Bethwel Ogot: Scholar who reshaped African history dies at 95
Bethwel Ogot, a prominent Kenyan historian and scholar, has died at the age of 95.
His death was confirmed by Siaya Governor James Orengo, who described him as one of the greatest scholars the continent has seen.
Ogot, renowned for his pioneering contributions to African history, particularly East African history, passed away at Kisumu Hospital after a brief illness.
His legacy in historical research is widely regarded as monumental.
Every Kenyan knows about the Ogot family of outstanding academics the whole world knows and respects, but me I learnt about them from my great friend Onyango Oloo who is related to the family in Gem in Siaya county.
OO as we knew him told me about Grace Akinyi Ogot and how much respect he had for her as an academic and politician.
How Grace Ogot made Kenya’s literary torch shine bright
Grace Akinyi Ogot, the former Gem MP, skillfully combined politics with a serious literary life that saw her publish several highly acclaimed books.
Through her writing, Mrs Ogot powerfully influenced East Africa’s literary narrative. She helped found the Writers Association of Kenya in 1976 and had a stint as its chair.
At a time when few female names featured in Kenya’s political landscape, Ogot in her industrious nature was spotted by former President Moi’s Nyayo government and was nominated as an MP.
When the murder of Gem MP Horace Ongili Owiti occasioned a by-election in 1985, Ogot threw herself into the ring and was elected the first and only woman MP for Gem.
That and her elevation to assistant minister put her in the league of Julia Ojiambo, who was Kenya’s first woman assistant minister, Grace Onyango, Kenya’s first woman MP and Winfred Nyiva Mwendwa, first woman Cabinet minister.
She lost her seat to Oki Ooko Ombaka in the 1992 General Election.
The third-born of seven children to Joseph Nyanduga, an early missionary in Nyanza and Mama Rahel Gori, Ogot’s literary mind was whetted by the traditional folk tales she heard from her paternal grandmother.
Even as a little girl growing up in pre-independence Kenya, Grace had a natural knack for telling great stories and so it was no surprise when years later, she held an entire conference on African literature enthralled when she read her story, ‘The Year of Sacrifice’ at Makerere University, Uganda in 1962.
It was later titled ‘The Rain Came’ and published in 1963, and was followed in 1964 by ‘Ward Nine’.
Grace was a pioneer who broke barriers for women at a time when social attitudes saw little value in educating girls, thanks to her father. She attended the famous Ng’iya Girls School and Butere High School before training as a nurse in Uganda.
She later worked at England’s St.Thomas Hospital for Mothers and Babies and at Maseno Hospital in Kenya. She married Prof Bethuel Allan Ogot in 1959 and they had four children.
Her marriage
Her first book; ‘The Promised Land’ was published in 1966. It was an epic 1930s saga tracing the migration of a Luo family from their ancestral home in Nyanza to Northern Tanzania and reflected a strong Christian upbringing that had immersed her in stories of the Old Testament.
Her stories were filled with an overwhelming sense of retribution, with heroes and heroines of strong character reaping what they sowed. But they were also easy for readers to identify with because of their many flaws.
They populated her other writings including ‘The Strange Bride’, ‘The Graduate’, ‘The Other Woman’ and ‘The Island of Tears’.
Like Nigeria’s Chinua Achebe, some of her early books captured the struggle between the demands of emerging Christianity and western culture in Kenya and the equally powerful traditions in the Luo culture.
His compatriots in Kenya paid tribute to him and that is wonderful.
Adongo Ogony is a Kenyan Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada
