Two afternoons with Micere Mugo

Prof Miceere Mugo during a public lecture at Riara University last week. PHOTOS | MARGARETTA WA GACHERU

What you need to know:

  • I did not know Prof Mugo when she was given Zimbabwean citizenship in the 1980s after the Moi government revoked her Kenyan citizenship, so when I saw her last week, I was in awe.
  • In her lecture, she educated without sounding like she was talking down to her audience. She peppered her lecture with self-effacing anecdotes, which had the crowd eating out of her hand (myself inclusive). When her lecture came to an end, I wanted to just go somewhere quiet and think about what she said.
  • There was also much exhorting of women in political and professional leadership to remember that their success is nothing if there is no coming down to the grassroots and fighting for the rights of Wanjiku. 

At the age of 14 in high school, I acted as Kimemia in my high school in our house rendition of The Trial of Dedan Kimathi.

Now although this was supposedly an important role — Kimathi needed an army and all that — I featured quite late in the story and so, of course, when I had to say my lines, I yelled them loudly enough so that people could realise how important I was: “Marshal, I agree with you about discipline. Self discipline. Group discipline. Physical and mental...”

In the last two weeks, the Nairobi literary scene has hosted the playwrights who co-wrote this historical play that I acted in. While I have not had the opportunity to attend any of Ngugi wa Thiongo’s public events, I was lucky to attend two of Micere Mugo’s at Riara University within the space of seven days.

I did not know Prof Mugo when she was given Zimbabwean citizenship in the 1980s after the Moi government revoked her Kenyan citizenship, so when I saw her last week, I was in awe. You see, Tops and I were both in agreement that she bears a strong resemblance to my mother (or rather, since my mother is three years younger, my mother looks like her). I immediately took a liking to her beyond the respect I already harboured for her as an Elder Genius of Letters.

On June 3, this giant of literature whose oeuvre includes poetry and literary criticism, was in her element as she gave a lecture on “Home Away from Home”. The lecture was supposed to be about her personal journey being home in different nations. Mugo however made it about more than just that. Beyond reciting a poem inspired by a conversation she had with her mother when she wanted to come home after the death of one of her family members, she made the lecture about others and our human interconnectedness.

SPIRITED DEBATE

The lecture was about embodying the spirit of ubuntu and how “I am because you are”. She explored the relationship between Africans and African Americans from slavery to the present and how there is a need for more connectedness.

Coming from the founder of the Pan African Community of Central New York, this made a lot of sense. Beyond the sometimes fractious relationship between Africans on the continent and those in the diaspora, Mugo also lectured in support of a Pan-Africanism that embraces anyone who may seem like “the other” even within the Kenyan space by asking her audience to reject negative ethnicity.

In her lecture, she educated without sounding like she was talking down to her audience. She peppered her lecture with self-effacing anecdotes, which had the crowd eating out of her hand (myself inclusive). When her lecture came to an end, I wanted to just go somewhere quiet and think about what she said.

Reflecting on the lecture later, a conversation between characters in Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah came to mind.

The protagonist Ifem on being told by a white American woman how Africans, in general, and a Ugandan friend, in particular, is “nicer” than some African American who seems to have a chip on her shoulder explains using the history of the 60s, “Maybe when the African American’s father was not allowed to vote because he was black, the Ugandan’s father was running for Parliament or studying at Oxford.” I also thought about how often I have heard so-called tribal stereotypes in different countries and wondered like Rodney King why we can’t all just get along.

Six days later, I attended another event advertised as a public debate at the same venue. The topic was “The Gender Campaign in Kenya: Are We Making Progress?” It began with two poems performed by contemporary poet and actress Sitawa Namwalie.

She read one of Prof Mugo’s poems from My Mother’s Poems and Other Songs and then ended with one of her own poems from the play Silence is a Woman, “We Left Our House To Go Home.”

It was moderated by writer and Storymoja founder Muthoni Garland. The panelists were Prof Wanjiku Kabira, Prof Sylvia Kang’ara, Prof Mike Kuria, Dr Paul Mukundi and Dr Wambui Mwangi.

The style threw me off a little as I had been hoping for a spirited debate among the panelists. Instead what we got was each of the panelists on the podium speaking on the topic. All the panelists spoke eloquently and made some very valid points on the topic in question but there was no contrarian on panel to put a spanner in the works and make the discussion heated.

The summary of the discussion from all speakers was “there have been achievements but we need to do more and uphold the Constitution particularly with regards to the one third gender rule and Article 43”.

There was also much exhorting of women in political and professional leadership to remember that their success is nothing if there is no coming down to the grassroots and fighting for the rights of Wanjiku. 

Outside of Riara University, Wanjiku was sitting and chatting with her friend who was selling fruits and mahindi. I wondered then whether it was absolutely impossible for the organisers to have called Wanjiku to speak for herself in this forum. As it was, it seemed the eloquent speakers were speaking to the converted.

DEFINITION OF FEMINISM

The day ended with a keynote address from Prof Mugo who summarised what had been said by all the five speakers. In addition to the summation, she said Kenya as a country needs to have a dialogue about gay and bisexual people and understand their struggle as a human rights struggle. She said in terms of women’s rights, there was still a long way to go. There was a need for understanding and continuation of women’s issues across generations.

She ended by defining the “f” word which seems to cause discomfort among many in society. Feminism. Prof Mugo used Caribbean feminist Rhoda Reddock’s definition of feminism being a consciousness of oppression against women, a consciousness of systems that oppress women, and once aware of the oppression and the systems, having an agency to act against that oppression to ensure chance and create something new.

I would rather end with her definition of feminism as stated in her poem, To Be a Feminist Is. As it’s a lengthy poem, I shall only quote three stanzas:

For me/ To be a feminist is/ To denounce patriarchy/ And the caging of women/ It is/ To wipe the fuzziness/ Of colonial hangovers/ To uproot the weeds/ Of neo-colonial pestilence 

For me/ To be a feminist is/ To celebrate my mother/ To poeticize my sisters/ To message their failures/ To savour their intellect/ To drink their feelings/ And to embrace/ Their achievements 

For me/ To be a feminist is/ To have dialogue / With my father/ And my brother/ To invite their partnership/ As fellow guerillas/ It is/ To march with them/ To the war-torn zone/ Of Afrikana survival/ It is/ To jointly raise with them/ The victory salute