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Acknowledgments

I am indebted to family members, mentors, collaborators, and friends. Vaa Muhonja, Mama, Mideva, Kegehi, Kisia, and Buyanzi, and our children, Yvonne, Ivy, Shani, Adisa, J, Taye, Ella, Amy, and Kay—you continue to inspire and motivate me. I love you. I am grateful to my mentors, Nkiru Nzegwu, Joanne Gabbin, David Owusu-Ansah, Don Boros, and Lamont King, and to my sister, Taimi Castle, and brothers, Khadim Thiam and Evan Mwangi, whose personal and academic insights feed my work and life. I wish to especially recognize Nkiru Nzegwu, who in 2005, sharing my respect for Wangari Maathai, helped direct my admiration of her into academic curiosity. I am grateful for the partnerships I enjoy with the academic and professional staff and students at the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies.

Asanteni sana for emotional, intellectual, and other support to dear friends Peter Ng’ang’a, Ndirangu wa Maina, Ian Mbugua, Angela Rarieya, Gillianne Obaso, Imali “Octi” Onyango, Brian Kiai, Musa Nyandusi, Babacar Mbaye, Marame Gueye, Oyunga Pala, Quito Swan, Betty Wambui, Mollie Godfrey, Lauren Alleyne, Sofia Samatar, Case Watkins, Chris Blake, Heather Coltman, Bill Van Norman, Neil Marrin, Melissa Lubin, Mary O’Donnell, Marina Shafik, Chris Arndt, Ann-Janine Morey, Kristen Wylie, Aderonke Adesanya, Adebayo Ogundipe, Jane Mutune Mutheu, Shadrack Nasong’o, Olufemi Taiwo, Kwame Edwin Otu, Achola Pala, Mshai Mwangola, Kithaka wa Mberia, Tushabe wa Tushabe, Lilian Passos Wichert Feitosa, Gianluca De Fazio, Heather Scheuerman, Chase Martin, Tara Kristiansen, Lars Kristiansen, Benjamin Meade, Terry Beitzel, and Robert Goebel. To interlocutors Stephen I. Ng’ang’a, Stephen Gitahi Kiama, Nzioka J. Muthama, and my Harrisonburg family—thank you. I am thankful to my colleagues and students at James Madison University, who shared the development and explorations of parts of this book with me. Appreciation goes out especially to the Sisters in Session collective, Robert Aguirre, Chris Arndt, Dabney Bankert, Brian Flota, Rose Gray, Angela Carter, Amanda Roadcap, and the Africana Literatures and Cultures Workshop crew. Maureen Kegehi and Rony Wesonga, thank you for helping manage my logistics for research and writing. I recognize the value of the financial support toward the production of this work from the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program and the following sources and units at James Madison University: Provost’s Summer Research Grant, College of Arts and Letters Dean’s International Travel Grant, the Office of Access and Inclusion, the Department of English, and the Center for Global Engagement. Lillie Jacobs and Michelle Pineda-Hernandez, I could not have asked for better research assistants.

Keith Miller, thank you for your skill. Gill Berchowitz, Ricky Huard, and the rest of the Ohio University Press team, working with you has been an absolute pleasure.