He could have worded it differently. That’s the point. Just look at how he nonchalantly titled his piece. Absolutely no subtlety. Dude must have been itching to “unmask” her as if her entire legacy is a fraud to be exposed.
He knew this was coming.
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Literary discourse is never about literary texts and theories only but an understanding of the biases inherent in an individual that shape their ideas. As one comment states, it is good to know the silences in personal narratives as we memorialize intellectuals and public figures. And as another says, where are the counter arguments to what Indangasi wrote? Nobody is questioning the veracity of the article but the fact that Indangasi chose to write it. It’s harsh, yes. Should he have written it when Micere was alive to possibly respond to it? I’m not Indangasi
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Micere Githae Mugo, a sister to Robinson Githae (former MP, minister and amb US) and SM Macharia’s wife, was the daughter to a colonial chief hence she came with some connections and closeness to power. As with those characters of that age, it came with a certain pride and hubris, think Njonjo, Nyachae etc. It must have rubbed Indangasi the wrong way. Chris Wanjala was at the dept at that time and he had respect for his teachers, proud of Ngugi (stating we cannot discuss Mailu and Ngûgî in the same class).
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I’ve heard scraps of this history before, replete with the competitive office politics of their time. Definitely, the departed had faults, as we all do. Over the years, one expects that there would have been writers’ workshops, symposiums and literary conferences where discourse could have been levelled at whatever transgressions he felt she was guilty of, and these would have been acceptably thrashed out there, a duel between equals, in the proper circles.
The problem with the article as I see it is, it carries a certain streak of meanness that appears personal in nature. When an intellectual refers to another one as shallow in a forum where the latter cannot answer, it distills a certain poison into his words, so that it becomes difficult for readers to swallow.
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I’ll break it down for you; it’s called intellectual arrogance
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He doesn’t even demonstrate the shallowness from her many papers and books. Micere was a tenured professor emeritus at Syracuse Univ. One doesn’t get to be tenured in a US uni by being shallow. The process is rigorous with even students rating a professor unlike our political appointments. Indangasi himself has no intellectual body of knowledge output to speak of.
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True, it’s also worth noting that American education strives to simplify ideas and things, even the words used in papers. The British system Prof.Indangasi was groomed in before his doctoral studies leans towards more complex thought patterns and words, and this might give to those with an uncritical eye the impression of one’s being more ‘learned’.
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Hubris
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True. Americans are more interested in the idea rather than one’s gymnastics with language
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Did he lie? There are lots of Kenya’s intellectuals who are paper tigers.
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True, there are paper tigers, and I would not class her among them. I do not accuse the prof of lying–because as far as I can attest, he’s not a liar, he speaks his mind, he is reliable, and he is a man of honour–but on Micere Mugo’s writing, my honest feeling is that he has been a little less than kind to her memory.
None of Indangasi’s lynchers has contested the allegations. Just launching ad hominems on the author
Including the author