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Kenyan Political Autobiographies: Reviving Generational Power and Masculine Authority

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Gender and Authority across Disciplines, Space and Time

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Abstract

Since Kenya has become independent, political autobiographies have remained instrumental in shaping a (creative) discourse of power that places men as the legitimate holders of authority. Gendered narratives continue to be invoked, whether in times of political campaigning or, as this chapter shows, in the widely appreciated autobiographical genre.

This chapter explores how recently published political autobiographies of prominent male leaders from the 1960s and 1970s have become a medium to picture the journey to independence as a personal and male achievement, condemning women to the sidelines of national politics. Showing how these biographies are part of an attempt to use writing as an authoritative entitlement to craft a discourse on Kenyan national history, this chapter emphasizes the persistency of an attempt to exclude women from the political realm so as to reaffirm the authors’ claim and right to authority.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Nyabola, “It’s Time to Axe.”

  2. 2.

    “Gideon Moi Is Uncircumcised.”

  3. 3.

    “The Politics of the Foreskin.”

  4. 4.

    Musila , “Violent Masculinities,” 151–2, 162.

  5. 5.

    Mbembe , On the Postcolony, 21.

  6. 6.

    Miescher and Lindsay, “Introduction: Men and Masculinities,” 4.

  7. 7.

    Ibid.

  8. 8.

    For a comprehensive historiographical review, see Miescher, “Masculinities.”

  9. 9.

    On the concept of “big man” see in particular Médard, “Le ‘Big Man’.” On masculinity as an ingredient to self-accomplishment and leadership see Lindsay , Working with Gender; Miescher, Making Men in Ghana; Decker , In Idi Amin’s Shadow.

  10. 10.

    Decker, In Idi Amin’s Shadow, 10, 18.

  11. 11.

    Ocobock , An Uncertain Age, 16.

  12. 12.

    Ibid., 156.

  13. 13.

    See for example: Geiger et al., Women in African Colonial Histories.

  14. 14.

    Kanogo , Womanhood in Colonial Kenya.

  15. 15.

    White , “Separating the Men from the Boys.”

  16. 16.

    Again, this was common to many African countries. See for example Bouilly and Rillon , “Relire les Décolonisations.”

  17. 17.

    Thomas , Politics of the Womb.

  18. 18.

    Stamp , “Burying Otieno”; Ebila , “A Proper Woman.”

  19. 19.

    See in particular Musila, “Phallocracies and Gynocratic Transgressions”; Okoth , “Kenya’s Parliament.”

  20. 20.

    Kenyatta, Facing Mount Kenya.

  21. 21.

    See Berman’s and Lonsdale’s exhaustive research articles on Kenyatta’s encounter and writing of anthropology, in particular: Berman and Lonsdale , “Custom, Modernity, and the Search for Kihooto,” 176. See also Berman, “Ethnography as Politics”; Peatrik , “Le Singulier Destin.”

  22. 22.

    Berman, “Ethnography as Politics.”

  23. 23.

    Péatrik, “Le Singulier Destin.”

  24. 24.

    Berman and Lonsdale, “Custom, Modernity, and the Search for Kihooto.”

  25. 25.

    Muriuki , A History of the Kikuyu, 46; Kenyatta , Facing Mount Kenya, 4–8.

  26. 26.

    Kenyatta, Facing Mount Kenya, 6.

  27. 27.

    Ibid., 6.

  28. 28.

    Ibid., 161.

  29. 29.

    Ibid., 161 and 180.

  30. 30.

    Ndungo , “The Image of Women.”

  31. 31.

    Musandu , “Tokenism or Representation?,” 4; Thomas, Politics of the Womb.

  32. 32.

    Bujra , “Women Entrepreneurs.” On Kenyatta and individualism, see Angelo , “Virtues for All.”

  33. 33.

    Wipper , “The Politics of Sex”; Thomas, Politics of the Womb; Stamp, “Burying Otieno.”

  34. 34.

    On the notion of the “father of the nation” see “Héros Nationaux.” On women’s political rights after independence see Wipper, “Equal Rights”; Nzomo , “Kenyan Women in Politics.”

  35. 35.

    Maupeu , “Les Autobiographies au Kenya,” 171. For the colonial period, see Peterson, “Wordy Women” and Peterson, Creative Writing.

  36. 36.

    Branch , “Defeating Mau Mau.”

  37. 37.

    Clough , Mau Mau Memoirs. On the concept of amnesia in Kenyan history, see Atieno-Odhiambo and Lonsdale , Mau Mau & Nationhood.

  38. 38.

    Muchiri , “The Intersection of the Self and History,” 90. See also Ochieng , Place of Biography, 77–8.

  39. 39.

    Mboya, Freedom and After, and Odinga, Not Yet Uhuru .

  40. 40.

    Maupeu , “Les Autobiographies au Kenya,” 178.

  41. 41.

    Ibid., 183–4.

  42. 42.

    Although Gikonyo Kiano’s biography is not, strictly speaking, an autobiography, it presents the same structure and characteristics as the autobiographies written by his contemporaries.

  43. 43.

    Ndgewa, Walking in Kenyatta Struggles; Cheserem, The Will to Succeed.

  44. 44.

    Karume , Beyond Expectations; Nyachae, Walking Through the Corridors of Service; Toweett , Unsung Heroes of Lancaster; Gikonyo Kiano, Quest for Liberty; Thatiah and Nyagah Trust, Jeremiah Nyagah; Kiereini , A Daunting Journey.

  45. 45.

    See Lonsdale, “Listen While I Read.”

  46. 46.

    Peterson, “Wordy Women” and “Casting Characters.”

  47. 47.

    Maupeu, “Les Autobiographies au Kenya,” 172.

  48. 48.

    Karume, Beyond Expectations, 10; Kiano, Quest for Liberty, 2–3.

  49. 49.

    Ndegwa, Walking in Kenyatta Struggles, Chapters 1 and 2.

  50. 50.

    Ibid., 14.

  51. 51.

    Ibid., 15.

  52. 52.

    Ibid., 77.

  53. 53.

    Maathai , Unbowed. A Memoir, 5.

  54. 54.

    Boehmer , Stories of Women, 33–4.

  55. 55.

    Unterhalter , “The Work of the Nation.”

  56. 56.

    Ebila, “A Proper Woman.”

  57. 57.

    Lonsdale, “Contest of Time.”

  58. 58.

    Karume, Beyond Expectations, 32 and 42.

  59. 59.

    Ibid., 32.

  60. 60.

    Ibid., 50.

  61. 61.

    Ibid., 284.

  62. 62.

    Kiano, Quest for Liberty, 1. See also Atemi , “As First Kenyan.”

  63. 63.

    Kiano, Quest for Liberty, 22, 24.

  64. 64.

    Ibid., 30.

  65. 65.

    Ibid., 23; see also 31.

  66. 66.

    Ibid., 36.

  67. 67.

    Ibid., 37, 64–5.

  68. 68.

    Ibid., 37.

  69. 69.

    Nyagah, Sowing the Mustard Seed, 1.

  70. 70.

    Ibid., 8.

  71. 71.

    Ibid., 26. See also 30.

  72. 72.

    Ibid., 62–3.

  73. 73.

    Ibid., 38.

  74. 74.

    Cagnolo , The Agĩkũyũ.

  75. 75.

    Karume, Beyond Expectations, 48.

  76. 76.

    Ndegwa, Walking in Kenyatta Struggles, 131.

  77. 77.

    Ibid., 129–30.

  78. 78.

    Cagnolo, The Agĩkũyũ, 84.

  79. 79.

    Ebila, “A Proper Woman,” 146–7.

  80. 80.

    Nyagah, Sowing the Mustard Seed, 330.

  81. 81.

    Obonyo , “How Mbogo Earned Her Place.”

  82. 82.

    Kiano, Quest for Liberty, 215.

  83. 83.

    Ibid., 217.

  84. 84.

    Jomo Kenyatta’s stance on the organization, however, remained obscure: despite formally praising women’s equal rights at independence, he subsequently supported all attempts to limit family laws (such as the Affiliation Act) and refused to have his name or photographs associated with any family planning campaigns. See Wipper, “The Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organization”; Thomas, Politics of the Womb, 170.

  85. 85.

    Kiano, Quest for Liberty, 249.

  86. 86.

    Nyagah, Sowing the Mustard Seed, 125.

  87. 87.

    Ibid., 126.

  88. 88.

    I thank Vladimir Angelo for his useful advice on this topic. See Gisel , Encyclopédie du Protestantisme, and Sachs , The Oxford History of Anglicanism.

  89. 89.

    Nyagah, Sowing the Mustard Seed, 410.

  90. 90.

    Ibid., 283.

  91. 91.

    Karume, Beyond Expectations, 283.

  92. 92.

    Ibid., 284.

  93. 93.

    Ibid., 288.

  94. 94.

    Ibid., 287.

  95. 95.

    Ibid., 285.

  96. 96.

    Ocobock, An Uncertain Age, 16.

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  1. University of Vienna, Wien, Austria

    Anaïs Angelo

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  1. Anaïs Angelo
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  1. The Queen’s College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Adele Bardazzi

  2. School of Modern Languages and Culture, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

    Alberica Bazzoni

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I thank the editors as well as the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments.

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Angelo, A. (2020). Kenyan Political Autobiographies: Reviving Generational Power and Masculine Authority. In: Bardazzi, A., Bazzoni, A. (eds) Gender and Authority across Disciplines, Space and Time. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45160-8_4

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