Preserving a Precious History

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Mshaï Mwangola has storytelling in her blood. As a child growing up in Kenya, she was captivated by the tales spun in the evenings by an aunt and great-aunt and by story time at school.

“Kenyan schools at the junior level emphasize storytelling,” Mwangola says. “Many schools have a period where kids tell stories, much as other schools might have a ‘show and tell’ time. My aunt, a teacher, was a storehouse of traditional folk tales and had much to do with teaching me by example the art of the storyteller.”

Those experiences, and her own as an accomplished young tale teller, are woven into Mwangola’s doctoral work in performance studies. She is exploring the experiences of “the Uhuru generation,” those Kenyans born in the afterglow of their nation’s freedom from British colonial rule in 1963. Her generation.

“Uhuru” is Swahili for freedom and independence. Mwangola says the Uhuru generation has a unique appreciation for the stories from the past. “People are invested in the retelling of the stories to reflect the African perspective that had been very much ignored in colonial versions of history,” she notes.

Her generation, whose oldest members are now turning 40, is beginning to question the extent to which the promises of independence have been realized, Mwangola believes. At the same time, she says, younger Kenyans living in a different historical period “feel less angst about the need to legitimize our native stories. So there is an emerging discourse about us: Who are we, what do we constitute, what is our vision?”

Performance studies associate professor Dwight Conquergood (GC77) says of Mwangola’s work: “Her path-finding research is deepened by her own artistic excellence as a storyteller, performer and director. She is committed to unpacking the political implications and cultural work of these stories.”

Mwangola will explore those questions when she returns to Kenya this year for several months to work with local storytellers. During this, the 40th anniversary of Kenyan independence, she hopes “to go back and recover some of the historical narratives and look at their relevance 40 years later.” Part of her focus will be on stories of women and independence.

She hopes to perform new kinds of stories as well. “Some of the new stories are hilarious,” she says. “You have the lion using the Internet and the hare driving these new cars. Some people don’t like those new forms because they see it as a betrayal, but I think they’re useful. I’ve told that kind of story and seen children immediately connect because this is the new reality.”

—T.S.