Africana Studies
North Academic Building
85 Mission Park Drive
Williams College
Williamstown, MA 01267
Phone: (413) 597-2242
Fax: (413) 597-4222

Chair:
Prof. Shanti M. Singham
ssingham@williams.edu

Administrative Assistant:
Lucy Gardner Carson
Lucy.G.Carson@williams.edu

Kenda Mutongi never imagined herself studying African history while she was growing up in a small village in western Kenya. Folks like her who excelled at good missionary and government schools were expected to choose professions that allowed them to make lots of money so they could return to the village and share it with all in the village. A generous scholarship enabled her to leave Kenya for Coe College, where she studied English Literature and History before receiving a Ph.D. in African History from the University of Virginia. Mutongi enjoys teaching and researching African history and has no regrets. She teaches courses on 19th- and 20th-century Africa. Her research has focused on 20th-century Kenya, with special interest in gender and urban history. Mutongi has published articles in the main African Studies journals, and is also the author of Worries of the Heart: Widows, Family, and Community in Kenya (University of Chicago Press, 2007). She is currently working on a book tentatively titled “Coming for to Carry Me Home: Commuters and Transport Culture in Nairobi.“ Mutongi has also been a member at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and a fellow at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. In addition to African history, Mutongi also enjoys gardening, politics, international travel, and spending time with her husband Alan De Gooyer and their two children, Ada and Stefan.

History Department Website