Dr Kenneth Ombongi on nexus between literature and history

In 2018, right about the time when Dr Kenneth Ombongi launched the inaugural public inter-departmental conferences between the Department of History and Archaeology (which he was chairing at the time) and the literature department of the University of Nairobi — a first in the history of the university — Kenya was also going through a number of firsts in history: it was the first year past the first successfully overturned presidential election, Raila Odinga and the then president Uhuru Kenyatta pledged to work together ending a long-lasting political feud through the famous ‘handshake,’ and Eliud Kipchoge broke a world record in marathon in Berlin.

While it would seem as if inter-field collaboration in academia is expected, these monthly seminars pioneered by Dr Ombongi became a big deal because he managed to bring together two departments that have had a history of rifts that date from as early as the Moi era. Rifts that began partly because the government to some extent pitched the two departments against each other; and partly because the two heads of these departments at the time, Prof Bethwell Ogot (Ogot came back from Edinburg to became the first black professor of African history in the University of Nairobi) and Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o disagreed ideologically.

“Prof’s Bethwell’s nationalistic approach to the studying of African history - an ‘Africanization’ of teaching history which was meant to repudiate the European argument that Africa did not have a history before the Europeans came’ -- in the 60’s and 70’s earned him academic enemies amongst those academics who favoured the socialist approach that “we learn history for the sake of historical knowledge and not for self-actualization.”

Prof Ngugi dismissed Prof Ogot’s nationalistic approach to teaching history saying Ogot, ‘took refugee into the study of immigration and settlement as if people kept on moving and settling without doing anything meaningful.’

This partly set the rift between these two major departments that lasted for years hence inhibiting any chances of inter departmental projects. It would take decades for this relationship to be repaired, and Dr Ombongi, played a founding role in this endeavour.

An alumnus of the university, Dr Kenneth Ombongi studied evolution of social religious ideas — focusing on the history of Indians in East Africa for his undergraduate before he proceeded to Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi then to Cambridge University for his Ph.D.

Now an Associate Dean of Research & Post-Graduate Studies at his alma mater, he’s worked in an NGO, has been CEO of a state parastatal and now works in academia, currently as the associate dean, University of Nairobi, Faculty of Arts, in charge of Research and Post Graduate Studies.

Although he is primarily a historian, Dr Ombongi has always been fascinated by literature and is an avid reader. Over the years, he has become immensely interested in and has explored the nexus between literature and history and how research bridges these two fields.

“Literature and history are two sides of the same coin. When you talk history, you talk about human lived experience brought forth by analysis of the past and factual information in order to get a picture of what has gone by and how the present came to be; which visualises how the future will be. Literature mirrors the same society but using different tools like creativity and imagination. For instance, there’s a branch of history called oral history (which is really oral literature) -- tongue twisters, similes, hyperbole, proverbs -- which are very important sources of history,” he says.

“There’s a symbiotic relationship between history and literature. “If you don’t understand one, you won’t understand the other. For instance, a historian will easily understand Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s conversation of class differences in The River Between as he used the river to signify colonial modernity and post-colonial modernity concurrently.”

According to Dr Ombongi, even in the history of the country, these two disciplines in the University of Nairobi, at some point back in the day, were the most vibrant and politically significant nationally. Later, the Department of Political Science came in strongly, birthing the likes of (now Kisumu Governor) Anyang Nyongo. Thus, at the height of Moi’s tyrannical regime, these three were the most affected departments: literature, history and political science.

“The classism that Ngugi wrote a lot about then was because there were no improvements in the post-colonial era- we inherited or transited into post-colonial modernity that was a mere transition from colonialism with the only difference being the skin colour of the men in charge, while the structures remained the same: these men were also oppressive, elitists and their interests were not local,” he explains.

During the Moi regime when Kenya became a single party state, academics were the only people who could stand and tell Moi off. In the history of the University of Nairobi, these two departments famously provided the alternative for the opposition as Kenya was, de jure, a One Party State. Political scientists tried but were crushed even harder and Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o ended up being one of the only ones who stood up but was forced to go to exile.

“I’ve always wondered what this obsession Moi had with historians,” says Dr Ombongi, “because of all the people, historians have produced more senior public servants than any other department in the University of Nairobi.”

Realising that universities were the most dangerous threat to his administration, Moi used two approaches to deal with the university.

“Those who were subservient and loyal to him (majority from history department) he co-opted them; this department has produced the most people who’ve worked in the government from the University than any other department.

The last five years, every semester, Dr Ombongi has organised a set of seminars through his (former) department which tries to integrate the Kenyan public and the University of Nairobi. The seminars are a collaboration with the literature department so as to bridge the gap between history and literature, and bring together colleagues from the departments and from other institutions as speakers.

“I believe that the best way to know ourselves is to know our history. That’s why the tagline of the department is, ‘Know thy history, Know thyself,’”, says Dr Ombongi.
Next Thursday (October 3rd), Dr Ombongi and Peter Kagwanja open the last 2024 quarter’s talks at the University of Nairobi with a presentation on the ‘Intra-Kalenjin Elite Alignment’ (with a focus on the Moi presidency, 1978 – 2002).

The week after, Dr Lauren Cochrane of the University of Exeter will present on ‘Visualising Violence in Colonial Kenya, 1952 – 1960’ before the three-day Mau Mau Conference at the university in mid-October.

“Historical scholarship is pointless if it doesn’t serve the interest of society- history is not necessarily just about learning and feeling nice and using bombastic terminologies- it’s about to making the public appreciate this knowledge too,” Dr Ombongi concludes.