Drawing by student in Kakamega District, Kenya
Literature for East Africa
Compiled by Jill Martorana, Ann Peltier, Gloria Rutt, and Jenn Shnyder
These documents provide annotated bibliographies of books that can be used in classrooms to support a study of Kenya, as well as studies of comparisons between life in the United States and another part of the world. Building from familiar experiences of students in their home communities, the suggested activities that follow each annotation allow students to move beyond what they know about themselves and where they live to consider the many similarities to life in eastern Africa. Please click on any of the following topics for details:
Please Note: Kiswahili/Swahili is a widely spoken Bantu language, predominantly found in East Africa. The proper form of the word is Kiswahili, with “ki” being the prefix signifying language. More commonly used outside of East Africa, however, is the word Swahili.
Maasai/Masai people are semi-nomadic pastoralists who live mainly in the Great Rift Valley of north central Tanzania and southern Kenya. “Maasai” translates as “one who speaks the Maa language,” hence the spelling with two a’s. The spelling “Masai” was first used by British settlers and continues to appear in a variety of contexts, although Maa speakers themselves much prefer “Maasai.” In deference to our Maa-speaking friends, we use “Maasai” throughout, except when the alternative spelling appears in a book title.
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