Bethwell Allan Ogot
Bethwell Allan Ogot ni mwanahistoria wa Kenya na mwanazuoni mashuhuri wa Kiafrika ambaye amebobea katika historia ya Kiafrika, mbinu za utafiti na nadharia. Mojawapo ya kazi zake inaanza kwa kusema kwamba "kusimulia hadithi ya wakati uliopita ili kuonyesha hatima isiyoepukika ni, kwa wanadamu, hitaji la ulimwengu wote kama utengenezaji wa zana. Kwa kiwango hicho, tunaweza kusema kwamba mwanadamu ni; kwa asili, historicus.[1]
Ogot alikuwa Chansela wa Chuo Kikuu cha Moi hadi mwaka 2013.
Ogot, Mjaluo wa Kenya, alizaliwa tarehe 3 Agosti 1929 katika eneo la Gem katika Kaunti ya Siaya nchini Kenya. Mnamo 1959 alioa Grace Emily Akinyi, mwanasiasa, mwandishi na mtaalamu wa afya. Hatimaye alitumikia serikali ya Kenya kama Waziri Msaidizi wa Utamaduni na Huduma za Jamii. Ogot alisoma Ambira, Shule ya Maseno, Chuo Kikuu cha Makerere, na Chuo Kikuu cha St Andrews na Shule ya Mafunzo ya Mashariki na Afrika, Chuo Kikuu cha London. Alipokuwa akisoma London, alihudumu kama kiongozi wa Chama cha Wanafunzi wa Kenya, ambapo aliwasaidia wanataifa wa Kenya, hasa marehemu Jaramogi Oginga Odinga wakati wa mazungumzo ya 1960 katika mazungumzo ya Lancaster ya uhuru wa Kenya.[2]
Ogot alianza maisha yake ya kitaaluma na utafiti katika chuo kikuu kama mhadhiri katika Chuo Kikuu cha Makerere, na hatimaye akawa Mwenyekiti wa Idara ya Historia ya Chuo Kikuu cha Nairobi, ambacho kwa sasa ni Chuo Kikuu cha Nairobi (UoN). Katika UoN alianzisha na kuelekeza Taasisi ya Mafunzo ya Maendeleo (IDS) na Taasisi ya Mafunzo ya Kiafrika (IAS). Pia aliwahi kuwa Dean, Shule ya Sanaa na Sayansi ya Jamii na Naibu Makamu wa Chansela wa Taaluma humo. Alikuwa Rais wa Kamati ya Kimataifa ya Kisayansi kwa ajili ya maandalizi ya Historia Kuu ya Afrika ya UNESCO. Alihariri Juzuu ya V ya Historia ya Afrika ya UNESCO, na akaongoza kamati iliyosimamia utengenezaji wa Historia nzima. Alikuwa mjumbe wa Tume ya Kimataifa ya Historia ya Ubinadamu ya UNESCO. Kutoka Chuo Kikuu cha Nairobi, Ogot aliteuliwa na Rais Jomo Kenyatta kuhudumu kama mwanachama wa Bunge la Jumuiya ya Afrika Mashariki (EAC), kati ya 1975 na 1977. Alikuwa Rais wa PanAfrican Archaeological Association kuanzia 1977 hadi 1983. Kati ya 1978 na 1980 Ogot alihudumu katika Taasisi ya Kimataifa ya Kumbukumbu ya Louis Leakey kwa Historia ya Awali ya Afrika (TILLMIAP), ambayo ilikuwa sehemu muhimu ya Makumbusho ya Kitaifa ya Kenya (NMK), kama mkurugenzi wake wa kwanza. Alitumikia Chuo Kikuu cha Kenyatta kama Profesa, na Shirika la Posta na Mawasiliano la Kenya kama mwenyekiti. Alikuwa Chansela wa Chuo Kikuu cha Moi, Eldoret, hadi 2013. Akiwa Chansela wa Chuo Kikuu cha Moi, alifanya kazi bila kuchoka na Rais Kibaki, Wizara ya Elimu ya Juu ya Kenya, Maprofesa David Some na Richard Mibey kama Makamu wa Chansela na Samuel Gudu, Margarete Kamar na Bob Wishitemi kusimamia katiba ya Chuo Kikuu cha Masinde Muliro ya Sayansi na Teknolojia, Chuo Kikuu cha Narok, Chuo Kikuu cha Karatina, Chuo Kikuu cha Kabianga, Chuo Kikuu cha Eldoret, Chuo Kikuu cha Rongo na Chuo cha Odera Akango', ambacho kinasalia kuwa chuo kikuu cha Chuo Kikuu cha Moi.[3]
Marejeo
[hariri | hariri chanzo]- ↑ "Breaking Kenya News - Prof Ogot hits 90, busy as ever reading, researching and writing Bethwell Allan Ogot celebrates his 90th birthday today. One would imagine that in retirement, Prof Ogot would be sitting under a tree, sipping porridge from a gourd, gazing at a newspaper and dozing off to be woken by a visitor or the chirping of birds, telling stories to visiting grandkids and hosting neighbours and relatives who drop in once in a while. No. Prof Ogot writes on. STANDS TALL The professor continues with his research as he has done all his adult life. An avid reader and dedicated writer, Ogot will be having a 'bookish' birthday at his home in Yala, Siaya County, when he launches his book, History of Kisumu City 1901-2001: From an Inland Port to First Millennium City. At the same time, he will most likely be introducing his latest book in the 'Kenyan cities' series, History of Nairobi City from 1897-2010, which is in press. Yet this birthday celebrations will and should not just be an Ogot family affair. For Prof Ogot is not just a son of the Yala soil. This is a pre-eminent Kenyan, East African, African and a world historian. Here at home, Prof Ogot stands tall among the men and women of letters. Here is a man to be admired as a true teacher, researcher, writer and intellectual. He first published a book in 1964, an edited collection of essays, East Africa: Past and Present and has one in press this year, 55 years on. He has authored, co-authored, edited, and co-edited 38 monographs to date; apart from tens of individual essays, public lectures, opinions, among other academic writings. Also Read BUKENYA: A cultured education and my prophecy over Laboso BUKENYA: A cultured education and my prophecy over Laboso BOOK REVIEW: Sixty years of Kenya's dance on world stage BOOK REVIEW: Sixty years of Kenya's dance on world stage How pop culture controls us How pop culture controls us He isn't just prolific in that sense, he has also written on different subjects, from history to economics to oral traditions to literature. In history, his forte, his writings have been founded on the life and history of his people, the Luo, before venturing into the neighbouring communities, to the rest of Kenya, East Africa, Africa, the African diaspora and the rest of the world. NATIONAL AFFAIRS Prof Ogot is a local scholar with a regional and global reach. Of his first seven books (edited/coedited/authored), six were East African as evidenced by the phrase 'East Africa' in their titles. These were published between 1964 and 1967. From East Africa: Past and Present (1964), Problems of Economic Development in East Africa (1965), Racial and Communal Tensions in East Africa (1965), East African Cultural Heritage (1966), Research Priorities in East Africa (1966), to Law and Social Change in East Africa (1967), all these books sought to properly insert Kenyans, Ugandans, Tanzanians, the Sudanese, Somalis, Ethiopians, Burundians, the Rwandese, the people of the region, into world history. Indeed in 1968, B.A. Ogot and J.A. Kieran co-authored probably the first major overview of regional history, Zamani: A Survey of East African History, a book that went on to be studied in East, Central and West Africa as well as the Caribbean. This book wasn't just about the past, as it also problematised how history was/is studied, considering that the history of Africa had largely been studied through methods that were prejudiced against the very subject of study: Africans. Prof Ogot went on to edit Hadithi 1, 2 and 3, which were proceedings of the then Historical Association of Kenya — one of the most active and productive scholarly association of the 1960s and 1970s in the region. The two titles, by adopting the Swahili words, zamani (the past) and hadithi (story) not only gestured towards a celebration of African languages (Kiswahili) but also suggested that African stories (told in the present then) could help people access their stories of the past (history). Apart from writing on East Africa, Prof Ogot has paid significant homage to Kenya, having written on the country since the 1970s to date in books such as Politics and Nationalism in Colonial Kenya (1972); Kenya in the 19th Century (1985); Decolonisation and Independence in Kenya, 1940-1993 (1995; co-edited with William Ochieng'); Kenya: The Making of a Nation, 1895-1995 (2000; with William Ochieng'); Kenyans, Who Are We? Reflections on the Meaning of National Identity and Nationalism (2012). In these writings Ogot has been concerned with the question of how Kenya could rise from the near stillbirth of the immediate post-independence years when a seemingly progressive nationalism was nipped in the bud through political assassinations and government policies that deliberately isolated some regions of the country from the mainstream of national affairs. MODEST BEGINNINGS Yet such a profoundly intellectually productive and celebrated man is disarmingly unpretentious. Even in his autobiography, My Footprints in the Sands of Time (2003) one encounters an individual who is evidently self-effacing. Prof Ogot's modest beginnings in Gem and the strong Christian ethos that he was raised in prepared him well for school. From Ambira to Maseno to Makerere University to the University of St Andrews to the School of Oriental and African Studies, he appears as a devoted student who, for instance, despite having to start a family whilst abroad, manages to complete his studies on time and return to Kenya to teach at Alliance School. When he later rejoined Makerere, Ogot was among the pioneer lot of African university teachers who would help transition the then colleges of Makerere, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam into full universities. But the story of Prof Ogot the historian is conjoined on the book pages with the story of Grace Ogot. It is telling that when he eulogised his wife in April 2015, Prof Ogot noted that when Grace became worried that he was spending too much time on work and marking academic essays, he recruited her as an 'interpreter and translator during field work' considering she spoke seven African languages. This relationship explains Bethwell's kind of history, one which often reads like a story being retold and Grace's fiction, which seems to revive and restage history, especially of the Luo. INTELLECTUAL HERITAGE The fact that Prof Ogot is still writing at 90 years of age, recording our history, contributing to this country's intellectual heritage and is still committed to education, tells its own tale and history of Kenya's formation and attempts to become a nation. The kind of commitment to an intellectual cause that Ogot's life evinces is a great lesson on the philosophy of life. From a man who loved mathematics but instead became one of the most celebrated African historians, deciding to record and retell his people's stories and histories, we can learn that individual destinies can be refashioned. How come Prof Ogot never got seduced by the dollar to leave for greener pastures elsewhere? How did Ogot commit himself to the expansion of university education in Kenya when most of his peers preferred the elitist preservation of higher education for a select few? (Masinde Muliro, Maasai Mara, University of Eldoret, Kabianga, Karatina and Garissa universities all were initiated when Ogot was the Chancellor of Moi University). What continues to drive this nonagenarian to write when many of his generation have given up? Probably the bigger question for the Kenyan academic community is how best to honour Ogot today. One of the most exceptional and enduring celebration of Prof Bethwell Ogot's contribution to knowledge is from the African Studies Association of America (ASA), which has the ASA Ogot Award for the Best Book on East African Studies. Where is ours? | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Iliwekwa mnamo 2024-07-13.
- ↑ Akyeampong, Emmanuel Kwaku; Jr, Professor Henry Louis Gates (2012-02-02). Dictionary of African Biography (kwa Kiingereza). OUP USA. ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5.
- ↑ Who's who in East Africa (kwa Kiingereza). Marco Surveys. 1963.