Kumukanda cover art

Kumukanda

 Preview
Subscribe now Free with 30-day trial
Offer ends on 14 April, 2026 at 23:59.
Prime logo
Pay ₹5/month for 2 months and ₹199/month after 2 months, Cancel anytime. Offer ends on 14 April 2026 at 23:59. Take this offer!
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep.
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks.
Download titles to your library and listen offline.
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks
Download titles to your library and listen offline
₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Kumukanda

Written by: Kayo Chingonyi
Narrated by: Kayo Chingonyi
Subscribe now Free with 30-day trial

Pay ₹5/month for 2 months and ₹199/month after 2 months, Cancel anytime. Offer ends on 14 April 2026 at 23:59.

₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for ₹615.00

Buy Now for ₹615.00

LIMITED TIME OFFER | Get 2 Months for ₹5/month

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

*Winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize 2018*
*Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award 2018*

Translating as 'initiation', kumukanda is the name given to the rites a young boy from the Luvale tribe must pass through before he is considered a man. The poems of Kayo Chingonyi's remarkable debut explore this passage: between two worlds, ancestral and contemporary; between the living and the dead; between the gulf of who he is and how he is perceived.

Underpinned by a love of music, language and literature, here is a powerful exploration of race, identity and masculinity, celebrating what it means to be British and not British, all at once.

*Shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Prize; Seamus Heaney Centre First Poetry Collection Prize; Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry; Roehampton Poetry Prize; Jhalak Prize 2018*

'A brilliant debut - a tender, nostalgic and, at times, darkly hilarious exploration of black boyhood, masculinity and grief. A gorgeous and necessary collection from one of my favourite writers' Warsan Shire

© Kayo Chingonyi 2017 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

 English, Irish, Scottish & Welsh European Poetry World Literature

Critic Reviews

A brilliant debut – a tender, nostalgic and, at times, darkly hilarious exploration of black boyhood, masculinity and grief. A gorgeous and necessary collection from one of my favourite writers (Warsan Shire)
A remarkable year for first collections. The best, for this reader, was Kayo Chingonyi’s Kumukanda… Whether recalling his parents’ deaths or celebrating the art of the mixtape, Chingonyi’s poise is astonishing (Tristram Fane Saunders)
His poems are intelligent and moving and find the perfect balance between intricacy and directness (Joe Dunthorne)
Chingonyi thrillingly integrates…rhythms and rhymes with more conventional poetic metrics…with a rare energy, intelligence and sophistication (Nicholas Wroe)
[A] wonderful debut… A subtle and affecting, lyrical and powerful collection that explores boyhood, rites of passage, the ancient and the modern world (Jackie Kay)
Chingonyi’s poetic voice and style are both highly entertaining and adaptable mixing form with free verse and jargon with slang … These terse, memorable poems are testament to the best of Chingonyi’s gifts. Impassioned, witty, socially and politically engaged... Kumukanda is an intricate and intense collection, heady with feeling but guided by thoughtful reflection
Navigating the experience of growing up with music, flair and a jaw-dropping formal range, this collection is a thing of beauty (Maria Crawford)
Full of nostalgia and gentleness as well as being sharply observant
Chingonyi’s poems are full of questions that need asking. His gift is for pushing poems further than you expected them to go. [A] striking quest of a debut (Poetry Book of the Month, Kate Kellaway)
Powerful… These poems are essential and urgent and shine a light on British culture in an unique and spellbinding way
No reviews yet