The Historiographical Legacy of B.A. Ogot and His Generation
Originally published by The Elephant — Read the original article →
Good evening, colleagues, and the Governor of Kisumu County, Professor Anyang Nyong’o! It is truly a pleasure for me to join you in this commemoration of the towering historian, scholar, and public intellectual, Bethwell Alan Ogot. I believe I speak on behalf of all of us in extending our deep gratitude to the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and the Department of History at Kenyatta University for organizing this important conference. Personally, my appreciation extends to that rarity of experiences, the opportunity to meet several of my former students at Kenyatta University between 1984 and 1989 who have become distinguished academics and administrators. It’s a befitting tribute to our intellectual father, grandfather, quickly becoming a great-grandfather, who was raised and spent his last years and is buried in nearby Yala, that this conference is being held in his home city of Kisumu, under the transformative leadership of one of Kenya’s leading scholars and public intellectuals, Governor Peter Anyang Nyong’o.
Let me begin by noting that I last visited Kisumu in January 2019 to join Professor Ogot as he celebrated his 90th birthday. I first visited this city nearly forty years earlier, in 1980, when I was doing research for my doctoral dissertation on Kenyan economic and labor history, and spent time at this venue, the Tom Mboya Labor College. Professor Ogot had a lot to do with my interest in Kenyan history. My engagement with him goes back to 1976 when he served as external examiner at the University of Malawi.
Years later, he would proudly tell audiences at events where both of us were present that I owed my degree with distinction to him! In our classes on East African history, we had read Ogot’s books, and it was an indescribable honor and privilege to meet him in person. I was deeply touched and humbled when he asked to meet the student who had received the distinction, and he prevailed upon the department to bring me to the cottage along Lake Malawi, where the department took him to show their gratitude for bestowing the department with the distinction of his presence. .
