Marjorie and the coming to birth of Kenyan literature
Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye was the mother figure of Kenyan literature. While straddling the literary landscape like a colossus, our vision to see Marjorie’s central place was blurred. ILLUSTRATION | JOHN NYAGAH
The best tribute we can give to Marjorie is to fashion a new course for cultural studies in the country. We need to honestly assess the contribution of each generation of players in Kenyan cultural studies truthfully than engage in the hopeless fiats that I see from the likes of “Nameless Mulama”.
What about our children and young adults, for which Marjorie was so concerned about? You know what I mean if you have read her popular poem entitled ‘A Freedom Song.’ True, while children’s and adolescence literature has been growing, there is no serious output in terms of literary criticism.
If Ngugi wa Thiong’o is the father of Kenyan fiction, then Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye was the mother figure of Kenyan literature. While straddling the literary landscape like a colossus, our vision to see Marjorie’s central place was blurred. When I reflect on the debates on pertinent issues that we continuously grapple with on Kenyan literature, I do not see her position prominently elucidated.
When I received the news of the passing on of Marjorie, I did a simple survey amongst colleagues in departments of literature and cultural studies, just to establish if her books feature prominently on our university curricular. This survey revealed that she sits on the periphery. I called 10 journalists in both print and electronic media and none seemed to have read Marjorie. Two of them confessed they encountered her Coming to Birth as a school text at Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education.
