Novel
The River and the Source
Margaret Ogola · 1994
Synopsis
In Luo country, in western Kenya, towards the end of the nineteenth century, Akoko, daughter of Chief Odero Gogni of Yimbo, marries Owuor Kembo, chief of Sakwa. After the death of her sons, her brother-in-law Otieno seizes the chieftaincy, and Akoko takes refuge with her daughter Nyabera at the Catholic mission of Aluor. The novel thus follows four generations of women, from pre-colonial society to independent Kenya: Akoko, Nyabera, then Awiti, who became a schoolteacher under the name Elizabeth, and finally Wandia.
Context
The novel appeared in 1994 in Nairobi from Focus, a publishing house that was still young, after being turned down by several publishers. It long remained on the syllabus of the Kenyan secondary-school leaving examination, and critics read it as a novel of women's self-assertion in the country's history. Translated into Italian, Lithuanian and Spanish, it has a sequel, I Swear by Apollo, published in 2002.
Who it is for
For a great Kenyan family novel, long read at school; there is no French version.
Prizes and reception
It received the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the best first book in the Africa region, as well as the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature.
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