Prof Chris Wanjala was a man who valued culture [Courtesy]

Colleagues are eulogising Prof Chris Wanjala, who was until his death a literature lecturer at the University of Nairobi.

Prof Wanjala wore many hats, being a literary scholar, writer, critic, and man who valued culture. He has been described as one of the founding fathers of the department. Prof Henry Indangasi, who worked with him for more than 40 years, says Prof Wanjala has left a big gap in the department.

“Prof Wanjala and l have been associated with the Department of Literature, especially because we are founding members of the department that started in 1970, when the University of Nairobi became fully-fledged. We were there when the Department of English was split into Literature and Linguistics,” says Prof Indangasi.

He describes Wanjala as a good person who got along with the rest of the department. Indagasi says despite Wanjala being a couple of years older, he (Wanjala) worked under him, and did his work well with all the dedication.

Top honours

Prof Masumi Odari, the chair of the department, says she met Wanjala for the first time in Japan when he and others had visited to award Daisaku Ikeda, the founder of Soka University.

“Prof Wanjala became famous at the university during the visit. At that time l was still a fourth year student pursuing African Literature and was excited to meet him,” she said.

Later, says Prof Odari, when she came to Kenya to pursue masters in African Literature, she was advised to look for Wanjala. She says she met the professor in Kenya in 1986, and he was very kind and helpful to her.

After graduating, he worked briefly at the Kenya Literature Bureau before he got his lecturing job at the University of Nairobi. As chair of the National Book Development Council of Kenya, he played major role in promoting the reading culture.

Because of his dedicated service to the country in academics, Wanjala was awarded the Elder of the Order of the Burning Spear by former President Mwai Kibaki in 2012.