Women, Home and Personal Narrative in Kenya

Abstract

The reading of home is especially problematic with regard to a great many women in the postcolony of Kenya, and the major part of this article will focus on how one of Kenya's most controversial women's rights activists, Wambui Waiyaki Otieno, has become unhomed. In particular, I shall concentrate on a select number of chapters in her autobiography, Mau Mau's Daughter (1998) – those dealing with the burial of her husband, where the idea of home in the ways in which English uses it, was turned on its head.

Opsomming

Die kwessie van tuiste is besonder problematies wanneer dit in verband met die meerderheid vroue in die postkolonie van Kenia gelees word. Die grootste deel van hierdie artikel lê klem op een van Kenia se mees kontroversiële vroue-aktiviste, Wambui Waiyaki Otieno, en hoe sy "ont-tuis" word. In besonder fokus ek op ’n paar uitgesoekte hoofstukke van haar outobiografie, Mau Mau’s Daughter (1998) – dié wat handel oor die plek van haar man se teraardebestelling. Die idee van tuiste, of "home" soos dit dikwels in Engels verstaan word, word omvergewerp.