Historically, in African cultures, information was passed down generations orally. Folktales and proverbs were common, but the other way to know information was through names. And so the first thing Grace Akinyi (Ogot) knew about herself was that she was born on a morning. The year was 1930 and while culture was the root of who she was as a young girl, her world was also molded by formal education and western religion.  

 

Education

Grace’s earliest understanding of culture was thanks to the folktales her grandmother shared with her. She would listen on with the keenness of a child eager to learn how each story unfolded, not knowing that these precious moments would not only hold a dear place in her heart, but remain etched in her for the rest of her life. 

As for formal learning, she went to Maseno Juniour School, and thereafter Ng’iya Girls School, an institution by the Church Mission Society – where she learned basic literacy and primary education.  Her evenings and weekends were spent listening to Bible stories read to her by her father, or her grandmother’s legendary tales, and in this way, Grace found herself in a dual-world – one of traditional life, and the other of modern times. 

After Ng’iya, she joined Butere High School, one of the pioneer secondary institutions for African girls. For an African girl in the fourties, to advance to this level of education was a commendable feat, and the career ahead of her (like most) would either be in health as a nurse, or in education as a teacher. Grace opted for the former. Post high school she travelled west to Kampala to join the Nursing Training School at Mengo Hospital. Upon completion, she was a certified nurse; but she wasn’t quite there yet, and this is likely what prompted her to make her way to the London School of Nursing to receive further training and work experience. Even with this deep dive into nursing, stories remained a fundamental part of Grace’s identity.  

 

From Health to Broadcast to Storytelling

In the late fifties, after she’d returned to Kenya, she met Bethwell, the man who became her confidant, encouraging her to pursue her storytelling dreams. She would marry him in 1959. In her autobiography she vividly mentions their courtship days and how they incessantly exchanged love letters. And in this beautiful partnership, Grace bloomed into the storyteller she was destined to be. Between 1960 and 1961 she worked as a scriptwriter for the BBC Africa Service, developing scripts in Luo for the news service’s ‘London Calling East and Central Africa’ radio programme. Her talent and proficiency in vernacular enabled her to progress, and soon enough Grace had her own weekly radio programme, which she hosted in Luo – talk about Kenyan girl magic!  

Around this time, Grace had also taken to penning stories inspired by traditional culture and the world around her. Weaving words came easy to her, and by 1962 she had not only completed her first short story that would be published – A Year of Sacrifice – but she read it at the African Writers Conference. She was notably the first and only East African woman to present her work at the literary conference and she was determined to continue churning out stories. A Year of Sacrifice was published the following year in the African Journal Black Orpheus, an African literary journal, and later in Grace’s first collection of short stories “A Land of Thunder” albeit under the name ‘The Rain Came’. In 1964 another one of her short stories ‘Ward Nine’ was published in another journal. One short story after the other eventually led to a full-length novel in 1966 when The Promised Land by Grace Ogot was the latest book in the market. She became East Africa’s first published woman novelist. 

Common plots in Grace’s work tied to daily life of the time, but incorporated aspects of culture. In 1975, in recognition of her contribution to African literature, Grace Ogot was appointed as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. Then in 1976 she was named a member of the Kenya delegation to the UNESCO. This was also around the time she served as the chairperson for the Writers Association of Kenya up until 1980. Grace’s name extended beyond literary confines when she became the Assistant Minister for Culture in 1985. 

 

Clearly folktales, culture, education, and her knack for storytelling were essentials for her growth as a writer. But what remains is that she is a pioneer, a writer whose works are still read as part of literature curriculums, even now, six years after she passed away.

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