Occupation Writer Name Marjorie Macgoye Years active 1983–2009 | Citizenship Kenyan Nationality British Role Novelist | |
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Born Marjorie Phyllis King21 October 1928Southampton, England, United Kingdom ( 1928-10-21 ) Alma mater Royal Holloway, University of London Spouse Daniel Oludhe Macgoye (m. 1960–90) Died December 1, 2015, Nairobi, Kenya Books Coming to birth, The present moment, Homing in, A farm called Kishinev, The Black Hand Gang | ||
atieno yo author marjorie oludhe macgoye is dead
Marjorie Phyllis Oludhe Macgoye (21 October 1928 – 1 December 2015) was an English-born Kenyan novelist, essayist and poet.
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Marjorie oludhe macgoye
Biography
Born Marjorie King in 1928 in Southampton, England, Marjorie travelled to Kenya to work as a missionary in 1954. She worked at the S.J. Moore Bookshop on Government Road, now Moi Avenue in Nairobi, for some years. There she organised readings that were attended by, among others, Okot P'Bitek, author of Song of Lawino, and Jonathan Kariara, a Kenyan poet. She met Macgoye, a medical doctor, and the two were married in 1960.
In 1971, an anthology entitled Poems from East Africa included the acclaimed poem "A Freedom Song". Her 1986 novel Coming to Birth won the Sinclair Prize and has been used as a set book in Kenyan high schools. She has been called the "mother of Kenyan literature".
Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye died on 1 December 2015, at her home in Nairobi.