Micere Githae Mugo

1942 - 2023

Micere Githae Mugo
June 30, 2023
Micere Githae Mugo a dual citizen of Kenya and the United States of America passed on June 30, 2023, at 11:30 a.m. at the age of 80, after a 16-year intense and "sheroic" battle with multiple myeloma. Born in Kariria, Kirinyaga on December 12, 1942, she was the third born of Senior Chief Richard Karuga Githae and Mwalimu Grace Njeri Githae; sister to Eunice Muringo Kiereini, the late Judi Muthoni Gilmore, the late Joyce Muthoni Githae, Duncan Mutugi Githae, Winnie Wambui Marekia, the late Rose Wanjiru Wachira, the late David (aka Dauti) Githanda, Patrick Njeru Githae and Nancy Wangari (aka Kanini) Githae, father and mother to Mumbi and the late Njeri Kui whom she both described as her "comrades" and best friends.
When Micere turned ten in 1952, the same year the State of Emergency was declared in Kenya, she witnessed one of the most violent periods in her country's history and herstory. The Kenya Land and Freedom Army, popularly known as the Mau Mau, had intensified its resistance against colonial occupation and brutality and Micere had just joined Embu Girls' School, which was at the heart of this war.
Micere attended Alliance Girls' High School from 1957-1960. Though colonialism was coming to an end during this period, the British colonial establishment remained convinced that Black Africans were not as intellectually capable as their white counterparts. To test this racist theory, Micere found herself thrust in the middle of what would become the educational desegregation project in Kenya, like the Civil Rights movement in the United States and in particular the "Little Rock 9" that same year. Micere was selected as the first and only African child to attend Limuru Girls' High School, then an all-white girls' high school.
Micere emerged as the top student at Limuru Girls' High School, earning herself a scholarship to Oxford University, but opted instead to attend Makerere University, which she joined in 1963.
Micere left Kenya for Canada in 1969 to pursue higher education at the University of New Brunswick, where she was introduced to African American and Caribbean writings, and the growing culture of letters in the Black diaspora.
She returned to Kenya in 1973 as the first man/woman to hold a PhD in literature in all East Africa. In the decade that followed, she would engage, train, and influence a generation of students and lecturers. Micere became the first Chief Examiner of English and Literature for the East African Examinations Council. In addition to overseeing the literature examination system in the entire East African region, she trained and supervised examiners and assisted ministries of education in Africanizing the curriculum. During this time, Micere traversed the country interviewing former Mau Mau women fighters, aware that the post-colony was erasing the contributions of women. She was one of the intellectuals who worked very closely with Field Marshal Muthoni wa Kirima and Mukami Kimathi.
In 1978, Micere was elected as the first female Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Nairobi. That same year President Jomo Kenyatta died and was succeeded by his vice president, Daniel arap Moi. In this period of uncertainty, it quickly became evident that the new government was troubled by Micere and several of her colleagues' and students' radical politics. She became a target of constant harassment, as the increasingly oppressive policies of the Moi regime disrupted teaching at University of Nairobi. Due to previous detention and torture, Micere was smuggled out of the country with her 2 young daughters, Mumbi (7) and the late Njeri Kui (5), to begin an arduous life in exile.
Life in exile began in Canton, New York where Micere lectured at St. Lawrence University. Immersing herself in community activities, she taught creative writing courses and Kiswahili in a Maximum-Security Prison. With Kenya always on her mind, she travelled throughout the United States, speaking and raising awareness to multiple audiences including the United States Congress. At school, Mumbi and Njeri, the only black children, became targets for bullying and racist attacks. Micere, feeling alienated "geographically, historically, and spiritually" decided to return to Africa. She applied and was offered a position as Chair and Professor of English at the University of Zambia, but soon after was denied entry after a conversation between President Moi and his counterpart President Kaunda. After an intervention by the late Sally Mugabe, the Ghanaian born wife of President Robert Mugabe and Micere's close friend, she was hired as an associate professor in the English Department and moved to Zimbabwe where she would be from 1984 to 1992.
In newly independent Zimbabwe, Micere embarked on the production of a progressive indigenous literature for Zimbabwean government schools, co-editing 8 supplementary readers. Micere's time in Zimbabwe was filled with intellectual and political work, as she continued exploding silences surrounding the political environment in Kenya, South Africa and other political struggles globally. During this time, her passport was confiscated by the Kenyan government and thanks to President Mugabe, Micere became a Zimbabwean citizen until 2010 when she "regained" her Kenyan one.
Micere returned to North America as a Visiting Professor at the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University in 1992 and later joined the Department of African American Studies at Syracuse University in 1993 where she served for 22 years until her retirement as Emeritus professor in 2015.
Her nurturing spirit and indomitable will touched communities and institutions worldwide, resulting in numerous prestigious awards. As a community leader in Syracuse, Micere co-founded the Pan African Community of Central New York (PACCNY) in 1994 and in 2003, she went on to establish the United Women of Africa Organization (UWAO).
The "onion structure theory", which Micere developed captures a worldview where the existence of the individual, the collective group, and the world around them are inextricably intertwined and exist as a "Shared Humanity". It was the core of the utu and ubuntu philosophy, which she embodied, which transcended parochialism, classism, patriarchy, sexism, heterosexualism, and all other confining -isms.
May our shujaa (heroine) travel on in dignity and peace to join her Ancestors, the Spirit World and her Maker. Ashe! (Life Force); Afya! (Health and Healing); Moyo! (Life); Amen! (So let it be).
The full obituary can be found at https://inremembranceofmiceregithaemugo.org/
***Credit goes to Dr. Ndirangu Wachanga for much of the research and biographical data contained***