Worries of the Heart: Widows, Family, and Community in Kenya - Softcover

Mutongi, Kenda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226554201 ISBN 13: 9780226554204

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2007

Synopsis

Growing up in the Maragoli community in Kenya, Kenda Mutongi encountered a perplexing contradiction. While the young teachers at her village school railed against colonialism, many of her elders, including her widowed mother, praised their former British masters. In this moving book, Mutongi explores how both the challenges and contradictions of colonial rule and the frustrations and failures of independence shaped the lives of Maragoli widows and their complex relations with each other, their families, and the larger community.
Throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, rates of widowhood have been remarkably high in Kenya. Yet despite their numbers, widows and their families exist at the margins of society, and their lives act as a barometer for the harsh realities of rural Kenya. Mutongi here argues that widows survive by publicly airing their social, economic, and political problems, their “worries of the heart.” Initially aimed at the men in their community, and then their colonial rulers, this strategy changed after independence as widows increasingly invoked the language of citizenship to demand their rights from the new leaders of Kenya—leaders whose failure to meet the needs of ordinary citizens has led to deep disenchantment and altered Kenyans’ view of their colonial past. An innovative blend of ethnography and historical research, Worries of the Heart is a poignant narrative rich with insights into postcolonial Africa.

About this title

About the Author:

Kenda Mutongi is professor of history at Williams College and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professor at MIT. She is the author of Worries of the Heart, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
 

Review:

• HONORABLE MENTION for MELVILLE J. HERSKOVITS Prize (2008).   

Growing up in the Maragoli community in Kenya, Kenda Mutongi encountered a perplexing contradiction. While the young teachers at her villageschool railed against colonialism, many of her elders, including herwidowed mother, praised their former British masters. In this movingbook, Mutongi explores how both the challenges and contradictions ofcolonial rule and the frustrations and failures of independence shapedthe lives of Maragoli widows and their complex relations with eachother, their families, and the larger community.
Throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, rates ofwidowhood have been remarkably high in Kenya. Yet despite their numbers, widows and their families exist at the margins of society, and theirlives act as a barometer for the harsh realities of rural Kenya. Mutongi here argues that widows survive by publicly airing their social,economic, and political problems, their "worries of the heart."Initially aimed at the men in their community, and then their colonialrulers, this strategy changed after independence as widows increasinglyinvoked the language of citizenship to demand their rights from the newleaders of Kenya--leaders whose failure to meet the needs of ordinarycitizens has led to deep disenchantment and altered Kenyans' view oftheir colonial past. An innovative blend of ethnography and historicalresearch, Worries of the Heart is a poignant narrative rich with insights into postcolonial Africa.
-University of Chicago Press

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0226554201
• ISBN 13: 9780226554204
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240