Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye | |
---|---|
Born | Marjorie Phyllis King 21 October 1928 Southampton, England, UK |
Died | 1 December 2015 Nairobi, Kenya |
(aged 87)
Occupation | Writer |
Nationality | British |
Citizenship | Kenyan |
Alma mater | Royal Holloway, University of London |
Years active | 1983–2009 |
Spouse | Daniel Oludhe Macgoye (m. 1960–90) |
Children | Four |
Marjorie Phyllis Oludhe Macgoye (21 October 1928 – 1 December 2015) was an English-born Kenyan novelist, essayist and poet.
Born Marjorie King in 1928 in Southampton, England, Marjorie travelled to Kenya to work as a missionary in 1954. She worked at the S.J. Moore Bookshop on Government Road, now Moi Avenue in Nairobi, for some years. There she organised readings that were attended by, among others, Okot P'Bitek, author of Song of Lawino, and Jonathan Kariara, a Kenyan poet. She met Macgoye, a medical doctor, and the two were married in 1960.
In 1971, an anthology entitled Poems from East Africa included the acclaimed poem "A Freedom Song". Her 1986 novel Coming to Birth won the Sinclair Prize and has been used as a set book in Kenyan high schools. She has been called the "mother of Kenyan literature".
Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye died on 1 December 2015, at her home in Nairobi.