PEDAGOGICAL VALUE OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE FOR FOOD SECURITY: Learning from Women Farmers in Homa Bay County, Kenya HUMPHREY JEREMIAH OJWANG C85/52546/2017 A Thesis Submitted in Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in African Women’s Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya 2020 DECLARATION This PhD Thesis is my original work and has not been presented for the award of a degree in any other University. Candidate: Humphrey Jeremiah Ojwang ___________________ ________________ Signature Date This thesis has been submitted with our approval as the University supervisors. Supervisors Prof. Wanjiku Mukabi Kabira ___________________ ________________ Signature Date Dr. Penninah A. Ogada ___________________ ________________ Signature Date ii DEDICATION This work is dedicated to the memory of my father, Charles Isaiah Otieno Ojwang (1924- 1999) and my mother, Yucabed Obuya Otieno (1929-2001), who both served the land of Kenya with distinction in education, community development and public service. They trained me to be productive in terms of food security for the household. My parents also encouraged me to use my imagination and hands on the farm in order to develop a strong work ethic in agricultural production. I recall the agricultural activities of my youth when, alongside hired farm workers, I participated in ploughing the land, planting the seeds, weeding, harvesting and storing the produce to ensure food security for the family. In our homestead, hunger was to be kept at bay through sheer hard work on the land. We all tried to achieve that goal as best as we could. I owe it all to my parents who taught me the virtues of working upon the land and growing a variety of foods for the family. I also dedicate this work to my own family in the hope that the tradition of narrative pedagogy will help in grounding my children and children’s children in African indigenous knowledge for food security. They should seek to learn from our rich traditional practices for agroecological sustainability. Indeed, we can rightly say that ethnography of food security begins at home. Agriculture and food production must be learnt from environmental activities during early childhood all the way through the educational system. Learning is a lifelong process. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A number of scholars at the University of Nairobi helped shape the research work. First and foremost, I wish to express profound gratitude to my First Supervisor, Prof. Wanjiku Mukabi Kabira of the Department of Literature and Director of African Women’s Studies Centre, who saw the potential in this research project when I presented the original concept at a doctoral seminar held at the University of Nairobi. She teamed up with Dr. Penninah A. Ogada, formerly of the University of Nairobi’s Department of Political Science and Public Administration, and helped in nurturing the research proposal before formal registration with Graduate School and subsequent fieldwork in Homa Bay County. Though Dr. Penninah A. Ogada retired from her teaching post at the University she continued to support my research work. The African Women’s Studies Centre is interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary in orientation. That is a feature from which I have gained different epistemological perspectives. The folkloric and literary insights into women’s life-stories and oral testimonies helped in my ethnographic fieldwork in Homa Bay County, Kenya. During the doctoral seminars, the affirmation by different scholars that oral testimony and life-story interviews are valid approaches in social research gave impetus to my fieldwork, data analys and writing of this PhD thesis. I thank all these scholars who gave me thir comments and ideas. I am also indebted to the staff of the Homa Bay County Commissioner’s Office and the local chiefs of Kanyada and Kabuoch areas who welcomed me into their areas of jurisdiction. They made sure that I moved around unhindered and were kind enough to arrange for my research team’s safety and security. I am grateful to all the informants from different generations for sharing with me their knowledge about traditional foods in Luo iv society. I wish to thank my research assistants, Jack Omuga for arranging interviews and assisting me in Kanyada, and Jacktone Awiti Kaumba for helping me in Kabuoch areas in Homa Bay County. My friend Julius Oracha, an influential community leader in Rodi Kopany, arranged for group meetings. I am grately indebted to him and his local community for their insights. Other research assistants included David Dunde Ongoro and Patrick Ochieng’ Osore who both helped me in Kanyada and Kabuoch. Without the assistance of these energetic young people, my fieldwork experience would not have been as rewarding in terms of accessing the indigenous knowledge of women farmers in Kanyada and Kabuoch, Homa Bay County. The County Government of Homa Bay need mention especially the staff in the Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Security who helped me with information in the course of my fieldwork. I also wish to thank the staff of Agriculture Improvement Support Services (AGRISS) which is an NGO working in Homa Bay County. They provided me with vital information about agricultural research and extension work in the area. The old adage that charity begins at home still holds true. I wish to thank my wife Hilda A. Ojwang and my entire family for the support they have given me individually and collectively. My wife patiently typed the work from the very beginning to the final thesis. I thank her for her dedication as a helper at home and moral support in my academic pursuits. Without her support, this work would not have seen the light of day. I cannot forget to thank my sister Rosemary A. Omwandho for her unflinching support in all my endeavours. She kept encouraging me during the writing of this thesis. I also wish to thank Judith Awino for her technical support during the writing of this thesis. v I am indebted to Africanists such as Prof. Bethwell Allan Ogot, Prof. Lucia Ndong’a Omondi and Prof. Duncan Okoth Okombo whose works in Luo history, language and ecology have inspired my ethnographic fieldwork. Reading Prof. Omondi’s work on the role of language in agriculture and rural development triggered off my interest in Luo indigenous knowledge for food security. I wish to thank Dr Joseph H. Muleka of the Department of Literature, University of Nairobi for the intellectual insights and support he gave me during the preparation of this work. I am also indebted to my old literature teacher and mentor, Mwalimu Austin Lwanga Bukenya, who continues to inspire me from his Gayaza hideout in Uganda. His folkloric ideas on orature and literary works helped me in developing my approaches to African narrative pedagogy and African feminist epistemology. He has always been a source of encouragement for over four decades. I am also intellectually indebted to my former colleagues Dr. Skye Hughes from Canada and Prof. Gail Presbey from America who introduced me to the sociological and philosophical aspects of women and gender studies during their stints at the University of Nairobi. Prof. Gail Presbey actually teamed up with me and co-taught my pioneer post-graduate class of communication and gender studies. I am greatly indebted to all my students of education, literature, linguistics, anthropology, and gender studies at the University of Nairobi who have enthusiastically exchanged great ideas with me for over three decades. Some of the books on African women studies which I read for this research were procured through a grant from IDRC Canada. I thank them most sincerely for their support in that regard. I also got inspiration from the ethnographic work on cultural knowledge by Prof. Michael Kirwen of the Maryknoll Institute of African Studies. I am also intellectually indebted to another Maryknoll priest, Fr Joseph G. Healey, who has developed the use of vi African narratives in pedagogy and homiletics. He used this approach for social transformation in the context of Small Christian Communities. I found this model useful in both Kanyada and Kabuoch during my fieldwork. Many informants and other people who cannot be mentioned individually also helped to shape this work. Some of them would prefer to remain anonymous out of sheer modesty. It is appropriate to thank all of them collectively for helping me in one way or the other without mentioning their names. Finally, I wish to thank the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nairobi for making it possible for me to work on my PhD studies by waiving all the fees requirements by virtue of the fact that I am a Senior Research Fellow and member of staff at the University. Without this financial support, it would not have been possible to undertake this research project. I am grateful for this opportunity which I do not take for granted. I wish to state categorically that I take full responsibility for this work and any infelicities therein. May the God of all creation bless this land and nation of Kenya so that plenty may be found within our borders! vii CONTENTS DECLARATION................................................................................................................. ii DEDICATION.................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. iv LIST OF TABLES ..........................................................................................................