WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Nov. 5, 2007 -- Kenda Mutongi, associate professor of history at Williams College, is the author of a new book titled "Worries of the Heart: Widows, Family, and Community in Kenya" (University of Chicago Press). Mutongi specializes in East Africa, urban history, and transport history and culture.

She grew up in Maragoli, a small village in Western Kenya that lies close to Lake Victoria and the equator. The area had been under British colonial rule since the early 1900s, but local African leaders took over when Kenya declared its independence in 1963.

Here Mutongi encountered a paradox: Maragolis of her parents' generation still looked back fondly on the colonial rule, even though the British had enacted some "harmful and ill-conceived" policies. And they looked disparagingly on their African leaders, calling them corrupt, dishonest, and incompetent.

In her book, Mutongi explores why. She returns to Maragoli to understand how British rule, and then Kenyan independence, shaped people's lives. She finds that the challenges and contradictions of colonialism are most pronounced in the lives of widows, who make up a significant part of the demographic.

Under British rule, Maragoli widows would publicly air their social, political, and economic problems-their "worries of the heart"-in order to compel men to help them. Later, during Kenyan independence, they would invoke the language of rights and citizenship in their calls for assistance.

Using widows' lives as a "barometer for the harsh realities of rural Kenya," Mutongi explores the quest for survival in colonial and post-colonial Maragoli. The first part of her book gives a sense of everyday life during colonial rule, the second part tackles widowhood between 1930 and1950, and the last part focuses on widows after Kenyan independence.

Binyavanga Wainaina, winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, called "Worries of the Heart" a "magisterial book." He added, "Mutongi has gotten under the skin of her material -- and what we read is a living document: surely essential for every reading household in Kenya, for schools, and for every department of African studies. It is at once a literary and academic achievement."

Mutongi has also published articles in Journal of African History, Africa, International Journal of African Historical Studies, Signs, and African Studies Review.

At Williams since 1996, Mutongi teaches courses on African political thought, the South African Apartheid, and Sub-Saharan Africa since 1800.

She received her B.A. from Coe College in 1989 and her Ph.D. in history from the University of Virginia in 1996.


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News: Alison Hansen-Decelles