by the time I was a few paragraphs into your first article on your drunk cousin, I concurred with all those saying you are the best.

    Your stories unfold with continuous suspense that keeps dragging someone in from one story to another effortlessly. I know it would suffice just to say “You are awesome or you are a great writer”, but for me your caliber of writing deserve more than awesome. And it is good you are helping people get the skills. God bless you!

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  21. Biko this is wonderful stuff.very simple yet sofisticated in approach. I have read a few of your work.Awesome.

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  22. its 2.56 am i still have four hours to go to finish my shift… and for some reason i just remembered the first story i read from you. Just bits of it , it was about a lady who was a doctor or something of the sort then she met this guy at a shop, his name was Todosia (not so sure though ),had one kid , then went for their anniversary some years later, and there was a part where Kiambu women were mentioned , that they pee loudly……
    what was the name of that story? need to read it again….

    for now let me kill time and fight sleep on drunk…

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  23. Hello,

    My name is Maureen Moraa and I have an exciting story under tech that you can write about. How best can I reach you?

  24. Hello
    I am deeply honored to read your pieces. Being a young writer myself, I understand this road is not easy but I am deeply inspired by your depths.
    Can’t wait for more

  25. Dear Biko,
    your writting has a life of its own. I have always loved and admired people who can make words laugh, cry, dance, come alive… A good read for me is the soothing love making session for my eyes and my mind, where as I read the writer’s story, I leave my very own busy world and am allowed to live in that of the narrators and am when its so good be unknowingly enticed to create my own mind movie and live or watch it unravel.
    Thank you for sparking my mind with reading orgasm with your very good writting art.
    Mwash

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  26. Mr.Biko you have rekindled my love for reading which i thought i had left in high school ooo so very many years ago. You are an amazing writer.

  27. i have alwys hated reading ..am the type that will stare at a person reading a novel or a book…just how??????its wrong??
    huh and i meet this articles they have simple english ,well put scarcasm ..there just an easy read.am so hooked up to steve biko ..
    so can i say i love reading ??????or aint to that level yet of novel

  28. HI Biko,thanks for the great work you are doing.These stories change alot of perspective that people do have. Keep doing what you are doing.

  29. Oooh Biko the new website hurts my eyes? It looks so sad, It has been strippped of the colour and pop! Why????

  30. Hey Biko,
    Okay I’m honestly not going to call you chocolate man cause it’s gross considering the fact that you are almost my parents age. Well by that comment you obviously know I’m quite young but I still find it pretty cool to say my age , 19.
    Definitely not the point I just wanted to say ” On behalf of the really young people who read your blog, we really love your content. I honestly cannot count how many of my friends screenshot and repost your content on their stories every time there is a new post. We might not really relate with everything you say since you are you know twice our age but it’s always beautiful to see a glimpse of what life holds after the weed blunts, the drunk nights and the rebellious stage. Well also the murky waters of figuring us out in a world that screams at us to compare ourselves.
    I talk a lot so let me cut myself shot before this becomes a post on its own.
    Thank you for showing us how crazy and beautiful and sad and resilient and all through real life is outside here but in a funny way that reminds us it’s not that serious.
    PS. You should try get our own stories too sometimes.

    Adios amigos.

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  31. Subscribing to your blog was a good decision. There’s nothing I always look forward to like a Tuesday morning. You are the light in this dark open field.

  32. hello Biko,
    I have just finished reading your book drunk, it is a beautiful book full of humor. I would like to know what happened to Larry though. Did he die? did he go back to rehab? what happened.
    I love to write as well, hopefully someday i’ll also write a book.
    Great work.

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  33. Hi Biko, I would love to contact you directly because I think I’ve got a story that would fit your blog perfectly. I don’t know how often you go through the comments, but if you see this, please hit me up because I feel like this person has lived more life than a lot of us. Thank you for the amaze balls content and keep being awesome. ♥♥

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  34. This is the best thing i have stumbled upon in a very long while, where have you been all my life, writing is a gift and thank you for blessing us with yours.

  35. Love reading your “writings,”…the humor and sarcasm in the midst of the opposites ,…mindblowing. May you live long and healthy to keep us always upbeat!

  36. God knows how many times i have wanted you to write a story about my life-it has been such a mix!i wouldn’t even know where to start,but i have had those moments where i wake up at 3 am and am thinking,maybe i should leave him a mail……Anyway,i keep reading your stories .I am hooked.

  37. Hello there! A friend sent me your link. I’m new to your blog and a total novice to blogging. Infact, my blog is just 7 days old today.
    I love your writing! Your narrative prowess is mesmerising, captivating and mind boggling. It’s beautiful and thought-provoking, inspiring and challenging. A perfect addition to my favourite authors. I will read you and be inspired by you from now on. Thank you

  38. Your writing style truly captures the ‘Show don’t tell’ technique. Through it, we are transported right there and we can vividly relate with these characters, visit those places and feel those emotions like we are there ourselves. Thank you!

    Would really love to be a part of that Creative Class but i can’t get any of the pointers to register here. Any help?

  39. Let’s appreciate Nyambura and all the best to Mwai. Indeed money is smoke, and happy that he is swimming in his small stream. Happiness is key.

  40. Accessing your older content is extremely hard. Kindly make that easier. I spent 30 minutes just to get to 2019 content.

  41. Hello Biko, I’m new here just subscribed to your channel some minutes ago and I’m really impressed by what you’re writing, big up champ

  42. Welcome to my world, to my room, but it’s not really mine when you occupy the middle of it, is it?

    (grins) Let’s….