The first time I ever heard of the Dakar biennale was in 2005 when a colleague and friend visited the 7th edition. It was also the time I was selected but didn't make through. I'd been told that its Africa's best biennale, apart from that the only other thing I knew about Dakar and Senegal was the famous football team.

It was exciting though to travel to the biennale but specifically at the point to West Africa. I'd never been to West Africa. I'd always desired to visit Nigeria and see Bruce Onabrokpeya. Dakar was close enough. The institution that sponsored thought that this might be good for me as a Kenyan artist. So I thought this too was a plus. I was a bit apprehensive though.

How I'm I supposed to write this? Is it about the flight, 8 hours of sheer torture? On the return flight time I drunk with the intention to black out for the duration but turbulence kicked in. Is it riding in a shuttle to a hotel I find out I'm not been booked in. Is my Dakar experience about the city, its color, the people, the Atlantic on one side or the desert on the other? Is it about the main Dakar biennale at the national gallery and the national museum or the Off-Dakar exhibitions that are manifested in every studio or gallery all over the city and on Goree: the island? ?Is it of Goree and its part in slave trade? Is it the artwork I've encountered and the emotion some of them evoke? The humbling e xperience: this realization that I'm small and that I still have a long and very uncertain journey ahead of me.

How can I claim the title artist in the presence of those who have mastered ways of expressing themselves through their art, with power and clarity? Is it facing visual expression that challenges me more than that which I've lived with for eight years? This in just four days.Is it the conversations and discussion that make it clear that Africa has a strong creative voice that I've been so completely unaware exists? I think it's about an encounter with “what a close shave” and Freddy Tshimba the artist who created it or viewing “consumania”. Listening and looking at artists and their work who've made a choice to speak to their world on their own terms. Artists who defy limitations, expectations and seek their own voice. I see all this and I'm faced with my own inadequacies.