Overview

For a long time African history has been dominated by western perspectives through predominantly male accounts of colonial governments and missionaries. In contrast, Dr Emily Onyango provides an African history of mission, education development and women's roles in Kenya. Based on archival research and interviews of primary sources this book explores the relationship of these areas of history with each other, focusing on the Luo culture and the period of 1895 to 2000. With the pre-colonial African context as the foundation for understanding and writing history, Dr Onyango uses gender to analyze the role of Christian missionaries in the development of women's education and their position in Kenyan society. The result of this well-researched study is not only a challenge to the traditional understanding of history, but also a counternarrative to the common view that to be liberated African women must disregard Christianity. Rather she looks at the importance Christianity plays in helping women establish themselves economically, politically and socially, in Kenyan society. This research is a vital contribution to women's history and the history of Christianity in Africa.

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9781783684892

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In this book, Rev Canon Dr Onyango has brought to light women's agency in navigating layers of systems that first affirmed them in the community life and then excluded them from being heard in the area of education. The triple culture within which women operated in seeking formal education is well narrated. Most importantly the objective analysis of culture, especially the Luo culture, shows the learning processes between African women students and the missionaries who taught them. The African women's agency runs through the book and adds to the perspectives of women and the growth and development of a new community. The intersections between the African and Western learning systems run through the chapters of the book and are an indication of the author's effort using them in as much as they impacted education for girls. This is an important book in teaching about women and education in Kenya during the period discussed, but it also has parallels to some of the education patterns in society today. Education has been and continues to be an important factor in empowering women to be key leaders in society. Esther Mombo, PhD Director, International Partnerships and Alumni Relations, Faculty of Theology, St Paul's University, Nairobi, Kenya Emily Onyango is a pioneer in the history of girls' education in Kenya. With good evidence based on state and missionary archives and the recollections of some memorable women, she tells an extraordinary story of initial cultural courage by young Kenyan women, of persevering female missionary dedication, of difficult gendered negotiations in home and employment and, in the end, of the confident, if still embattled, sense of achievement by a growing number of Kenyan women. John Lonsdale, PhD Emeritus Professor, Modern African History, Fellow of Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK

In this book, Rev Canon Dr Onyango has brought to light women's agency in navigating layers of systems that first affirmed them in the community life and then excluded them from being heard in the area of education. The triple culture within which women operated in seeking formal education is well narrated. Most importantly the objective analysis of culture, especially the Luo culture, shows the learning processes between African women students and the missionaries who taught them. The African women's agency runs through the book and adds to the perspectives of women and the growth and development of a new community. The intersections between the African and Western learning systems run through the chapters of the book and are an indication of the author's effort using them in as much as they impacted education for girls. This is an important book in teaching about women and education in Kenya during the period discussed, but it also has parallels to some of the education patterns in society today. Education has been and continues to be an important factor in empowering women to be key leaders in society. Esther Mombo, PhD Director, International Partnerships and Alumni Relations, Faculty of Theology, St Paul's University, Nairobi, Kenya Emily Onyango is a pioneer in the history of girls' education in Kenya. With good evidence based on state and missionary archives and the recollections of some memorable women, she tells an extraordinary story of initial cultural courage by young Kenyan women, of persevering female missionary dedication, of difficult gendered negotiations in home and employment and, in the end, of the confident, if still embattled, sense of achievement by a growing number of Kenyan women. John Lonsdale, PhD Emeritus Professor, Modern African History, Fellow of Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK

Author Information

EMILY AWINO ONYANGO earned her PhD from the University of Wales, UK. She currently works as a senior lecturer at St Paul's University, Limuru, Kenya, where her teaching focuses on church history, gender studies and African Christianity. Dr Onyango is also a priest in the Anglican Church of Kenya and a Canon in the Diocese of Bondo.

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