Marjorie Phyllis Oludhe Macgoye, also known as ‘the mother of Kenyan literature’, was a poet, and novelist. She was born in Southampton, England, but immigrated to Kenya just before the country became independent.
Marjorie was born in Southampton, England, the only child of Richard Thomas King and Phyllis Ann (née Woolcott). Her mother was a teacher but had to stop working once she got married as was the norm in those days. Her father worked as a clerk at Vosper Thornycroft, a shipping company by the docks in Woolston. He worked there until his retirement in 1969 when he attained the age of 65. His younger brothers William (Bill) and Maurice worked in the same firm. Phyllis’ family were from Cowes, one of the main ports on the Isle of Wight. When her parents married in 1927, they were fortunate to be able to afford a house on Portsmouth Road with the help of Phyllis’ parents who lived with them. Richard’s parents lived on South East Road in Sholing.
Marjorie showed outstanding academic prowess from a very early age and she received several scholarships along the way. She went to primary school at St. Ann’s school up the road from their house. Having been a teacher, Marjorie’s mother was very exacting and followed her academic work keenly. She went to secondary school at Eastleigh, where there was a very busy train depot. She caught the train to school at the Sholing Station behind their house and from those journeys grew her lifelong love for trains. Marjorie loved school and was particularly close to a couple who taught her – Reginald and Winifred Stone. recall visiting them in Wales as a child. She also met lifelong friends Kathleen Richards and Daphne O’Neill. This was during the Second World War and I recall her telling of her father going up into the attic one day and finding an unexploded bomb that must have fallen in through the roof and taking it down to the police station. His brothers were drafted into the merchant navy but he was spared the draft as his job at the dockyard was considered too crucial. However, he was a home guard and had regular evening duties after work. Mom was also close to her father’s sister, Daisy. As children, whenever we visited the UK, we had to make trips to the Isle of Wight to see her maternal relatives – I think these were her mother’s cousins, Marion and Dora. Dora used to be a very good tennis player but had lost her legs to cancer. Another close cousin was another Phyllis (Titcomb). She visited Mom in Kenya in the mid-80s. Mom was very particular about keeping records of both sides of the family.
Marjorie went to university when she was only seventeen, having been awarded a scholarship to study at Royal Holloway College. It was here that she ‘caught’ the writing bug. She had to write to her mother twice a week and her father at least once. It was in these very descriptive letters outlining her activities that her style evolved and one can see this in her writing as well as in much of her correspondence to friends and relatives. She would comment on the news of the day and give a perspective on the way the people of the time thought. She would also analyse and describe in detail as she had an eye for this, although she was quick to point out that she did not give as much detail as one of her contemporaries, PD James; it must have been a style of their period. At university Marjorie met and became lifelong friends with Dorothy Woods, Hilda Salter, Mary Spoor and Jean Bolam.
Living in London just after the war was difficult as there was still a lot of rationing and shortages. But Marjorie learned to live with this and never stopped being very careful with money and sparing in terms of food and clothing. After she finished her first degree, Marjorie started her Masters at Birkbeck College where she studied the poet Thomas Carlyle for her MA. During this time she worked at Foyles Bookshop and became good friends with Gilbert and William Foyle, who had started the business. One of her colleagues on the shop floor was Margaret who married the boss’ son John. They became lifelong friends, with Margaret visiting her in Kenya on several occasions. Marjorie attended Christian Union Meetings regularly and decided to become a missionary. At one time, she thought she would go to India and at another time to Nigeria, but neither proposal came to fruition.
Marjorie’s mother died of cancer in 1956 and her father came to spend three months with her in the Kenya colony the following year. In 1958 she went for extended leave in the UK, going back via the Suez, a memorable journey for her. In her spare time from the bookshop, she would visit the Industrial Area Remand Prison where she became friendly with a medical officer, Daniel Oludhe-Macgoye. She would ride her bicycle there and to work, as well as to Christian Union Fellowships, and he would often escort her back to Pumwani. This friendship developed and they got married on June 4th 1960 at St John’s Pumwani. Her maid of Honour was Helen Tett, whose husband Charles had started the CITC (Christian Industrial Training Centre – which provided middle level training in trades like carpentry, tailoring and associated skills). This is still a flourishing institution today and has several branches in Mombasa and Kisumu. The organist at St John’s was Jonathan Kituri, whose daughter Hope Mutua, is still a close family friend.
In the meantime, CMS had sold the bookshop to ESA and she went to work in the Eldoret branch. Shortly before their intended wedding, Daniel had been transferred to Mandera, possibly to dissuade him from his intended marriage, as inter-racial marriage was frowned upon then. They lived in Eastleigh initially, before Daniel was transferred to Alupe in Busia to work at the leprosy centre. After they got married and before independence, if they travelled together by train Mom had to travel in third class as Africans were not permitted in First or Second Class. After Independence things changed. It was while at Alupe that their first-born, Phyllis Ahoya, was born at Maseno CMS hospital. The doctor who delivered her, Geoffrey Leech, also delivered Francis and Lawrence at the same hospital in 1965 and 1966 respectively. In 1960, Marjorie’s father married for a second time. His new wife Beatrice was well known to Marjorie as she had been a close friend of her mother, Phyllis. Unfortunately, this marriage was short-lived as Beatrice died in 1962. At about the same time a relative had also died and left Marjorie a legacy which enabled her to travel back to the UK to be with her father to whom she was very close. Marjorie had taken her daughter and husband with her, and it was during this extended visit that her second-born, George, was born in Southampton.
When finally a vacancy became available in Kenya in 1954, Marjorie took it up and arrived at Eastleigh airport in Nairobi in June 1954. Embakasi Airport was still under construction (the runway was built by Mau Mau detainees!). A connection was immediately established as she had gone to school in Eastleigh in Southampton and here she was at Eastleigh in Nairobi! She worked at the CMS Bookshop, then the largest bookshop in East and Central Africa. The bookshop was situated in Church House, which at nine floors was the tallest building in Nairobi at the time! Another connection that she made with her home was that Church House was next to the Nairobi Railway Station! Marjorie lived on Bishop’s Road at first, but seeing the segregation there and having befriended a retired Australian missionary nurse, Maud Pethybridge (nicknamed Bahoya), she decided to live with her at Pumwani where Bahoya, despite being retired, still worked at the hospital. Maud had worked for many years in Western Kenya as a nurse. One of Mom’s clients at the CMS Bookshop, was a bookshop owner from Murang’a, Maneklal Rughani and his father, with whom an important reconnection would be made in 1975. Maneklal started Text Book Centre, currently the largest books and stationery suppliers in Kenya.
After their return to Kenya, the family settled in Kisumu and Mom taught at several schools including Kisumu Girls. It was while in Kisumu that she began to fraternise more with literary people as there was an active literary scene and a Kisumu Festival at which she met writers like Rubadiri and Okot p’Bitek. Her poem ‘Letter to a friend’ is in reference to Okot. I think he did not consider her an ‘African writer’ at the time and she was reacting to his objection that she could be considered an African writer – a view she had to revisit time and time again. Soon after their marriage, the couple had adopted one of Daniel’s nephews, Zadock, as he had polio in one leg and both his parents had died. Mom took him to hospital in Nairobi and had him fitted with calipers. He had physiotherapy and learned to walk for the first time! This entailed several visits to Nairobi, by train. In Kisumu, Marjorie also broke tradition by allowing her to come and stay in their house during her last illness. There is a famous poem titled ‘For Miriam’; she was very fond of her.
In 1969, Marjorie’s father retired and came to visit with his third wife, Doris. It was during his visit to Kisumu that Kenyatta came to open the Russian Hospital and the Kisumu riots occurred. Marjorie was not sure about the future and when an opportunity came to go and run the University Bookshop in Dar es Salaam in 1971, she decided to take it up. It was a particularly difficult time as her husband did not join the family and went to work in Homa Bay. In Dar she met many writers from all over East and Southern Africa. Nyerere was particularly sympathetic to dissidents from South Africa and many exiled writers and lecturers were welcomed with open arms in Tanzania. It was also the time of ‘Ujamaa’ and the initial Chinese immigration to Africa; as they were building the Tazara Railway – to bring copper from Zambia to the port of Dar es salaam. She also met many Kenyan students studying at the Chuo Kikuu – one of whom was Stan Waigwa (later Waigwa wa Wachira), who became a lecturer and active thespian at the University of Nairobi. Austin Bukenya was also a student at the university during this period. Our neighbours were Dutch, Lebanese, English and it was a global village, really. Marjorie was equally at home with people from all corners of the world. Another neighbour was Graham Hyslop, an ethnomusicologist whom she had met in 1954 and who had helped to convince her to come to Africa! Boniface Mganga also visited Graham for music lessons and would pop in to say hello to fellow Kenyans! Mom had a strong interest in music and we all had recorder and piano lessons with various teachers on the campus. Our neighbours the Cunninghams donated a piano to us as they could not take it back to Canada at the end of their contract. Sadly, this piano was destroyed by mould in 1975. When we returned to Kenya, our belongings were transported by train, and soon after our arrival, the border with Tanzania was closed. The piano was left on the train for several months and it must have got wet, as when we finally got it back after about a year, it had rotted and had to be thrown away! One of our more memorable safaris in Tanzania was going by train from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma to trace the footsteps of Stanley and Livingstone to where the birth of her story of ‘Rebmann’, which Marjorie wrote many years later, began. Another was a trip to Mikumi National Park, with the four of us children squeezed in the back seat of Graham Hyslop’s car. Mom loved to travel and it is in her travels that she saw the real Africa and was happy to have the real African experience. She took us to Arusha and Serengeti as well. Before the advent of international travel and tourism, she was frequently touring and visiting. All these experiences are related in her novels and poems.
Those were happy years. Tanzania was very keen on creating jobs for Tanzanians and Mom had to train a Tanzanian, Clara, to take over from her at the end of her contract. She was offered a job by Maneklal Rughani in Nairobi to run one of the TBC outlets,. It was while here that she started poetry readings and set up the Penguin section of the bookshop, which I recall was opened by Graham Hyslop who had returned to Nairobi. Marjorie retired in 1981 when the owners of SJ Moore closed it down to concentrate on their flagship store at the newly-built Sarit Centre. Mom was able to do more writing and was also the representative for East and Central Africa for an American Publisher. This enabled her to travel all around Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. She also visited Malawi, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe as part of her role in sales for the publisher. This only lasted a few years but she was really in her element and these experiences enlivened her.
It was during this time that she interacted once more with David Rubadiri, who was lecturing at the University of Nairobi, as well as Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Jonathan Kariara, Pheroze Nowrojee, Francis Imbuga, Micere wa Mugo and many others.
One of the more ardent poetry readers and writers Marjorie met in Nairobi when she came back from Dar was a young university student, John Sibi Okum. They soon became very close and the family regarded John as an adopted son and brother.
In 1986 Marjorie spent several months in the UK visiting her relatives and while there she was awarded the Sinclair prize for fiction for ‘Coming to Birth’. It was a proud moment to be able to take her father and stepmother Doris for the presentation. Marjorie made her last trip to the UK in 1989 to see her father in his last illness. He died shortly after she left and she never wanted to go back. Her husband, Daniel died from cancer in 1990.
From this point on, Marjorie wrote a great deal Her correspondence is voluminous and she really kept Kenya Posts and Telecommunications (now Kenya Posta) in business! She was also able to concentrate on her poetry and fiction while alsoserving on the boards of Undugu Society, the Bible Society of Kenya and the Kenya National Library Services over the years. She was actively involved with St John’s Pumwani for over 60 years. Marjorie also gave lectures at both the University of Nairobi and at Egerton University and it was during this period that she also came to know Professor Ilieva of Egerton University, who was not only a professional colleague but also a dear friend. Marjorie developed friendships with Dana April Seidenberg, Roger Kurtz and Elizabeth Orchardson-Mazrui during this period and in fact, she had so many friends and colleagues that it is difficult to remember them all by name; there was hardly a day in her life she was not visiting or being visited by friends and relatives. She enjoyed this interaction and was very grateful for all the visits and correspondence, especially in her last few years when she was less mobile. For a few years Marjorie lived with Wanjira Hirst, the daughter of her good friends Nereas and Terry Hirst.
In April 2015, Marjorie’s adopted son Zadock died and she was grief-stricken. Her health took a turn for the worse and she died on 1st December of the same year.
Marjorie had four children. Phyllis Ahoya was born in Maseno Mission Hospital in 1961. She taught for several years in various schools and colleges in Kenya before relocating to the UK in 2000, where she now lives. George Ng’ong’a was born in the Southampton General Hospital in 1963. He is currently a senior government officer. Francis Ochieng’ was born at Maseno Mission Hospital in 1965. He is a central figure in the Kenyan choral and classical music scene. Lawrence Thomas King Odera was named after Mr Lawrence Mayor, a headmaster at Maseno School, and after his maternal grandfather. He has held various positions over the years and currently runs Kidz Learning Hub in Kitengela.
The eldest of her grandchildren, Daniel Osir Ogola, was born in 1988 and currently lives in Canada. Thomas Oludhe Ogola was born in 1989 and is named after his great-grandfather who died the year he was born. Thomas lives in Sandy, UK with his wife Daisy and they both commute London where they work. Deborah King, born in 2001, works in London. Mark Macgoye was born in 1987 and is currently working with the Police Service in Nairobi. Mark Macgoye was born in 1988 and is a graduate of political science. Marjorie Macgoye was born in 1992 and is an an engineering officer in the Kenya Defence Forces. Marcia (Cherie) Macgoye was born in 1995 and is now an aeronautical engineer. Phyllis Macgoye was born in 1994 and lives and works in Leeds, UK. She studied Chemical engineering for her undergraduate degree.