Charity Waciuma

Charity Waciuma (born 1936) is a Kenyan writer, who wrote several novels for adolescents and an autobiographical novel, Daughter of Mumbi (1969). Her work draws on Kikuyu legends and storytelling traditions.[1] In the 1960s Waciuma and Grace Ogot became the first Kenyan women writers to be published in English.[2]

Charity Waciuma
Born
Charity Wanjiku Waciuma

1936 (age 83–84)
NationalityKenyan
OccupationWriter
Notable work
Daughter of Mumbi

Biography

Charity Wanjiku Waciuma grew up in pre-Independence Kenya, during the violent anti-colonial struggle between the Mau-Mau and British rulers. In accordance with Kikuyu naming traditions she was given her father's younger sister's name Wanjiku ("the gossip"), her last name Waciuma, meaning "beads", being a nickname of her grandmother’s father "because he had as many goats as beads in a necklace".[3][4]

She became one of Kenya's pioneering writers for children with the publication in 1966 of her first book Mweru, the Ostrich Girl, which was followed by her other titles for young adults: The Golden Feather, Merry Making, and Who's Calling?.[5] Her autobiographical work Daughter of Mumbi, published in 1969, tells of the tensions felt by an adolescent who was torn between her allegiance to traditional identities (Mumbi was the mythical female founder of the Kikuyu) and a father who sees his support for British colonial rule as an allegiance to modernity.[6][7] The book is dedicated to Waciuma's father, who was killed during the Mau Mau Emergency.[3]

Waciuma wrote in English hesitantly on the controversial cultural tradition of female genital excision, at a time when not all authors of African descent in the 1960s did so. Her works were published before the decolonization of Kenya, and writing on this sensitive issue was before the fight for women's rights had become prominent, and before the physical and psychological effects of that particular practice for affected women were generally acknowledged or given global attention.[8][9]

Waciuma is included in the 1992 anthology Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.[10]

Works
  • Mweru, the Ostrich Girl (Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1966)[11]
  • The Golden Feather (Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1966)[12]
  • Daughter of Mumbi (Nairobi: Jacques Compton, 1969)[13]
  • Merry-Making (Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1972)[14]
  • Who's Calling? (Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1973)[15]
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References
  1. Margaret Busby, Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent (1992), London: Viking, 1993, p. 377.
  2. "12 Pioneering Kenyan Women" Archived 20 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Africa.com.
  3. "Book Review: Daughter of Mumbi by Charity Wanjiku Waciuma", The Woyingi Blog, 8 September 2010.
  4. Daughter of Mumbi. p. 8.
  5. Muchiri, Jennifer Nyambura (2008). "The Female Autobiographical Voice in Independent Kenya" (PDF). University of Nairobi. PhD. thesis.
  6. Jacqueline Bardolph, "Waciuma, Charity", in Lorna Sage, ed., The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English, Cambridge University Press, 1999.
  7. Neubauer, C. E. (18 July 2008). "Tradition and change in Charity Waciuma's autobiography Daughter of Mumbi". Taylor & Francis: 211–221. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. Baker, Charlotte (2011). "Rising Anthills: African and African American Writing on Female Genital Excision 1960–2000, by Elisabeth Bekers (review)". Research in African Literatures. Project MUSE. 42 (1): 191. doi:10.2979/reseafrilite.2011.42.1.190. ISSN 0034-5210. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
  9. Bekers, Elisabeth (2010). Rising Anthills: African and African American Writing on Female Genital Excision 1960–2000. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0299234942. OCLC 756233607.
  10. Odhiambo, Tom (18 January 2020), "'New Daughters of Africa' is a must read for aspiring young women writers", Daily Nation.
  11. "Mweru, the Ostrich Girl". East African Readers Library. East African Publishing House. 1966. LCCN 76251178.
  12. The Golden Feather. East African Readers Library. 4. East African Publishing House. 1966. LCCN 72014809.
  13. Daughter of Mumbi. Modern African Library. East African Publishing House. 1969. LCCN 72286351.
  14. Merry-Making. The Lioncub book. 2. East African Publishing House. 1972. LCCN 73983731.
  15. Who's Calling?. The Lioncub book. 3. East African Publishing House. 1973. LCCN 73179140.
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