Author of The City Kid, Clive Lewis, tells us all about the history of The City Kid, a Christian book for teens.
“John Ouma was born at Nabumali in 1970. After A Levels, he acquired a job in the civil service in Kampala, but fell into bad ways: corruption, heavy drinking and a taste for excessive spending led him to suicidal despair, until one day he met with an old friend and he was offered a new start in life…
At this point, I need to point out that John Ouma is a fictional character. But it is true that he was ‘conceived’ at Nabumali, while I was a teacher at the school. I had the idea of writing a story, loosely based on the Parable of the Prodigal (or Lost) Son (Gospel of Luke chapter 15), but transported to modern Africa, with the main character an ambitious young Ugandan desperate to achieve success, at any cost, in the big city. The title for this tale was to be THE CITY KID.
The story was accompanied by a number of songs, which I had composed using my acoustic guitar. A guitar-playing friend and colleague named Moses Ochwo (RIP) joined me in the project, together with a few older students, who sang the songs and played the drums. We presented and sang this story at the well-attended Christian Union and subsequently took it ‘on tour’, to neighbouring secondary schools including Tororo Girls School and Manjasi High School.
The performances proved popular. It seemed to catch the spirit of the age. Many students in those days nursed the ambition to leave the village and its ‘backward’ ways and acquire a comfortable, well-paid office job in the ‘swinging’ city. John Ouma personified that ambition.
Somehow, the Director of the Scripture Union of Uganda, based in Kampala, heard about The City Kid and decided to make it the centre piece of a Youth Festival to be held at Lugogo indoor stadium. A student of law at Makerere, named John Sentamu, took on the task of turning the text into a stage play, with help from fellow-students. He was also the chief actor, bringing John Ouma dramatically to life. Many years later, the same John Sentamu became Archbishop of York in the U.K.
Meanwhile, I had been developing the basic story into a piece of extended fiction, and finally, in 1973, The City Kid was published as a novel by Africa Christian Press in Ghana, under my assumed name of Edwin Luwaso! The book was distributed in many African countries and was reprinted twice. I returned to Britain at the end of that year, but occasionally received news of adaptations of the story popping up in various schools, such as Gayaza High School. I wasn’t sure how much of the original music was remembered, for the songs were never written down as notation.
But eventually, John Ouma and his story were forgotten and laid to rest. Or so I thought…
Then, out of the blue, in 2015, I was contacted by a publisher of Christian fiction in U.K. who had been sent an old copy of the novel. She wished to publish a new version, suitably updated, to add to her range of titles. I was happy to do this, and so John Ouma was re-born, this time with computers and mobile phones at his disposal (things which were scarcely imagined in the ‘70s !). But the essential story of the rise-and-fall-and-rise of this Nabumali-born anti-hero remained the same as it had been in 1970.
This new version of The City Kid, first published in 2016, has now gone through two editions, the latest of which can be seen here. Although John Ouma is now over 50 years old, he refuses to retire, let alone die, and he is still – in my imagination – a young man driving his Toyota around the city with his beautiful girlfriend, hoping (foolishly) that money, sex and popularity will bring him lasting contentment.
I can honestly say that, without the encouragement of colleagues and students at Nabumali, John Ouma (alias The City Kid) would never have seen the light of day. It is one of many reasons I have to be grateful for the five years that I spent teaching (and playing some music) at Nabumali High School.
Onwards and upwards!”
- Clive Lewis (1969-1973, teacher of English/Literature and Tomusange housemaster)
If you wish to get a copy of The City Kid, it is available from the publishers in the U.K.: www.dernierpublishing.com Or from C.L.C. in Nairobi: www.kenyaclc.org