Worries of the Heart: Widows, Family, and Community in Kenya

Abstract

Worries of the Heart: Widows, Family, and Community in Kenya. By Kenda Mutongi. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Pp. xv, 256. $50.00 / £31.50 cloth, $20.00 / £12.00 paper. Worries of the Heart is an in-depth study of the Maragoli section of the Luyia people of western Kenya from the early years of colonial rule through independence. Mutongi divides the book into three parts. The first, "Everyday Life," examines the coming of Christianity; negotiations between missionaries and converts, and Christians and non-Christians; and the impact of the discovery of gold in the 1930s. Part 2, "Family Life," examines how relations within homesteads and extended families changed, especially in regard to parents and children, marriage and bridewealth, gender and morality, widows, and domestic violence. In Part 3, Mutongi continues her story into the postcolonial period, discussing legal disputes over inheritance and how widows negotiated the new discourse of citizenship. Worries of the Heart has much to recommend it. To begin, Mutongi offers a much richer understanding of the plight and strategies of African widows than has any previous historian. Despite the large percentage of widows to be found in any African village or city, few scholars have addressed their history. Mutongi explains how Maragoli widows used the local discourse of "worries of the heart" to draw attention to their needs and induce male relatives to live up to their culturally-defined role as providers for and protectors of widows. As many widows' sons sought food and education from missionaries, widows struggled to restrain them-local rumors had it that missionaries were cannibals-or, later, to fund their educations. After uhuru, widows sought help from their new African administrators and elected officials, particularly in land disputes. Rather than speaking of their "worries of the heart," widows now portrayed themselves as loyal members of the new nation of Kenya. The book is brimming with examples, often very personal ones, of how widows negotiated (although not always successfully) life in the twentieth century. In fact, one of the strongest-although somewhat problematic-aspects of the book is Mutongi's use of oral interviews. The stories her informants related-fears of cannibalistic missionaries, of widows forced to ask male relatives to beat sons who refused to stay away from mission stations, of women who suffered violence at the hands of their husbands-make her book come alive. …