On 29 June 2019, literary fans gathered in Nairobi as the National Museums of Kenya, working with the Writers Guild, hosted a public reading of Margaret Ogola’s writing to mark her 61st birthday after her death in 2011.
The event, held at the museum’s main library along Museum Hill Road, came after Google used a doodle to honour the Kenyan author, activist and doctor best known for The River and the Source, published in 1994. Google’s Twitter account said: “Happy to celebrate Kenyan award-winning author, activist and doctor, the late Dr. Margaret Ogola, author of The River and the Source. ” It also invited readers to share their favourite quotes from the book.
The reading session quickly moved beyond celebration and into a familiar argument about how Ogola should be read. After excerpts from her work were read aloud, attendees split over whether her fiction reflected feminist ideas. Some participants argued that her books showed a feminist outlook, while others rejected that label.
Vera Dindi, one of the co-hosts, said the claim was overstated even though Ogola’s novel is full of male characters who meet harsh ends. A young female writer at the event also dismissed the feminist tag, despite admitting she had not read Ogola’s books while at school.
The discussion turned to the larger question of whether an author’s life should be used to interpret their art. One attendee asked, “How much of art is in the artist and how much of the artist is in the art?” Another literary enthusiast argued that writers should not be judged strictly through their books, because some works run against the author’s personal beliefs.
Ogola’s education was also revisited during the session. She sat her O-Level at Thompson’s Girls’ High School, completed her A-Level at Alliance Girls’ High School, and later joined the University of Nairobi, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery in 1984. She went on to graduate with a Master of Medicine in Paediatrics in 1990 from the same institution.
The conversation then shifted to her sequel, I Swear by Apollo, published in 2002. Participants debated whether the book matched the strength of The River and the Source, with some saying they would not have wanted a sequel after the death of Becky, one of the central characters in the first novel.
For the writer of the original piece, the 1999 first reading of The River and the Source as a student at Usenge High School in Siaya County remained a personal reference point. The school’s proximity to Asembo, Ogola’s birthplace, added another layer to the reflection on her work and influence.
By the end of the Nairobi gathering, the consensus was not about labels but about endurance: Ogola’s first novel still commanded attention, and her literary reputation remained strong years after her death in 2011.
