Kenda Mutongi
Biographic Data
| ID | 176247 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kenda Mutongi |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kenda |
| FAMILY NAME | Mutongi |
| SIGNATURE | MUTONGI K |
| AFFILIATIONS | MIT Professor of African History, , US |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4157-5815 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 85 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The “Airlift” Generation, Economic Aspiration, and Secondary School Education in Kenya, 1940-1960
This article argues that the “airlift” language often used to describe the eight hundred Kenyan students who attended US and Canadian universities between 1959 and 1963 is misleading. It assumes that the students were being plucked out of substandard education, yet these youth had received some of the most rigorous education in the world—even though it was colonial education intended to inculcate in them British cultures and mores. The students t…
African History and Meleko Mokgosi
This article argues that the group of paintings entitled Your Trip to Africa, by US-based Botswanan visual artist Meleko Mokgosi, advocate for a clearer, more realistic encounter with Africa and its people. The paintings, motivated by Peter Kubelka's 1966 experimental film documenting a hunting party in Sudan (Our Trip to Africa), admonish the viewer to pay attention not just to what they see but to how they see. This admonition is an important r…
The Wages of Harlotry—Luise White’s The Comforts of Home
In “The Wages of Harlotry,” Kenda Mutongi examines the historiographical significance of Luise White’s The Comforts of Home: Prostitution in Colonial Nairobi (1990). She argues that White’s main contribution has been connecting the history of prostitution in Nairobi to histories of family, labor, sexuality, gender, colonial state, housing, urban life, and political economy—that is, White is a pioneer in writing entangled, layered, and intersectio…
Matatu
Thugs or Entrepreneurs? Perceptions of Matatu Operators in Nairobi, 1970 to the Present
This essay examines the changing perceptions of matatu crews from the 1970s to the present. In the early 1970s commuters and many Kenyans typically viewed the matatu operators as an important, enterprising group of people, contributing to the economic development of the new nation of Kenya. This perception changed drastically in the 1980s when commuters, and indeed many Kenyans of all ranks, increasingly saw the matatu operators as thugs engaging…
"Dear Dolly's" Advice
Kenda Mutongi, "Dear Dolly's" Advice: Representations of Youth, Courtship, and Sexualities in Africa, 1960-1980, The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 33, No. 1 (2000), pp. 1-23
Worries of the Heart’
Omwene hango [the owner of the home] is the only person with true authority to discipline children. So, when your husband died, the authority of omwene hango died with him, and you were left alone . HISTORIANS of gender have shown the importance of documenting and scrutinizing instances in which gender terminologies are invoked and employed. A compelling instance can be found in an examination of the widows of Maragoli. In this upland rural area …
Women in Sub-Saharan Africa
Iris Berger's essay focuses on East and southern Africa, tracing women's history from earliest times to the present. By exploring their place in social, economic, political, and religious life, Berger highlights the changing societal position of women through shifts over time in ideas about gender and the connections between women's publi and private spheres. The essay by E. Frances White examines the status and activities of women in West and Ce…
Of Revelation and Revolution
Gender, Lineage, and Ethnicity in Southern Africa . Jean Davison Shifting Circles of Support
Thugs or Entrepreneurs? Perceptions of Matatu Operators in Nairobi, 1970 to the Present
This essay examines the changing perceptions of matatu crews from the 1970s to the present. In the early 1970s commuters and many Kenyans typically viewed the matatu operators as an important, enterprising group of people, contributing to the economic development of the new nation of Kenya. This perception changed drastically in the 1980s when commuters, and indeed many Kenyans of all ranks, increasingly saw the matatu operators as thugs engaging…
"Dear Dolly's" Advice
Kenda Mutongi, "Dear Dolly's" Advice: Representations of Youth, Courtship, and Sexualities in Africa, 1960-1980, The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 33, No. 1 (2000), pp. 1-23
Worries of the Heart’
Omwene hango [the owner of the home] is the only person with true authority to discipline children. So, when your husband died, the authority of omwene hango died with him, and you were left alone . HISTORIANS of gender have shown the importance of documenting and scrutinizing instances in which gender terminologies are invoked and employed. A compelling instance can be found in an examination of the widows of Maragoli. In this upland rural area …
Women in Sub-Saharan Africa
Iris Berger's essay focuses on East and southern Africa, tracing women's history from earliest times to the present. By exploring their place in social, economic, political, and religious life, Berger highlights the changing societal position of women through shifts over time in ideas about gender and the connections between women's publi and private spheres. The essay by E. Frances White examines the status and activities of women in West and Ce…
Of Revelation and Revolution
The Wages of Harlotry—Luise White’s The Comforts of Home
In “The Wages of Harlotry,” Kenda Mutongi examines the historiographical significance of Luise White’s The Comforts of Home: Prostitution in Colonial Nairobi (1990). She argues that White’s main contribution has been connecting the history of prostitution in Nairobi to histories of family, labor, sexuality, gender, colonial state, housing, urban life, and political economy—that is, White is a pioneer in writing entangled, layered, and intersectio…
The “Airlift” Generation, Economic Aspiration, and Secondary School Education in Kenya, 1940-1960
This article argues that the “airlift” language often used to describe the eight hundred Kenyan students who attended US and Canadian universities between 1959 and 1963 is misleading. It assumes that the students were being plucked out of substandard education, yet these youth had received some of the most rigorous education in the world—even though it was colonial education intended to inculcate in them British cultures and mores. The students t…
Gender, Lineage, and Ethnicity in Southern Africa . Jean Davison Shifting Circles of Support
Worries of the Heart’
Omwene hango [the owner of the home] is the only person with true authority to discipline children. So, when your husband died, the authority of omwene hango died with him, and you were left alone . HISTORIANS of gender have shown the importance of documenting and scrutinizing instances in which gender terminologies are invoked and employed. A compelling instance can be found in an examination of the widows of Maragoli. In this upland rural area …
Women in Sub-Saharan Africa
Iris Berger's essay focuses on East and southern Africa, tracing women's history from earliest times to the present. By exploring their place in social, economic, political, and religious life, Berger highlights the changing societal position of women through shifts over time in ideas about gender and the connections between women's publi and private spheres. The essay by E. Frances White examines the status and activities of women in West and Ce…
Of Revelation and Revolution
"Dear Dolly's" Advice
Kenda Mutongi, "Dear Dolly's" Advice: Representations of Youth, Courtship, and Sexualities in Africa, 1960-1980, The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 33, No. 1 (2000), pp. 1-23
Thugs or Entrepreneurs? Perceptions of Matatu Operators in Nairobi, 1970 to the Present
This essay examines the changing perceptions of matatu crews from the 1970s to the present. In the early 1970s commuters and many Kenyans typically viewed the matatu operators as an important, enterprising group of people, contributing to the economic development of the new nation of Kenya. This perception changed drastically in the 1980s when commuters, and indeed many Kenyans of all ranks, increasingly saw the matatu operators as thugs engaging…
Matatu
The Wages of Harlotry—Luise White’s The Comforts of Home
In “The Wages of Harlotry,” Kenda Mutongi examines the historiographical significance of Luise White’s The Comforts of Home: Prostitution in Colonial Nairobi (1990). She argues that White’s main contribution has been connecting the history of prostitution in Nairobi to histories of family, labor, sexuality, gender, colonial state, housing, urban life, and political economy—that is, White is a pioneer in writing entangled, layered, and intersectio…
The “Airlift” Generation, Economic Aspiration, and Secondary School Education in Kenya, 1940-1960
This article argues that the “airlift” language often used to describe the eight hundred Kenyan students who attended US and Canadian universities between 1959 and 1963 is misleading. It assumes that the students were being plucked out of substandard education, yet these youth had received some of the most rigorous education in the world—even though it was colonial education intended to inculcate in them British cultures and mores. The students t…
African History and Meleko Mokgosi
This article argues that the group of paintings entitled Your Trip to Africa, by US-based Botswanan visual artist Meleko Mokgosi, advocate for a clearer, more realistic encounter with Africa and its people. The paintings, motivated by Peter Kubelka's 1966 experimental film documenting a hunting party in Sudan (Our Trip to Africa), admonish the viewer to pay attention not just to what they see but to how they see. This admonition is an important r…
Sociology (8 works) · African history and culture studies (7 works) · History (7 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · History (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Law (4 works) · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues (3 works) · Gender Studies (3 works) · Law (3 works)