Prof. Wanjiku Kabira- Prof Emeritus, Literature and African Women Studies Director African Women Studies and Leader Women’s Economic Empowerment Hub
Wanjiku Mukabi Kabira is a professor of Literature at the University of Nairobi and Director of the African Women Studies Centre. She is a writer, a literary critique, and a gender and policy analyst. She has taught oral literature for many years, carried out field work in many parts of the country and published widely.
She is also an expert in Eastern Africa and West African Literature where her focus has been on the broad areas of leadership, colonialism, ideology, philosophy of leadership, women in Literature, the role of the people in social transformation, nationalism, change and transformation, corruption, exploitation, among others in addition to theoretical and conceptual issues. She also addresses issues of style, language the writers use and the whole area of literary dis-course in her publications. She specializes in African American, Caribbean literature and Black Aesthetics: This has been her area of expertise for over three decades.
She has taught at the undergraduate and post graduate levels and has contributed to the teaching of this course and supervised post graduate students at masters and PhD levels. She has also contributed to the development of literary criticism by reviewing manuscripts for publishers and writers including famous writers such as Ngugi wa Thiong’o.
Prof. Kabira has developed research analysis tools such as ABC of gender analysis, people-oriented planning tools, gender analysis frameworks, among others. ABC of gender analysis has been useful in literary analysis and discourse even in the field of literature. Prof Kabira has published widely in the field of Literature as well as gender and women studies. She has over 100 publications in the form of books, chapters, journal articles and creative writing. One of her most notable books is A Letter to Mariama Ba, which was a response to So Long a Letter, a book written by Mariama Ba. Professor Kabira also has written many books about women and gender issues some of which include: Our Secret Lives; They Have Destroyed the Temple; Celebrating Women’s Resistance; The Oral Artist.
She was a Commissioner and a Vice Chair of the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission and has documented the role of women and their gains in her book Time for Harvest: Women and Constitution Making in Kenya - 1992 to 2010. Prof Wanjiku Mukabi Kabira has worked with and has led various women’s organizations in Africa. She has been awarded the national honor of Chief of the Burning Spear and Elder of the Burning Spear.