,​This past week, I was a panelist in a session that reminded me of a famous discussion that took place at the African Studies Association conference in 1995. I first heard of that conference from Mshai Mwangola, when she was introducing Prof Micere Mugo who was giving a keynote address at the University of Nairobi a few years ago. 

The discussion took place in November 1995, in a panel convened at the African Studies Association conference to respond to an article by Phillip Curtin, the eminent African history scholar, published in March in the academic magazine Chronicle of Higher Education.  In the piece entitled "Ghettoizing African History," Curtin offered anecdotes of hiring practices that, in his view, were reducing African history scholarship to a “ghetto,” because American universities were reserving African history positions for faculty on the basis of their black skin, rather than on their competence.

​Over the last few weeks, I have come to understand at least three narratives which some Kenyans use to wish away the contradictions of the Kenyan state. No matter how much such Kenyans are presented with evidence of changing times or with history that gives a different perspective, they will repeat these narratives louder to drown out the other voices. 

​Behind all these narratives lies an effort to wish away the fragmentation of the people by the Kenyan state. But, more than that, these narratives are protected by the curriculum of the public schools which does not allow the teaching of arts, and particularly the teaching of history. Kenyans are thus denied the opportunity to develop their intellectual capacity to understand not just the limitations the Kenya state, but to understand the reality of the world in the 21st century. 

The narratives are:

When I returned  home with my “irrelevant” degree, one of the first things I was told upon resuming duty was that the students were not studying the humanities and performing arts because they saw no job prospects in those disciplines. I was horrified by such ignorance, but I patiently asked: how can I reach out to the students with the right information about the potential of these subjects? How can I get their attention? Where can I find them?
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Social media, I was told. Our kids are so tech-savvy, that the sure way to get to them is online.

​So within a few weeks, I asked my teenage niece to help me open a facebook account for our department. Yes. I opened a facebook account for our department before I opened one for myself.