Land Without Thunder

Grace Ogot

Born in Kenya’s Central Nyanza district in 1930, Grace Ogot was a founding member of the Writers’ Association of Kenya. She can be credited with being the first African woman writer in English to be published with two short stories in 1962 and 1964. Her first novel The Promised Land (1966) was published in the same year as Flora Nwapa’s Efuru and deals with the subject of migration. Her second novel, The Graduate (1980) relates the story of a male protagonist who, after studying in America, returns to Kenya. The novel also offers a comment on Kenyan women’s inequality in the political process and intimates how successful they can be when given the opportunity to participate. Ogot has also published three volumes of short stories, as well as a number of works in Dholuo. Her attitude towards language is similar to that of her fellow Kenyan, Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s, but until recently her writing has not received the critical appraisal bestowed on Ngugi’s writings.