It was the summer of 1962, and nowhere was more alive with excitement than Kampala. The literati of the African continent descended upon Uganda’s capital city for a few days in June to attend the inaugural African Writers Conference. Grace Ogot, Rebeka Njau, Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Okot p’Bitek, Es’kia Mphahlele, Christopher Okigo Taban lo Liyong, Barry Reckord, Wole Soyinka, Langston Hughes, to name but a few – some of the most renowned names in African, Caribbean and African American literature gathered to discuss their field.
Only four months before Uganda’s flag independence from Britain, the conference reflected the hope, excitement and optimism that freedom from the shackles of colonialism would mean for the African continent. One of the most notable aspects of the conference, however, is its conspicuous lack of women. Only two women delegates were a part of the debates: Grace Ogot and Rebeka Njau, both Kenyan women who would later develop stelar writing careers.
The writers, publishers, journalists and other media professionals gathered on the iconic hill that was the Makerere University College campus. They debated the direction Anglophone African literature was to take as countries were gaining independence. Who was the African writer’s audience if they were published by a Western publisher? What language should African literature be written in? English or in one of the many languages spoken across the continent? Would an English translation be able to accurately convey the writer’s meaning? What even constituted African literature?
South African writer Es’kia Mphahlele compared western and southern African literature in analysing the African novel, while the Nigerian poet Christopher Okigbo discussed the definition of African literature: was it literature by Black Africans, or by any person living on the continent? American author Jay Saunders Redding’s presentation focussed on trends in “American Negro writing”, and Trinidadian writer Arthur D. Drayton explored sociohistorical compulsion in the West Indian Novel.
Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but one does wonder about the lack of women writers at the conference. In some ways, this is unsurprising: from its creation in 1962 and within its entire first decade, for instance, Heinemann’s African Writers Series only published two women, Nigeria’s Flora Nwapa and southern Africa’s Bessie Head. The situation belies the complete opposite: the vibrant literary culture of the African continent was also actively produced and sustained by women.
The two women present at the Makerere conference were to become cornerstones of East Africa’s literary heritage. Grace Ogot, a nurse by training, and later a diplomat and politician, wrote some of her most notable works in the post-independence period, such as The Promised Land (1966, East African Publishing House) and the short story collection Land Without Thunder (1968, East African Publishing House). Rebeka Njau’s creative writing includes her play The Scar (1965, Kibo Art Gallery, Kilimanjaro), which deals with female genital cutting, and was discussed at the conference. A decade later, her novel Ripples in the Pool was published(1975, Heinemann). She is heralded by James Currey as “a pioneer in the literary representation of women”.
There were other East African women who were published in the 1960s, and could have been present at the conference. For example, Charity Waciuma wrote her autobiography, Daughter of Mumbi (1969, East African Publishing House), in which she recounts her childhood during the colonial era and the traumatic events of Kenya’s Emergency in the 1950s. Pamela Kola was recognised for her children’s books, such as East African How Stories, East African Why Stories (both 1966, East African Publishing House), and East African When Stories (1968, East African Publishing House).
In Uganda, Barbara Kimenye’s collection of short stories Kalasanda and Kalasanda Revisited (1965 and 1966, Oxford University Press) delighted readers in both Britain and Africa. Her Moses series, which follow the antics of schoolboy Moses in a Ugandan boarding school, solidified her reputation, according to Nancy J .Schmidt, as “one of East Africa’s most prolific children’s writers.” A similar formidable figure is Elvania Namukwaya Zirimu, whose short story Keeping up with the Mukasas (1965, Heinemann) was published in an anthology of Makerere students’ writing.
But what about other women from across Anglophone Africa and the Black diaspora in the Caribbean and the USA? If some of them had had the opportunity to attend the Makerere Conference, like some of their male peers, who would have been in the rooms? Of course, this is purely speculation at this point, but it would be interesting to imagine Noni Jabavu from South Africa and Bessie Head from Botswana contributing to discussions. Efua Sutherland and Mabel Dove Danquah from Ghana could have participated alongside Flora Nwapa from Nigeria. We could picture Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou hobnobbing with Louise Bennett-Coverley and Sylvia Wynter from Jamaica.
With higher gender parity, the debates at the African Writers Conference would have certainly been different in its inclusion of more diverse perspectives. One can imagine that the question of the languages of African literature would have benefitted from the insight of Louise Bennet-Coverley, who in Jamaica was an advocate for literary expression in Patois. She would have found an interested discussion partner in Grace Ogot, who also penned stories in her native Luo.
There would perhaps also have been discussions around African children’s literature at independence, with the presence of Barbara Kimenye and Pamela Kola: what was the generation growing up after colonialism to read that reflected their heritage and made them take pride in it? The conference discussions on publishing African writers would have included questions on how to make publishing accessible to Black and African women writers. Toni Morrison would have made nuanced contributions to this topic, as the first Black woman editor at Random House, where she would later publish women writers such as Angela Davis and Toni Cade Bambara.
Given the abundance of women’s creativity, why did they not gain the fame male writers did? And why do they remain largely unknown in East African literary histories today? This was mainly due to structural barriers, based on sexism and racism, that prevented African women writers from gaining the recognition male writers such as Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, or Okot p’Bitek did. There was a wide-spread belief that women could not produce works of literary value, and Rebeka Njau faced prejudice in the false belief that their husbands had written their books for them.
Such barriers would also have prevented women from accessing the professional and creative networks that were more welcoming to men, due to other, more pressing, professional or domestic duties. It is interesting to note that Grace Ogot and Elvania Zirimu were both married to renowned literary figures (Bethwel Ogot and Pio Zirimu); it can be argued that they were able to access professional spaces – and therefore, gain fame – in part due to their husbands’ reputations.
The publishing companies also played a role in writers’ later fame. Publication by a Western publisher such as Heineman is contributed to writers such as Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Chinua Achebe’s later celebrity status. African publishing houses, which were more likely to publish women, faced had less funding and smaller markets, meaning that the women were read by smaller audiences.
Most of these women today are largely only known by literary enthusiasts, gracing the occasional footnote in history books (such as James Currey’s Africa Writes Back: The African Writers Series and the Launch of African Literature, or Mukoma wa Ngugi’s The Rise of the African Novel), if they are mentioned at all, which further highlights the androcentric nature of historiographies of Africa.
Following the African Writers Conference, the 1970s and 80s saw increasing numbers of women joining the ranks of East Africa’s literary greats. Muthoni Likimani’s novel They Shall be Chastised (East African Literature Bureau) and ballad What Does a Man Want? (Kenya Literature Bureau) were published in the same year (1974), cementing her reputation as a writer over a decade before her most famous book, Passbook Number F. 47927: Women and Mau Mau in Kenya (1985, Macmillan).
British-born Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye’s well-known works include Murder in Majengo (1972, Oxford University Press) and Coming to Birth (1986, Heinemann), both of which centre women’s struggles in an independent Kenya. Micere Githae Mugo wrote classics, including The Long Illness of Ex-Chief Kiti (1976, East African Literature Bureau) and, more famously, the play The Trial of Dedan Kimathi (1976, Heinemann), co-authored with Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. Other Kenyan women also wrote children’s literature, including Asenath Bole Odaga, known for The Villager’s Son (1971, Heinemann), and who actively promoted the use of Luo in Kenyan literature.
East Africa today witnesses a lively and dynamic literary scene. In Kenya, festivals like the Macondo Literary Festival or the Nairobi Litfest attract diverse African writers and fans. The independent publishing company Jahazi Press publishes Kenyan authors, and the literary magazine Lolwe publishes Black and African writers from around the world. In Uganda, African Writers Trust promotes ties between African and diaspora writers, while Femrite supports women’s writing in the country.
Jennifer Makumbi has gained international fame with her novels Kintu (2014) and The First Woman (2021), and short story collection Manchester Happened (2019). More recently, fellow Ugandan author Goretti Kyomuhendo celebrated the launch of her latest novel Promises (2025). Kenya’s Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor cemented her success with her novels Dust (2014) and The Dragonfly Sea (2019).
The vibrancy of the East African literary scene today would not have been possible without the women who helped shape it in decades past – and indeed, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor cites Asenath Odaga, Muthoni Likimani and Marjorie Macgoye as some of her literary inspirations. In celebrating East African literature today, it is important to remember the women who paved its way after independence.
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Anna Adima is a German-Ugandan culture writer and journalist based in Kampala, Uganda, with a doctorate in East African history and literature from the University of York. Her work on the arts, history, cultural sector and infrastructure in the region has appeared in various publications and peer-reviewed journals. She can be found on Instagram @anna.adima, on X @AnnaAdima, and on her website www.annaadima.com.
A previous version of this article was published with Africa in Words on 18 August 2020.