Student Number : 0204500X -
PhD Thesis -
School of Literature and Language Studies -
Faculty of Humanities / This thesis is a study of the Sasa Sema’s Lion Series of biographies written for
young readers. The Sasa Sema project is concerned with archiving the stories of
famous historical figures and contemporary heroes. The research examines the
shifts or the trends these biographies take as compared to what has been in
existence in discourses on children’s writing in Kenya in the past. I argue that the
issues that these biographies are concerned with are a novelty in Kenyan
children’s literature. By writing biographies of historical figures in Kenya, the
authors are not only making an intervention by creating new models for
children’s literature, but they also show that the story of the nation cannot be
enacted outside the heroic struggles of its peoples. I further argue that the Sasa
Sema project is significant because many writers of children’s literature in Kenya,
and in East Africa in general, write mostly about childhood stories rather than
historical figures. Also, the characters used in the biographies are adult
characters rather than young fictional animal and human characters that have
characterized children’s literature in the past. I conclude that these changes
broaden the scope of children’s literature in Kenya.
The changes in writing for children in Kenya, evident in the biographies under
study are examined across the chapters that make up this thesis. Chapter One
attempts to locate the biographies under study within Kenya’s children’s literary
tradition by looking at the trajectory this literature has taken from pre-colonial
time to the present. Chapter Two examines how orality as a stylistic device is
used in the texts under study first, to create literary appreciation and secondly, as
a means of summoning literature from different cultural backgrounds in which
the texts are based. The chapter argues that the use of oral art forms evokes
identity and signals cultural diversity in the Kenyan society. Chapter Three
addresses the question of female heroism and gender stereotypes in children’s
literature. This chapter intimates that biographies, whose narratives draw from
real life situations, help in revising the representation of the female character in
children’s literature. Chapter Four examines how individual stories are used to
narrate Kenya’s history of decolonization for the children. This chapter also
avows that the process of colonization created heroes through colonialist
institutions such as schools and prisons. Chapter Five examines how the Sasa
Sema project argues for the recognition of minority groups that have been
marginalized in narratives of nation formation, while Chapter Six discusses the
biography of Dedan Kimathi a Mau Mau freedom fighter. The female narrator in
Kimathi’s biography, who is also positioned as a participant in the war portrays
children’s literature as a vehicle for paying homage to women’s role in the Mau
Mau war. In Chapter Seven, I attempt to harmonize the conclusions reached in
the previous chapters.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/2087 |
| Date | 22 February 2007 |
| Creators | Muriungi, Colomba Kaburi |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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