Grace Emily Akinyi was born on May 15, 1930 in sleepy Asembo, Nyanza. Her father Joseph Nyanduga was a teacher and one of the first men in his village to receive western education. He had no idea that he held in his hands an author, a politician, a diplomat and a nurse all rolled into one.
Grace grew up like any other village child in Luo land, she listened to her grandmother's traditional folklore and unknown to her at the time, that folklore was shaping her career as an author. Grace went to Ng'inya and Butere girls' schools, She later joined Nursing Training School in Uganda.
A nurse by profession and a writer at heart, Grace married Bethwell Alan Ogot in 1959. Bethwell encouraged his wife to pursue her writing abilities and her first success came through in 1964 when she became the first anglophone female writer in Kenya to have her works published.
Her 'A Year of Sacrifice' was published in the Black Orpheus in 1964. Grace then proceeded to author more books including several collections of African short stories, an astute writer both in English and her native Dhuluo.
Grace's political star begun to rise in the 70's, she represented Kenya as a delegate in the United Nations General Assembly in 1975 and at UNESCO in 1976. In 1983 she successfully contested the Gem Constituency by-elections and was appointed the first assistant minister in the Ministry of Culture in the then Moi cabinet.
On March 18, 2015, Grace breathed her last leaving behind a legacy of literature that. A mother of four, a wife, founder of the Writers Association of Kenya and a feminist, Grace Emily Akinyi Ogot remains one of the most accomplished female writers in Kenya and indeed Africa.
One of her books is on www.textbookcentre.com
In this book, author Grace Ogot tells the story of a young farmer and his wife who migrated to Tanzania from Kenya. The novel explores Ogot's concept of the ideal African wife: obedient and submissive to her husband; family and community orientated and committed to non-materialist goals. Some of her other works include The Island of Tears (1980), the short story collection Land Without Thunder (1988), The Strange Bride (1989) and The Other Woman (1992). The Promised Land was originally published in 1966, and has since been reprinted five times.
Research by Anne Kanake