The River and the Source

Kicking off our love of Kenyan stories is Stephanie Wanga…. a law graduate who loves literature, history, culture and the arts in general. At heart she is a creative writer interested in doing justice to her time on earth. Stephanie shares her thoughts on Margaret Ogola’s 1994 classic The River and the Source.

The River and the Source is a story that carries us through the lives of three generations of Kenyan women; right from the 19th century, coursing through over 100 years of change, right to the end of the twentieth century. The women face different challenges that are particular to the times they lived in yet there is an ever-present, specific visible strength in their bloodline that manifests in the way they confront these challenges.

I am very drawn to history, particularly the history of my people – those from Western Kenya, to the greater history of my country Kenya, to the history of my continent, Africa. It is an irrepressible joy to be drawn in. I like to know, I like to explore, I like to get into our roots, and also ask what our roots might help us make of today, and tomorrow. The River and the Source gave me the same feeling I get when I listen to my dad’s old rhumba songs, or Daudi Kabaka – a feeling of an innate, indelible kind of connection to all that has come before even if I have never experienced it, a celebration of both the past and today, and a hope for what is yet to come. Kenyan stories give me an appreciation of what our country has been, is, and will be.

This book was much more than the craft of it. It was the feeling it gave and left in me. It was my introduction to Kenyan literature par excellence. It was perhaps the beginning, in earnest, of my love affair with my country, my continent, my people.

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