Ciarunji Chesaina

Ciarunji Chesaina (born 1947) is a Kenyan folklorist, professor, and diplomat. She is best known for her work studying the history, ethnography, and folklore of peoples across Africa, particularly among the Nilotic and Bantu groups. She also represented Kenya as the high commissioner to South Africa from 2000 to 2003.

Biography

Ciarunji Chesaina was born Jane Ciarunji Geteria in 1947. She attended Alliance Girls High School in Kikuyu, Kenya. Chesaina graduated from Uganda's Makerere University with a bachelor's degree in French and English in 1971. She subsequently studied in the United States, where she received a master's in education from Harvard University, and in the United Kingdom, where she obtained a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Leeds in 1988.[1]

Chesaina lectured at Kenyatta University beginning in the 1970s, then joined the faculty of the University of Nairobi in 1991. She teaches literature, particularly African literature, women's literature, and oral literature.[2][1]

Since the 1970s, she has been influential in helping engrain Kenyan literature in the nation's education system.[3] As a folklorist, she has contributed significantly to the study of various African ethnic groups, in particular the Kalenjin people and Embu people.[4][5][6][7] She has also advocated in favor of compensating oral history research subjects for their participation.[8]

Chesaina temporarily left her post at the University of Nairobi for three years, from 2000 to 2003, to serve as Kenya's high commissioner to South Africa.[1][9][10]

In 2018, she published an autobiography titled Run Gazelle Run.[11]

Selected works
  • Oral Literature of the Kalenjin (1991)
  • Perspectives on Women in African Literature (1994)
  • Hope on the Horizon: Essays on the Status and Liberation of African Women (1994)
  • Pokot (1996)
  • Oral Literature of the Embu and Mbeere (1997)
  • Teaching of African Literature in the 21st Century (editor, 2009)
  • The Significance of Oral Literature in Children’s Development: Social & Psychological Issues (2009)
  • Run Gazelle Run: An Autobiography (2018)

References
  1. "Prof. Ciarunji Chesaina". University of Nairobi.
  2. Wanjala, Chris (2017-12-29). "Why all of us are right in this great literary debate". Daily Nation.
  3. Aduda, David (2015-05-16). "Pray, where did the irreverent literature scholar of yore go?". Daily Nation.
  4. Munene, Henry (2013-04-21). "Time to appreciate modern art forms". The Standard. Retrieved 2020-11-05.
  5. "Kalenjin". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2020-11-05.
  6. Literary genres : an intercultural approach. Lindberg-Wada, Gunilla. Berlin. 22 December 2011. ISBN 978-3-11-089411-0. OCLC 858282584.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. Prazak, Miroslava (September 2005). "Ngecha: A Kenyan Village in a Time of Rapid Social Change". African Studies Review. 48 (2): 142–144. doi:10.1353/arw.2005.0078. ISSN 0002-0206. S2CID 143621983 – via ProQuest.
  8. Wasamba, Peter; Sihanya, Ben (2012). "What do Kenyan artists get for their skill? Reforming compensation under copyright". Journal of African Cultural Studies. 24 (2): 171–183. doi:10.1080/13696815.2012.732303. ISSN 1369-6815. JSTOR 42005283. S2CID 144349182.
  9. "Kenya: President Moi appoints new envoys to UK and USA". BBC Monitoring Africa. 2005-05-05.
  10. "Kenya: New envoys to Sudan, South Africa appointed". BBC Monitoring Africa. 2003-06-19.
  11. "Chesaina, Ciarunji". WorldCat.
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