Leaders pay homage to professor of literature

University of Nairobi lecturer Prof Christopher Lukorito Wanjala was eulogised as the father of literary criticism in East Africa during his funeral last Saturday.

Prof Wanjala died on October 15 at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, after a long battle with diabetes. He was 75.

Among those who attended the funeral at Lwandeti village in Lugari Constituency, Kakamega County, were Mr Musalia Mudavadi of Amani National Congress party, Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang'ula, Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka, Kakamega Deputy Governor Philip Kutima and several MPs from Bungoma and Kakamega counties.

Mr Mudavadi said Prof Wanjala had laid a foundation in education and intellectualism.

“We pray to God to look after his family at this time of deep sorrow. May his soul rest in peace," he said.

Mr Lusaka said Prof Wanjala will be remembered for his influence on Kenyan literature.

“We were great friends for many years, a friendship that started at Chesamisi High School," said Mr Lusaka. "My brother taught and mentored many authors, poets and artistes, and contributed to Kenyan literature. He was very instrumental in my leadership when I was Bungoma Governor."

Many speakers dwelt on Prof Wanjala’s many accomplishments, describing him as someone who loved to see people reading.

Mr Wetang'ula said Prof Wanjala positively influenced many lives in Bungoma, where he donated books, gave motivational speeches in schools and sensitised youths on the importance of reading.

“Western has lost a great academic. He made me a master of many books of literature,” said Mr Wetang'ula.

He added that Prof Wanjala made him board a plane for the first time for a trip to Russia.

The professor's son, Alex Wanjala, said the family will miss the strict disciplinarian who pushed for excellence.

FATHERLY CARE 

“We will deeply miss him and his fatherly care. We will miss a partner in life but it is our hope that one day we will meet again,” he said.

Prof Maurice Amutabi, the Vice-Chancellor of Lukenya University, described Prof Wanjala as “a public intellectual with a difference and never made any academic debate become personal.”

“He never attacked the character of a person but his ideas. I knew Prof Wanjala through his commentaries in newspapers before I joined the University of Nairobi in 1986. He wrote in tough English and liked to quote Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.”

“Prof Wanjala’s pen was fiery and poured out a lot of intellectual vitriol, especially to those who did not have PhDs and pretended to be intellectuals,” Prof Amutabi wrote.

“If I had done literature, he would have taught me. My University of Nairobi year mates such as David Matende, Manoah Esipisu, Kennedy Buhere and Elphas Eshiuchi were always full of praise of his intellectual prowess and fortitude.”

“Prof Wanjala was a student of Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o but he, in turn, mentored many students through his guidance such as Prof Peter Amuka, among others.”

Ken Walibora, a literary critic and creative writer who teaches International Relations and Diplomacy at Riara University in Nairobi, said Prof Wanjala was humble enough to realise that languishing in a linguistic cocoon in criticism was as complacent as it was anachronistic, “and he, therefore, did not want to be literary dinosaur.”

“It pains me Prof Wanjala has gone and yet perhaps few or none of his profound public presentations are preserved in our archives. We may be a nation that does not recognise greatness when we see it.”

“I marvel at “the memories we lost,” as Prof Wanjala himself would have put it.

When an old man dies, a whole library has burnt down and in Prof Wanjala’s death, a thousand libraries have gone up in flames, in the twinkling of a tearful eye,” Mr Walibora wrote.