Micere Githae Mugo

Mĩcere Gĩthae Mũgo (born Madeleine Mĩcere Gĩthae; 12 December 1942 – 30 June 2023) was a Kenyan professor, playwright, author, activist and poet. She taught Orature, Literature, and Creative Writing.

Mũgo's publications include six books, a play co-authored with Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and three monographs. She also edited journals and the Zimbabwean school curriculum. The East African Standard listed her among the 100 most influential people in Kenya in 2002.

Early life Mũgo was born on 12 December 1942, in Baricho, Kirinyaga District, Kenya. The daughter of two progressive (liberal) teachers – Senior Chief Richard Karuga Gĩthae and Mwalimu Grace Njeri Gĩthae – who were politically active in Kenya's fight for independence.

Mũgo attended Alliance Girls' High School from 1957 to 1960.

Mũgo went on to attend Makerere University (where she gained her B.A. degree in 1966). She enrolled at the University of Nairobi in September 1966, later leaving for Canada to attend in 1969 the University of New Brunswick, where she earned her M.A. and PhD in 1973. and in 1978 She taught at the University of Nairobi until 1982, St. Lawrence University (1982–1984) the University of Zimbabwe (1984–1991) and was a visiting professor at Cornell University (1992).

Exile Mũgo was a political activist who fought against human rights abuses in Kenya. Her political activism led to her being harassed by the police and arrested. She was stripped of her Kenyan citizenship, but after one year, the Zimbabwean government invited her to apply for Zimbabwean citizenship, which she held until the mid-1990s, when she regained her Kenyan citizenship. and later said:

The poem "Speaking of Hurricanes" by Ama Ata Aidoo, included in Aidoo's 1992 collection An Angry Letter in January, was written "for Micere Mugo and all other African exiles".

Late career In 1993, Mũgo joined Syracuse University, where she taught Orature, Creative Writing, Caribbean Women Writers and Research Methods in the Department of African American Studies (AAS). In 2007, she was awarded the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence. In 2013, while at Syracuse University, she participated in the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) conference at the United Nations, the theme of which was "The Elimination and Prevention of Violence Against Women and Girls", and in her address she said:

After 22 years of service, Mũgo retired in 2015, and was awarded Emeritus status. Marking her retirement from the AAS faculty at Syracuse, a symposium was held in her honour.

In 2021, the Royal African Society in London presented Mũgo with the "Africa Writes" Lifetime Achievement award in African Literature, the first recipient having been Margaret Busby in 2019.

Mũgo was the founder of the United Women of Africa Organization (UWAO) and a co-founder and President (at the time of her death) of the Pan African Community of Central New York (PACCNY). died on 30 June 2023, at the age of 80, in Syracuse, New York, where she was buried on 31 July in Oakwood Cemetery.

Works Mũgo was a distinguished poet, and the author or editor of 15 books. She described herself as "an adamant and passionate advocate of utu and ubuntu", and explained: "Utu, is a Kiswahili term that loosely translates into 'the essence of being human,' or 'the state of being a human being.' You cannot claim to possess 'the essence of being human' unless you share it with and affirm it in other/all people." 1987–90: Award for research on African orature and human rights, Ford Foundation. 1994: The Syracuse University African American Student Association, Malcolm X Memorial Award For Excellence in Academic and Community Service. 2008: Girl Scouts Women of Distinction Award, Lafayette Country Club. 2013: Flora Nwapa Award for excellence in Africana literature, African Literature Association. 2023: Proclamation from the Mayor's Office, City of Syracuse. 2024: Fonlon-Nichols Award from the African Literature Association.

Legacy She is the subject of a collection of essays in her honour, Making Life Sing in Pursuit of Utu: The Micere Githae Mugo Story (Bookcraft, 2022), edited by D. Ndirangu Wachanga, her biographer and a professor of media studies and information science at the University of Wisconsin, who also made a documentary film of the same title.