Negotiating Identities in Contemporary Africa: Gender, Religion, and Ethno-cultural Identities 1666944483, 9781666944488

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Negotiating Identities in Contemporary Africa

Negotiating Identities in Contemporary Africa Gender, Religion, and Ethno-cultural Identities Edited by Toyin Falola and Emmanuel M. Mbah

LEXINGTON BOOKS

Lanham • Boulder • New York • London

Published by Lexington Books An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www​.rowman​.com 86-90 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NE Copyright © 2023 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Falola, Toyin, editor. | Mbah, Emmanuel M., editor.   Title: Negotiating identities in contemporary Africa : gender, religion,     and ethno-cultural identities / edited by Toyin Falola and Emmanuel M.     Mbah.   Description: Lanham : Lexington Books, 2023. | Includes bibliographical     references and index. | Summary: "This edited volume provides an     interdisciplinary and balanced discussion on the changing dynamics of     identities in Africa, with a focus on gender, ethno-cultural, and     religious identity"-- Provided by publisher.   Identifiers: LCCN 2023019593 (print) | LCCN 2023019594 (ebook) | ISBN     9781666944488 (cloth) | ISBN 9781666944495 (ebook)   Subjects: LCSH: Women--Africa, Sub-Saharan--Social conditions. | Sex     role--Africa, Sub-Saharan. | Ethnicity--Africa, Sub-Saharan. | Africa,     Sub-Saharan--Social conditions--21st century.  Classification: LCC HQ1787 .N485 2023  (print) | LCC HQ1787  (ebook) | DDC     305.420967--dc23/eng/20230424  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023019593 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023019594 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Contents

Acknowledgments vii Introduction: Negotiating Identities in Contemporary Africa: Gender, Religion, and Ethno-cultural Identities Emmanuel M. Mbah and Toyin Falola

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Chapter 1: Sowing in the Wind: Girls’ Education in Kenya’s Bungoma County Namulundah Florence

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Chapter 2: Gendered Political Institutions and Women’s Career Identity Construction Wakil Ajibola Asekun

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Chapter 3: To Have or Not to Have: An African Perspective on Childlessness 41 Namulundah Florence Chapter 4: Gender and Initiation Rites in Ejagham Land of Cameroon 63 Victor Ntui Atom Chapter 5: Restoring Gender Knowledge in Kenya’s Mau Mau War: New Methods and Perspectives Mickie Mwanzia Koster Chapter 6: Gender Inequality in the Peace-Building Process during the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon Primus Fonkeng

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Contents

Chapter 7: From Hapless Victims to Helpful Collaborators?: The Contradictions of Boko Haram Female Suicide Bombers in Nigeria, 2009–2019 Femi Adegbulu

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Chapter 8: A Comparative Study of the Influence of Modernization on Traditional Gender Roles of Men and Women in Lagos and Ogun States, Nigeria Tolu Ogunleye

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Chapter 9: Ethnocentrism, Democratization, and Nation Building in Africa: The Nigerian Experience Steve A. Iyayi

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Chapter 10: Identity Dynamics in the Southern Tier of the Cameroon-Nigeria Frontier Victor Ntui Atom

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Chapter 11: Redefining Cultural Identity in Nigeria through Dramatic and Theatrical Arts Adedoyin Aguoru

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Chapter 12: Black Identity, Diasporic Consciousness, and Nigeria’s Ambivalence to Pan-Africanism Ajibola A. Abdulrahman

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Chapter 13: Sidis in India, and of India Too?: An Exploratory Study into the Identity of the African Diaspora in the Western Indian State of Gujarat Pradeep Mallik Appendix: Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Results Index



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About the Editors and Contributors



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Acknowledgments

This volume on African Identities is the brainchild of Toyin Falola and Emmanuel M. Mbah. We sincerely thank Namulundah Florence for brainstorming on the book’s caption. We also thank the contributors for their thought-provoking essays and their patience throughout the editorial process. As the editors of the volume, we humbly accept its shortcomings. Toyin Falola and Emmanuel M. Mbah Austin, Texas, and Staten Island, New York February 16, 2023

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Introduction Negotiating Identities in Contemporary Africa: Gender, Religion, and Ethno-cultural Identities Emmanuel M. Mbah and Toyin Falola

In recent years, African identities have received increased attention in scholarship, much of which interrogates the views, needs, and aspirations of these groups. Identity defines who we are as individuals or in groups. A group’s identity can reveal a great deal about its culture. However, understanding how people came to identify with a particular group or groups in time and space is somewhat fascinating. Using existing scholarship, the chapters in this edited volume challenge our understanding of what identity entails as well as provide new discussions on the hitherto politicized historiography of some identities in Africa. In this introduction, we identify and define the various African identities addressed in the volume—gender, religious, and ethnic/cultural—and also provide a brief synopsis of the discussions covered in the chapters. Gender identity can be defined as the ways through which individuals perceive themselves as either female, male, or a mixture of both and how they want to be recognized and referred to.1 The problem of gender inequality, where females are marginalized in many aspects of life, is a common theme in discussions on gender identity in Africa. As a result of this inequality, poverty is a more common phenomenon among females than males. According to Bridget Teboh, “the colonial legacy and differential gendered impact of colonization and neocolonialism are to blame for this situation, and with obvious reasons: gender discrimination at all levels in the African economic ix

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and political spheres, and a disregard for basic human rights, especially those of women.”2 While agreeing that there is gender inequality in Africa, Toyin Falola— on the other hand—maintains that the phenomenon, often “rationalized” by African cultures, is not as ubiquitous and simplistic as Western writers purport. Falola maintains, for example, that because poverty is prevalent in Africa, “one’s gender offers little or no protection against hunger, disease, and joblessness,” and that “women are not docile, not from the evidence of their autonomy and struggles.”3 It is without a doubt that African women have seen great progress in the last couple decades; it is also true, as April A. Gordon argues, that gender inequality, where men are considered superior to women in many aspects, is still common in African societies.4 Interrogating the progress and setbacks of women in Africa comprises part of the discussion in this edited volume, where chapters 1 through 8 address issues related to gender identity and inequality in Africa. Religious identity is mentioned in a few chapters; it is especially addressed in chapter 7. Religion has, from time immemorial, defined how individuals and groups behaved and identified themselves. As an identity marker in Africa, both Christian and Islamic religious denominations are increasingly constructing behavior patterns in many parts of the continent, sometimes in ways that negatively impact African identity. For this reason, John Sodiq Sanni has argued that “there is a need to free the mind of its conditionings that give priority to religion and may therefore serve to exclude other sources of identity derived from collective histories and collective experiences. The illusion which religion plunges us into is often the reason for the problems of identity which most African societies struggle with today.”5 Societal awareness of the illusion introduced by religious fanaticism is the sole ticket to redressing religion-induced identity problems in Africa. Ethnicity can be understood through the collection of values shared by a group, such as behaviors, inspirations/aspirations, gender relationships, governance, and conflict resolution techniques rooted in history. While ethnic identity portends to belonging to a group with a common ancestry and culture, cultural identity characterizes the social behaviors and/or customs/traditions that people adhere to; both ethnic and cultural identities are what unites a community or group with aspirations and purpose. Unfortunately for Africa, colonialism fractured and rearranged African ethnicities with little regard for sociocultural affinities. The new ethnic groups configured by European colonizers were reorganized under new administrative units placed under the new colonial dispensations.6 When African states became independent, the ethnic problem created by European colonizers heightened between erstwhile ethnic groups over the control of power and resources of the state. As a result, ethnicity has become a crystallizing and destabilizing factor within African

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states, either “as a source of conflict” or “as a tool used by political entrepreneurs to promote their ambitions,”7 as is evidenced in chapters 9 through 13 of this edited volume. BOOK DESIGN This introduction provides context to the disparate identities addressed in the thirteen chapters of Negotiating Identities in Contemporary Africa. The respective chapters cover varying topics on identity in Africa in the areas of gender, religion, and ethnicity/culture. Chapter 1, “Sowing in the Wind: Girls’ Education in Kenya’s Bungoma County,” by Namulundah Florence, demonstrates how conflicting attitudinal and political agendas within and beyond communities help maintain gender hierarchies. For females, academic access and success hinge on personal aspirations as much as prevailing social structures. Further hindrances emerge from often-unconscious “cultural baggage”—that is, the view of reality and social expectations that teachers and students bring to class settings. Subsequent contradictory messages to female students justify gender disparities and stereotypes. “Sowing in the Wind” builds on the growing attention on the centrality of science-related fields in women’s academic and professional progress. Students are more likely to major in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programs when teachers expose them to mathematics and science at an early age. These students perform well on related tests in primary and secondary schools. They have supportive and positive student/ teacher interactions and also access to institutions of learning, guaranteeing success in later endeavors. Subsequently, the underrepresentation of girls in STEM disciplines coupled with high dropout rates limit a girl’s life trajectory and should concern marginalized communities, educators, and policymakers, given similar trends globally. For rural girls, even a basic education is a lofty dream. Namulundah Florence argues that despite steady enrollment increases, educating girls, particularly in STEM disciplines, can seem futile, given fiscal and physical limitations as much as cultural hindrances. However noble, calls for promoting STEM-related programs among females ignore cultural, topographical, and economic hindrances to even basic education, particularly in rural areas. Most farmers know the futility of sowing in the wind—some good seeds never germinate, blown away as they are from fertile soil, which dispels any hopes for a good harvest. Florence understands the challenges of getting a good education as a rural girl who made it to professorial rank but left behind many other capable classmates; improving the status of girls in

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rural African communities is, therefore, a major focus of her research. This chapter illustrates the compounded impact of topography/location, policy, and economic factors on the plight of Kenyan girls in isolated rural areas. In chapter 2, “Gendered Political Institutions and Women’s Career Identity Construction,” Wakil Ajibola Asekun contends that Nigerian politics is still, to a large extent, considered a career that is exclusively for men; thus, female representation in the Nigerian political space remains abysmally low. This chapter examines how elected women construct the identity of career politicians in the context of gendered political institutions with the aim of ascertaining the extent to which marginalization influences identity construction. The study was carried out among sixty democratically elected politicians who were purposively selected. Quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to collect data. Participants responded to Career Identity Measure, a 4-Likert scale designed to measure identification with one’s professional career. In the qualitative measure, twenty of the sixty participants were interviewed using a structured interviewing format. The themes that emerged from the data gathered suggested that in spite of the prestige and privileges associated with political positions in Nigerian society, women politicians believed that their efforts and contributions in the political space were perceived differently than their male counterparts’: they were seen as inferior to the male politicians, and their political accomplishments were perceived to be through means other than hard work and personal merits. These perceptions were found to influence the construction of the identity of female politicians. The analyzed data from Career Identity Measure also suggests that females had a low sense of identification in politics as a career. The study posits that these setbacks for women politicians can be impediments to other women aspiring to political positions. The study makes recommendations that can help bridge the gender gap in political leadership in Nigeria. Chapter 3 by Namulundah Florence, “To Have or Not to Have: An African Perspective on Childlessness,” captures the ambivalence in conception and disparities in maintaining and enforcing social norms. The inconsistency is not unique to African societies. Scholarship, much of which originates in the developed world, distinguishes between voluntary and involuntary childlessness, but these are semantics lost to African communities. The experiences of the four rural women in this chapter illustrate the futility of such distinctions. Discussions on the status of women are pertinent to women’s studies, cultural studies, and African studies, as well as literature. Over the years, Florence has explored the impact of systems of privilege and our own complicity in embracing and policing purported cultural outsiders. Her latest work, Adapting to Cultural Pluralism in Urban Classrooms, builds on this countercultural agenda. In general, her research shows how the

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often-unconscious “cultural baggage”—that is, the view of reality and social expectations that teachers and students bring to class settings—complicates classroom interactions. “To Have or Not to Have” draws from the social history in both myth and reality, as these impact poor rural women labeled “childless.” This chapter also highlights the complicity of marginalized groups in maintaining structures of meaning that reinforce hierarchical relations. This is not a surprising stance, as Carol Gilligan and Naomi Snider demonstrate in Why Does Patriarchy Persist? Similarly, Lutz Rohrich’s Folktales and Reality illustrates the significance of tales for the study of indigenous traditions. The chapter illustrates ongoing complicity in historically situated power relationships and cultural identities. It is concerning that women foster traditions and recount tales that undermine their place and roles within society. As cultural nurturers, women shy away from advancing their desires and agency, living as they do in a culture that lauds female self-sacrifice and service. In the past, young women shunned corpses of barren women for fear of contagion. Even in the post-independence era, a childless woman is stigmatized for life, and a woman without a husband, after a certain age, is easily labeled “loose” to denote her lack of commitment to a man or inability “to hold down a man,” dismissed as barren. Institutions such as schools, corporations, and churches, including media and legislations, reinforce prevailing gender norms and roles. Overall, in myth and lived reality, receptivity to childlessness reflects prevailing sociocultural, economic, and political factors. Western literature about women portrays just as much ambivalence toward women and paternity. Florence asserts that because social norms condition varying forms of relationships, each generation has the responsibility of critiquing cultural “exclusions mystified by hierarchies of wrongly ascribed significance, worth, reality” (Minnich 2005, 110). Combining description and analysis, the study acknowledges the value and cultural pressures on childless poor rural Bukusu women of western Kenya. Yet, amid an overarching patriarchal structure, women are claiming their own, as Besi Brillian Muhonji (2018) demonstrates in her work on Kenya’s middle-class women. “To Have or Not to Have: An African Perspective on Childlessness” shows there is still much ground to be covered. In chapter 4, “Gender and Initiation Rites in Ejagham Land of Cameroon,” Victor Ntui Atom examines the situation of the Ejagham ethnic group of the South-West Region of Cameroon, wherein there existed a number of gender-based institutions and sacred societies with incongruent female and male initiation and/or rites passage processes. He decompartmentalizes the disparate initiation rites of some of these male and female societies in the Ejagham land of Cameroon as well as the extent to which they contributed to gender inequality among the Ejagham.

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Atom contends that while certain male societies like Ngbe, Obasinjom, Obhon, and Ebhrokpabhi exhibited tendencies that included the show of force/power and teachings that elevate male responsibilities and self-reliance in the society, the female societies such as Monekim saw their initiation through female genital mutilation (clitoridectomy/circumcision) that presumed to give young females a good and healthy sex life in marriage. Other female societies, such as Ekpa, were established to teach young women different facets of female responsibilities in society. Atom argues that although female and male societies aimed at educating and orientating youths on the morals/ethics of growing up as outstanding Ejagham citizens, their different initiation rites constituted the basis of gender inequality among the people. Chapter 5, by Mickie Mwanzia Koster, “Restoring Gender Knowledge in Kenya’s Mau Mau War: New Methods and Perspectives,” examines the atrocities endured by women during the Mau Mau war in Kenya from 1952 to 1960. Despite all of the death, violence, and sexual abuse during the Mau Mau war, where tens of thousands of African men and women fought against British hegemony, 94 percent of all Mau Mau women surveyed for this study stated that they were proud of their association with the movement to restore their land and freedom. The narratives of women require a reevaluation of this history to ascertain what really happened during the war because, for decades, there was gender silence, distortion, and Mau Mau banning by the Kenyan government. This new identification and counter-narrative of black women joining Mau Mau speaks profoundly to how collectively Africa is changing and reclaiming its history. Contrary to Mau Mau being labeled narrowly as a man’s war, the discussion in this chapter counters the idea and notion that it was exclusively a man’s war. Perhaps it really was a “woman’s war,” especially considering the anchoring roles women played during the rebellion and the influence of veteran Mau Mau women in modern Kenya. This chapter, therefore, is about the process of gendering Mau Mau, restoring a more gender-inclusive approach, perspective, and understanding of the complexity of Mau Mau. Mickie Mwanzia Koster argues that despite a politicized historiography, an examination of gendering in Mau Mau opens a new conversation and opportunity to explore the hidden complexities of Mau Mau. Chapter 6, “Gender Inequality in the Peace-Building Process during the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon,” by Primus Fonkeng, acknowledges that Anglophone Cameroon has been ravaged by severe crises that have resulted in destabilization, displacement, and infrastructural destruction with tremendous gender consequences. The impact of this crisis on women, Fonkeng explains, has been severe, as these women constitute the highest number of internally displaced/refugees. In such calamitous situations, women were

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exposed to acts of violence that have seriously undermined their human rights; many were even denied the opportunity to participate effectively in peace-building processes, leading to gender inequality. This chapter explores the origins of the Anglophone crisis and peace-building with a focus on women. It analyses the minor roles played by women as peace negotiators and educators during the crisis. The chapter adopts the descriptive and analytical approaches of historical methodology with participant observation. Fonkeng researched a wide range of primary and secondary sources in arriving at the findings of the chapter; these reveal that because women are the most vulnerable, experts in peace-building should identify women’s needs that must be met to stimulate post-conflict resolution and enact policy-making and action to build a culture of peace in Cameroon. He notes that any peace-building effort that fails to involve the views of women is gender-biased and recommends policies to integrate a gender perspective into peace-building efforts so that the voices of women can be heard during periods of crisis. Chapter 7, “From Hapless Victims to Helpful Collaborators? The Contradictions of Boko Haram Female Suicide Bombers in Nigeria, 2009– 2019,” by Femi Adegbulu, explores the phenomenon of female suicide bombers (FSBs) in the Nigerian state. It interrogates the triggers and motivations for female suicide bombing on the part (from the perspective) of the victims and the perpetrators. It shows how the egocentric aspiration of a jihadist group can drive the weaponization of the female body to legitimize acts that are advantageously and militarily useful for its vicious parochial agenda. Adegbulu argues that beyond Boko Haram’s utilization of unwilling FSBs to gain larger global visibility and coercive bargaining status with the Nigerian state, a good number of FSBs were deliberate in using their bodies as artilleries against the Nigerian state to protest issues of deep patriarchal nature of the North, their vulnerability as females in war situations, and the loss of loved ones in the conflict between Boko Haram and the Nigerian state. He uses the damaged goods and victimhood thesis to dramatize the voluntary participatory nature of FSBs in the insurgency perpetrated in northern Nigeria by Boko Haram jihadists. In terms of methodology, newspaper articles, books, and journal articles were used to illustrate and buttress the assertions in this chapter. Adegbulu concludes that until there is the political will to disincentivize the pull factors that have made Boko Haram attractive to FSBs and potential FSBs, insurgency and the phenomenon of female suicide bombing may still remain a living presence in the Nigerian state. In chapter 8, “A Comparative Study of the Influence of Modernization on the Traditional Gender Roles of Men and Women in Lagos and Ogun States, Nigeria,” Tolu Ogunleye writes that in traditional African settings in general, and Nigeria in particular, women are home menders while the

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men—right from childhood—are socialized to be the breadwinners of the family. Modernization has made it possible for women to venture into the roles of men and vice versa. This chapter compares two states, Lagos and Ogun, in the southwestern part of Nigeria concerning the influence of modernization on the traditional gender roles of men and women. The sample for the study consisted of 300 participants (160 males and 140 females) from Lagos and Ogun States. The participants were chosen using purposive and stratified simple random sampling techniques. The research instrument named the Traditional Gender Roles and Modernization Scale (TGRMS) was self-developed and was used to collect data from the participants. TGRMS has a 0.77 reliability coefficient. Two hypotheses were postulated and statistically analyzed. The results showed that both genders do engage in nontraditional roles as a result of modernization, although the men from Lagos State perform more nontraditional roles compared to their counterparts in Ogun State. Ogunleye recommends the government encourage men to participate in roles that are “no-go areas” to them by granting paternity leave to fathers. Steve A. Iyayi, in chapter 9, “Ethnocentrism, Democratization, and Nation Building in Africa: The Nigerian Experience,” writes that the European colonization of Africa had no regard for Africans and their diverse cultural affinities that could crystallize or sunder the various groups that were forged into collective units as states. Once fashioned out as states, the colonialists paid no attention to building them into stable entities, as they were preoccupied with their interests. At independence, the states were confronted with the common crisis of disagreement between their plural cultural groups, resulting in similar outcomes of military intervention in the respective states, which did more harm than good to them. Military rule eventually became a global aberration, forcing the soldiers to return their countries to democratic governance. Efforts by individual nation-states at building stable polities out of the diverse cultural groups have not been successful. A reason for this is the default on the part of the political elites who have used the platform of their ethnic groups to structure their parties and mobilize support for their political actualizations. This is the crux of the discussion in this chapter, which focuses on the Nigerian experience. In chapter 10, “Identity Dynamics in the Southern Tier of the Cameroon-Nigeria Frontier,” Victor Ntui Atom writes that the southern tier of the Cameroon-Nigeria frontier is made up of four transnational borders within Ejagham land of Cameroon and Nigeria. Each of these borders accommodates a variety of identities that, at times, explains the differences in attitudes between the center and the periphery. That said, the chapter examines the process of identity formation and its impacts within Ejagham border areas in the South-West Region of Cameroon. The findings reveal that apart

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from naturally developed identities that came as a result of the collective consciousness of a cultural and linguistic commune, other identities have also been present in the region. Many identities in this border zone were developed during the period the transatlantic slave trade began to the period of the partition of Africa. While the earlier period introduced identity concepts such as slaves/slavery and freeborn, the partition of the continent generated national and sub-ethnic identities within villages astride the Cameroon-Nigerian frontier, such as the villages of Ejagham Nigeria as distinct from Ejagham Cameroon. In due course, the various groups conjoined, and through interactions, there have been varied changes in the identities of these frontier dwellers, the most visible being the loss of ethnic cohesion. In chapter 11, “Redefining Cultural Identity in Nigeria through Dramatic and Theatrical Arts,” Adedoyin Aguoru defines cultural identity as group identity based on natural and social connections; it identifies and characterizes people who express shared values evident in the totality of their ways of life. Art, history, autochthonous views and practices, modern lifestyle, language, religious belief system, socioeconomic and political system and interest, and even ordinary behavior that typify cultural identity is, therefore, synonymous with the totality of behavioral tendencies of ethnic groups or ethnicities. Theater and drama encapsulate all forms of performative artistic displays and engagements. Owing to the centrality of action and imitation in theater and drama, the two constitute a genre and cultural expression that is lifelike and often captures the essence of a people’s existence. The exploration of life and the complexity that literary discipline is concerned with is achievable through theater and drama. Several factors permit the role of such performance in the history of nationalism and cultural reawakening in Nigeria. The need to redefine cultural identity in Nigeria and the possibility of achieving this through generating a Nigerian theatrical and dramatic corpora concerns this engagement. Both are considered with a view to reinforcing national identity, a source of national profiting in most developed nations. Aguoru argues that the entwining of political interests with ethnicity has, over time, thwarted the real symbiotic relationship between cultural identity and nationalism. These factors that have cumulatively created national disintegration and interethnic misunderstanding necessitate revisiting. In chapter 12, “‘I never knew I was a Negro until I came to America.’ Black Identity, Diasporic Consciousness, and Nigerian Ambivalence to Pan-Africanism,” Ajibola A. Abdulrahman examines Nigeria’s ambivalence toward Pan-Africanism before and after the country’s independence. The first section discusses what blackness meant for continental Africans and diaspora Africans. Abdulrahman uses Pan-Africanism and the theory of diasporic

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consciousness to examine why and how African-descended people worldwide collaborated despite their ethnic diversity. The chapter then proceeds with a discussion on the contributions of Nigerian activists to Pan-African movements in the age of decolonization and the civil rights movement. Lastly, Abdulrahman discusses Nigeria’s ambivalence toward Pan-Africanism after the country’s independence. This chapter draws heavily on secondary and primary sources, including letters, speeches, publications, and newspapers from Nigeria and the United States. Finally, chapter 13, “Sidis in India, and of India Too? An Exploratory Study into the Identity of the African Diaspora in the Western Indian State of Gujarat,” by Pradeep Mallik, examines the often-neglected issue of African identity in South Asia. Scattered far, wide, and hence thin, the African diaspora in South Asia has largely gone unnoticed by academicians and researchers. This is in stark contrast to its counterpart, who went across the Atlantic and stayed there. Called Sidis, with some regional variations in the spelling, this community needs more documentation so that its history is not lost to the coming generations. This chapter is a modest attempt to fill in the gap. What is the identity of the Sidis of western India? Especially those living in Gujarat have been completely assimilated with the local culture: they speak the Gujarati language, dress like the local population, cook local delicacies, and celebrate local festivals. There is a spattering of Swahili in their tongue; they put on exotic dresses often identified with “primitive tribes”; they satiate/palate with some dishes, the recipes of which have been received from previous generations; and they celebrate or observe feasts and rituals that have similarities with those of the populations in East African countries. This chapter looks at how the Sidis, a minuscule ethnic minority known for its energetic dance performances, construct their identity in a land thousands of miles away from where they were brought in or came of their own volition. An attempt is also made in this chapter to explore their “double consciousness.” While the editors of this volume do not assume that the respective chapters have touched on all aspects of identity in contemporary Africa, we are pretty confident that the chapters are insightful enough to serve as foundations for further research/knowledge on our understanding of the issue. NOTES 1. See HRC Foundation, n.d. 2. Teboh 2012, 138. 3. Falola 2003, 250–51. 4. Gordon 2013, 320–21. 5. Sanni 2016, 1.

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6. See Deng 1997; also see Schraeder 2000, 138–39. 7. Deng 1997; for a detailed discussion on ethnicity identity in Africa, see Mbah 2017, 31–52.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Deng, Francis M. 1997. “Ethnicity: An African Predicament.” Brookings, June 1. https:​//​www​.brookings​.edu​/articles​/ethnicity​-an​-african​-predicament. Falola, Toyin. 2003. The Power of African Cultures. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press. Gordon, April A. 2013. “Women and Development.” In Understanding Contemporary Africa, 5th ed., edited by April A. Gordon and Donald L. Gordon, 305–33. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers. HRC Foundation. n.d. “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Definitions.” Accessed March 5, 2022. http:​//​www​.hrc​.org​/resources​/sexual​-orientation​-and​ -gender​-identity​-terminology​-and​-definitions. Mbah, Emmanuel M. 2017. Environment and Identity Politics in Colonial Africa. New York: Routledge. Sanni, John Sodiq. 2016. “Religion: A New Struggle for African Identity.” Phronimon 17, no. 1: 71–83. https://doi.org/10.25159/2413-3086/1986. Schraeder, Peter J. 2000. African Politics and Society: A Mosaic in Transformation. Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s. Teboh, Bridget A. 2012. “Gender and Globalization in Africa.” In Globalization and the African Experience, edited by Emmanuel M. Mbah and Steven J. Salm, 135–66. Durham, NC.: Carolina Academic Press.

Chapter 1

Sowing in the Wind Girls’ Education in Kenya’s Bungoma County Namulundah Florence

Students are more likely to major in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs with foundational knowledge and skills, coupled with teacher support and learning resources. Despite enrollment increases, educating girls, particularly in STEM disciplines, can seem futile, given fiscal and physical limitations, as much as cultural hindrances.1 Improving the status of girls will require more than grit or intelligence on their part. Identity constructions and aspirations reflect relational patterns “into which they are born and by which, inevitably, they are framed and shaped.”2 I understand the challenges of getting a good education as a rural girl who made it to professorial rank but left behind many capable classmates. Kenyan testing culture makes or breaks families and dreams as students seek university admission and subsequent employment. For many rural girls, even a basic education is a lofty dream. This chapter underscores the interplay of in- and out-of-school factors on a student’s secondary education whereby grade points are pivotal to STEM fields. Since scientists and mathematicians enjoy a certain aura as more intelligent and diligent, the underrepresentation of girls in STEM-related disciplines sanctions prevailing gender hierarchies. Male privilege begins at birth and culminates in dominance in the public sphere. Circumcision (restricted to boys among the Bukusu) cements the cultural identity of initiates and is a gateway to maturity, ownership, and employment; however, for girls in Mount Elgon, circumcision is a prenuptial rite and for the most part, ends formal schooling. In marriage, brides relocate to marital homes which pay 1

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bride wealth. Selective tolerance for child marriages and male sexual transgressions is normalized, as is women’s unpaid domestic labor. Meanwhile, she is esteemed for the male child she bears. Even in death, men command greater attention, with elaborate rituals and property settlements. Nangoka’s (pseudonym) thwarted education hopes are not uncommon. Still yearning for schooling, Nangoka (born 1937) recalls years of missed opportunities. She resisted an interview, insisting her husband would be a better candidate even after learning of my focus on girls’ education. Nangoka sat on the edge of her chair during the session, furtively looking around and extremely self-conscious. In the absence of husband and children, Nangoka’s eyes lit up in memory of what she terms “the miracle years as a student.” Her family that joined in later often interrupted her to interject something or other. In their presence, Nangoka’s smiles were appeasing as she hunched her shoulders and responded to prompts hesitatingly.3 Nangoka was the sixth born of a family of squatters around a Catholic church. From the late 1930s, the church recruited and trained male religious initiates for construction work. Her parents eventually settled on the land. They later sent her to work for an aunt’s family at a military unit when her schooling prospects fell through in third grade. Two years later, the government mandated schooling for all children. Upon return to school, Nangoka, who excelled in mathematics, was fast-tracked by teachers and ended up in her brother’s class. Despite help from the parish priest and individual teachers, Nangoka dropped out again within the year for lack of tuition. Laughing, Nangoka’s noted the irony of extremely weak students, omitting her brother, whose schooling was uninterrupted. Nangoka still yearns for schooling and finds consolation in her own children’s access to a secondary education. In the twenty-first century, more Kenyan girls have access to school. At the national level, various indicators point to educational improvements on the Kenya Certificate in Secondary Education from 2010 and 2016 in testing centers, examination candidates including female and special-needs students. A few students took examinations in hospital and in prison. Similar gains emerge across Kenya’s forty-seven counties.4 Comparative analysis is hindered by data inaccessibility, and similar search terms generate disparate data. Enrollment statistics differ depending on the search term: pre-primary, childcare, nursery school, and kindergarten, which all fall under the umbrella of the more recent term, Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC). Notwithstanding regional disparities, the total number of primary schools in Bungoma County ranges from 868 to 933 and secondary schools, 264 to 320. Except for Kanduyi Constituency, primary schools exceed secondary schools by over 50 percent. Government data on private primary schools in Mount Elgon range from 0 to 36. Despite government subsidies, the

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shrinking numbers at each school level limit students’ progression and access to STEM studies Statistics on schools and enrollments are missing, scanty, or inaccurate at best, except for the much publicized and scrutinized Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) that determine students’ academic trajectory as much as the status of teachers, schools, communities, and counties alike. In 2014, a forty-four-year-old headmaster of Kimilili Precious Saints Academy (K–12) committed suicide, fearing backlash from the affected parents when the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) cancelled his school’s results due to examination irregularities which, as it turns out, were not atypical. In 2018, the parents of Abigael Namukhosi from Musangula village in Bungoma beat her to death for poor KCSE grades (277/500) that only qualified her for least competitive sub-county secondary schools with an extremely dismal chance of university admission.5 Parents are known to auction property and take on Shylock loans toward education. Seemingly unrepentant, Abigael slept out following an errand.6 Statistical discrepancies compel triangulated findings from government documents, as well as interviews of teachers, school principals, local professors, and residents. I also drew upon personal knowledge of communities and residents in my role as a participant observer. A 2013–2014 survey by the Population Studies and Research Institute offers a rare analysis of living standards. In Bungoma West (now Sirisia Constituency) only 350 students qualified for university between 2002 and 2007. Mired in poverty, the most-cited family asset was a bicycle (72.6 percent).7 Students from high (34.74 percent) and medium (50.63 percent) socioeconomic status attend public universities. Inhibitive fee structures price out financially needy and brighter students, as Nangoka long understood. She with her deceased husband took pride in the children’s education. Of their three boys and four girls, four got diplomas, one is in nursing, and two more undertook degree studies. FOCUS ON BUNGOMA COUNTY Although this discussion uses Kenya’s Bungoma County as a backdrop to the status and challenges of girls in rural schools, similar concerns arise across the country and within counties. Dropout rates increase by grade level, with higher rates among females. The analysis of education access contrasts Bungoma County’s rural and urban constituencies to highlight the intersection of gender, location, and class, specifically at secondary levels. Bungoma is one of Kenya’s forty-seven counties and lies on the western border. To its west is Uganda; to the north, Trans Nzoia County; Busia County

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to the southwest; and Kakamega County to the southeast. Bungoma County has eight rural constituencies (Bumula, Kanduyi, Kimilili, Mount Elgon, Sirisia, Tongaren, Webuye East, and Webuye West) and two urban constituencies (Kabuchai and Kanduyi), which comprise an estimated population of 1,657,784 with an overall growth rate of 3.1 percent: Bumula (13 percent), Kabuchai (10 percent), Kanduyi (17 percent), Kimilili (10 percent), Mount Elgon (13 percent), Sirisia (7 percent), Tongaren (14 percent), Webuye East (7 percent), and Webuye West (9 percent). Two rural constituencies (Bumula and Mount Elgon) with 26 percent of the county’s population are contrasted to the Kanduyi urban constituency, with the highest population (17 percent) to explore the impact of in- and out-of-school factors on education access and success.8 Mount Elgon is included to illustrate the impact of topography and its cultural isolation as one of Kenya’s Kalenjin-speaking communities among the 88 percent Bukusu- and Tachoni-speaking groups. Significant differences exist in public amenities, domestic conveniences, and literacy levels between urban-based Kanduyi and rural-based Mount Elgon and Bumula constituencies. About half the residents in Bungoma County work on family farms, with fewer than 14 percent in wage employment with disparities that favor urban areas, although these still lag behind other Kenyan towns of similar size. Kanduyi surpasses Bumula and Mount Elgon in residential use of electricity, cemented homes, and access to protected springs and wells, boreholes, and piped water.9 Many houses are grass-thatched. The availability of electricity and housework directly affects the time girls have for schooling. Day students rely heavily on tin lamps and lanterns for evening study, and many families (78 percent) rely on water from outside of homes.10 According to the 2013 Kenya Bureau of Statistics, 49 percent of the population of Bungoma County was fourteen years of age or younger, and about 15 percent of the population were full-time students. The county has a higher literacy rate (80.5 percent) compared to the national average of 71.4, coupled with a higher school enrollment (77.5 to 70.5 percent). An estimated 57 percent have a primary education compared to 37 percent with a secondary or better qualification. Out of 1,195,784 residents in Bungoma County, Mount Elgon Constituency has 150,119 residents of whom 19.4 percent have no education, 64.1 percent have a primary education, and 16.5 percent have a secondary education or more. One of its wards, Chepyuk, has the highest number of residents (70 percent) with a primary education.11 In Bumula Constituency with 155,349 residents, 20.3 percent have no education, 64.7 percent have a primary education, and 14.9 percent have a secondary education or more. In contrast, of Kanduyi Constituency’s 196,930 people, 17.1 percent have no formal education, 57.2 percent have a primary education, and 25.7 percent have a secondary education or more.12 Financially secure

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parents invest heavily in privately funded ECDC and primary schools, which create a pipeline to high-performing national and extra-county secondary schools. National schools dominate the university entry pool; there are no such schools in Bumula or Mount Elgon constituencies.13 Early Childhood Development Center Level The establishment of Early Childhood Education Centers has been haphazard as well as decentralized in management and funding. Although the County Ministry of Education trains all teachers with several taking part-time classes over the weekends, the cost of ECDC education and salaries vary by training, grade level, and location, as well as level of government support. Presidential decrees on Free Primary School (FPE) without parallel funding for ECDCs undermine the growth and status. Some rural parents retain young girls as caretakers and household help, often out of ignorance. Only 47.31 percent of students in Kanduyi attend preschool, with high absenteeism and about 88.13 percent of teachers on duty on any given day, compared to almost 25 percent of teachers who miss school daily in the rural Mount Elgon.14 Chege and Sifuna attribute absenteeism in female teachers to juggling personal and professional demands.15 By 2016, Bungoma County had constructed 135 ECDEs, three in each of the forty-five wards; employed 2,000 teachers; and now requires all ECDC teachers to register with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), which oversees recruitments at primary and secondary levels. Bungoma County needs 2,056 teachers for 12,700 pre-primary classrooms.16 County officials plan to establish ECDCs in each primary school, particularly within the underserved Mount Elgon Constituency. Bungoma County registered less than 40 percent of three- to five-year-olds in early childhood education programs. Their parents (6.8 percent of fathers and 20.7 percent of mothers) engaged in four or more activities to promote learning and school readiness. About 4 percent of mothers lacked formal schooling, 61 percent had a primary education, and 35 percent had a secondary education or higher. More mothers with high education levels and wealth (62 percent) in contrast to 22 percent from the poorest households enrolled children in ECDCs. Only 4.4 percent of children had access to the minimum of three books, and 44.2 percent under age five stayed alone in the home or under the care of a sibling below ten years of age, particularly in rural areas. Overall, 72.1 percent of four-year-olds were on track in literacy-numeracy, physical, socioemotional, or learning domains, with higher levels among children in schools. About 49 percent of urban children compared to 27 percent from rural areas attended ECDCs.17

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Overall, rural-based schools are hard to staff and face dire resource shortages. In Bumula constituency, Kimaeti ECDC requires children to supply five kilograms of maize and four kilograms of beans for meals each term. Four kilometers away, Napara’s ECDC parents supply fifteen kilograms of grain/ maize/beans and one kilogram of sugar per term for the children’s porridge. Few pay up, fewer still on time. Another KES300 ($1=KES100) goes toward stationery. Attendance is low and irregular, with students dribbling in through the morning, mostly unaccompanied. Three- and four-year-olds in the “baby class” engage in routine chores and games; the pre-unit class learns the alphabet; and the upper third years prepare for entry into Std 1 (standard one is used in Kenya for class or grade, overseas). Many students graduate to Std 1 with limited literacy skills. In Napara R.C., an empty space separates the worn-out, white-streaked blackboard from a sea of students’ faces huddled together on the bare floor of the single classroom. There is no teacher’s desk. The two classroom teachers instruct and assess the ability of each student in one-on-one interviews. On one early morning, one of the teachers sits in a partitioned room adjacent to the classroom. Students are huddled together on the floor. Few are in uniform and even fewer have writing materials with them. One student is at the front of the class, whip in hand to discipline the distracted and occasionally used to point to a letter of the alphabet on the blackboard. Typically, this honor falls on mature-looking and smarter students. It was a boy leading the class that day. By sharp contrast, private urban schools like Christ the King (CTK) in Kanduyi Constituency employ trained teachers assigned to smaller class sizes. The principal of CTK works closely with teachers, parents, and administrators. All students have uniforms and can read/write by the time they graduate from the three-year (baby, middle, and top) program. Private ECDCs charge from KES12,000 to 16,000 annually. Overall, EACE children exhibit greater social adaptability and brain development and higher academic achievements coupled with less repetitions as well as dropouts.18 The bottlenecks to girls’ education increase in subsequent levels of the academic rung. Primary School Level The Ominde Commission advocated free primary education as early as 1964, with outcomes varying by gender, region, and physical isolation. In 1971, a presidential decree abolished tuition for nomadic students in arid and semiarid regions. Similar presidential decrees in 1973, 1978, and 2003 increased enrollments exponentially despite a dearth of personnel and resources. About 61.9 percent of six-year-olds entered primary school, mostly among mothers

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with secondary or higher education (74 percent) than not (57 percent). More than 90 percent of beginners complete the last grade of primary school.19 In 2014, Bungoma County had an estimated 706 public and 244 private primary schools. The ratio of public to private schools varies across the county: Kanduyi (87/47) and its neighboring Kabuchai (64/32), Kimilili (43/35), Mount Elgon (80/36), and Bumula (90/17). The higher number of primary schools in Mount Elgon (230) and Bumula (657) reflect lower population densities per kilometer relative to higher concentrations in Kanduyi (921) and Kimilili (936). Two years later, the number increased to 898 public and 196 private primary schools. Private schools spring up and close when faced with low enrollments, poor results, or financial bankruptcy. Private schools qualify more students to schools with STEM facilities and teachers. By 2016, 952,021 students took the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education, in which 5,190 students compared to 7,560 the previous year earned 400/500 or more marks. An estimated 24,795 KCPE candidates qualified for slots at the 105 national schools (an improvement from 23,085 in 2015). About 1,950 special-needs students took the exam, with one attaining 421 points. Resources Variations in ECDC resources and tuition between private/public and urban/rural-based schools also emerge at primary school grade levels. Despite decrees of free primary education at KES1,080 per pupil, schools charge extra and vary by location and grade level. Rural schools charge much less to stay competitive. At the boarding level, Kimaeti Primary in Bumula charges KES18,000 at lower grades to KES23,000 for Std 8 students. The fees for day school students range from KES785 to 4,285 for Std 8 students. St. Stephen’s private academy, less than a kilometer away, charges from KES11,000 to 30,700 for Std 8 students. At the previously mentioned Bumula public school, Napara RC’s extra charge of KES300 per pupil falls far short of its maintenance budget. Stds 1 and 2 hold 150 students each. There are four worn-out three-seater wooden desks without backrests in the room; most students sit on a cracked floor, with some holding a prized exercise book as they diligently gaze at the teacher. Stds 1 through 3’s classrooms have no door, with three, seventeen, and twenty-one desks, respectively. In Stds 4 through 8, four to six students squeeze together or lean in for writing space on about twenty desks. Stds 4 and 5 are in a newer building, which is just as congested; at least classrooms have doors, although glass panels and shutters are broken. Stds 6 through 8 have three streams of 143, 170, and 80 students, respectively. The school weeds out the 120 Std 8 candidates to 80, with 40 in two streams of final examination year. Most teachers walk around with their cache of chalk and textbook. The

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primary school received 150 computers in the fall of 2016, with no evidence of usage and electricity access limited to Std 8 and the administration office. In contrast, the urban public Bungoma D.E.B. in Kanduyi Constituency has an enrollment of 3,128 and five streams of 125 students for Std 1 through 8 classes. The school received 144 laptops in fall 2016. Government interventions can be haphazard. Mount Elgon The fees are lower in the remote Mount Elgon, whereby public primary schools charge KES1,500 to 3,000 for Std 7 and 8 students. Mount Elgon has about fifteen private academies, and tuition charges range from KES15,000 to 36,000. It has few and poorly funded schools and a dire shortage of trained teachers and facilities. John Nalianya highlights the lack of basic facilities like desks, chairs, and toilets for teachers and students. Kipkama Primary School registers 530 students with only five semipermanent classrooms. The rest sit on the floor. Similarly, Chebombai Primary School (K–12) has “over 900 pupils and only four classrooms, where standard 7 and 8 pupils conduct their studies. . . . The rest of the school has to contend with makeshift classes under tents, and the lower classes take their lessons under trees.”20 Mount Elgon’s smaller class sizes have not guaranteed all students a quality education. Mount Elgon’s girls outperformed or equaled boys in test scores, especially in private academies. In 2016, twenty-one candidates from Sango Primary took the KCPE; three of five students who scored 300+/500 were girls. One had the top marks (313). Similarly, in Sacho Primary, a girl got the highest grades (296), followed closely by a boy with 295 marks. At these private academies, nine of the fifteen students who earned 250+ were girls.21 Girls are competitive at primary school levels, which tend to be mixed. Notwithstanding large class sizes and limited resources, rural schools lag behind urban-based schools in test scores. Primary day schools in urban centers like Kanduyi typically charge extra for transportation, which range anywhere from KES12,000 to 16,000 per child annually. Christ the King Primary School charge KES27,000, while the public Bungoma D.E.B. registers all students at KES3,000, except Std 8 students who pay an extra KES12,000 for after-school coaching. In 2016, of the 117 candidates registered at another urban public, Machwele D.E.B. in Kanduyi Constituency, 11 scored 301–394, 52 scored 200–297, and 53 scored 108–199. The lowest score was 91/500. Another Kanduyi-based primary school, Bungoma D.E.B., has the highest enrollment (3,218) across the country, with five streams of about 125 students at each grade level. About 79 qualified for the coveted national schools. Overall,

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Bungoma County’s best-performing Kanduyi schools had a greater percentage of mean scores above 300 marks than Bumula’s private primary schools. Test scores Two mixed public schools within a radius of five kilometers within Bumula Constituency offer a more checkered record. The top male student at Napara Roman Catholic Primary scored 383, with the best girl getting 337/500. Three of the eight students who got over 300 marks were girls. Seventeen students scored 250–299, thirty-two students scored 200–249, and three students scored below 200, with the lowest grade at 164/500. In contrast, the top male and female students scored 373 at Kimaeti Primary, twenty-one students got 300+, thirty-one students scored 250–299, thirty-six scored 200–249, and twenty students scored below 200 marks, with the lowest score by a boy at 121/500. Of the 140 Napara Primary School candidates who took the KCPE in 2015 only five candidates, in contrast to twenty-one out of thirty-one students in neighboring Kimaeti Primary School, qualified for secondary school. The emerging pattern of private schools over public institutions and male dominance on benchmark points begins in primary school. Private primary schools consistently dominate at the eighth-year KCPE results (A=500). At the national level, the top eight students were from private academies. Similarly, since 2010, Bungoma County’s top six schools at KCPE compete among each other (Marell, Gateway, Fountain Gate, Lugulu Boarding Primary, Phim, and Christ the King), with Marell Academy consistently in the lead. Marell also ranks in the top ten schools nationally. A student from Nguresai (Mount Elgon) Academy was among the top hundred candidates. In contrast, the lowest-performing primary schools in the county are Nyange Pentecostal Assemblies of God, Sichei F.Y.M. Malinda S.A., Nabeki Roman Catholic, and Chesiywo Seventh Day Adventist, all rural schools. Mount Elgon’s private schools also outperform its public schools. Further, urban schools qualify more students to competitive secondary schools. Overall, female students appear relatively competitive at the primary level, albeit in smaller-sized and better-resourced settings. Secondary School Level In 1989, Kenya had 18 national schools; however, since the 2010 Constitution review, each county has at least 2 national schools, amounting to 105 to date. In 2014, Bungoma County had an estimated 275 public secondary and 12 private schools, including Bumula (30/1), Kanduyi (43/8), Kimilili (28/0), and Mount Elgon (13/0). Kanduyi’s neighboring Kabuchai Constituency only had 27 public secondary/high schools. Bungoma County has 328 schools,

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of which 2 are national, 16 extra-county, 30 county level, and about 280 sub-county level, with about 20 private secondary schools. The predominance of sub-county level schools (234/320) in Bungoma County limits students’ eligibility to university education.22 Overall, constituencies with more secondary schools help increase transition rates from primary to tertiary education. Kanduyi has the largest number of secondary schools and outperforms the rural-based schools in Bumula and Mount Elgon. Most of the secondary/ high sub-county and county schools are mixed/coeducational with boarding and day facilities. Several schools (Chwele, St. Teresa Kabula, Kimaeti, St. Jude Napara) that began as mixed schools have since become single education institutions. Typically, boys’ schools outperform their counterparts. National schools recruit about 80 percent of candidates from across the country. These top secondary schools admit Form One students with 400 and above marks. Extra-county schools admit 20 percent of applicants from within the constituency such as Kanduyi, 40 percent from the host-county such as Bungoma, and 40 percent from other counties across Kenya. Students qualify at 370 marks or more. On the other hand, most sub-county and county schools are mixed/coed with boarding and day facilities. County schools admit mostly neighborhood students (80 percent) with cutoff scores of 300 and above. Sub-county schools have the lowest entry scores and typically admit neighborhood students due to physical inaccessibility and lower admission standards, cost, and academic rigor. Resources, teacher quality, and scores vary accordingly. National and extra-county schools, most of which are in the Kanduyi, Kimilili, and Webuye constituencies, qualify more students to university.23 The near-dismal 2016 KCSE results from private secondary schools in Kanduyi and Bumula reflect low admission standards and the reliance on private sponsorship. By contrast, Mount Elgon’s Kibuk Girls and Kapsokwony Boys have facilities but are less competitive because of physical inaccessibility and political insecurity. The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) selects successful post-KCSE candidates for specific programs. Students scoring an A get priority in program selection and typically take STEM courses. The university admission grade is C+ or above. A school’s performance on STEM courses enhances its prestige and improves its national ranking. Further, a student’s prospects improve with admission to a public rather than private secondary/high school whose success depends entirely on private sponsorship. Many are priced out of an education regardless of test scores. Tuition Since the late 1980s, the Ministry of Education has decreed fee guidelines at the secondary school level to curb excessive tuition hikes by individual

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schools. Boarders qualify for a rebate of KES12,000 above the government tuition limit of 53,000–73,000; day schools can charge 33,000 to 54,900, while national schools are limited to 84,000. However, tuition in national and extra-county boarding schools ranges from KES59,000 to 85,000, while day schools in remote areas run as low as 15,000. Schools within similar regions or rankings align tuition rates. The government currently covers KES22,244 for all secondary school categories and KES57,974 for special-needs schools of the required full tuition. The fee structure for national schools amounts to KES75,000, while boarding schools charge KES62,000. Day schools will be paying KES22,000 per year.24 The top-performing boys’ schools in Bumula charge between KES46,000 and 49,000/-, with girls’ schools charging about 10,000/- less. Khasoko Boys, Bumula Constituency’s top school, charges KES47,000 in tuition, with a capacity of 670 students and four streams of 45, as well as three laboratories and computing courses. The runner-up, Kabula Boys, charges KES48,000 in tuition and also offers computer classes.25 Mount Elgon’s top five secondary schools charge between KES37,000 and 45,000/-, whereas high-performing secondary schools in Kanduyi Constituency charge over 50,000/-. School Boards of Management approve funds beyond these limits. Several schools in the county have tuition arrears, running from KES3 to 6 million, although students are often out-of-school for outstanding fee balances. Inevitably, most schools rely on government subsidies for operating expenses. In the 2013–2014 report of sampled 1,500 Bungoma County households, 57.5 percent of children, compared to 31.8 percent at the national level, attended secondary school or higher. However, while 56 percent boys and 48 percent girls in the county transitioned to secondary school, only 28 percent boys and 35 percent girls attended during the period of study. More urban (36 percent) than rural (29 percent) children attended secondary school.26 In 2016, Bungoma County registered 23,367 candidates, an increase from 21,562 the previous year. Of the sixteen secondary schools in Bumula Constituency in 2016, only 151 of 2,300 candidates qualified for university admission. Increases in Form One (first year of secondary education; twelfth grade, overseas) enrollments benefit boys, given existing disparities in schools, course selections, trained teachers, and career options. In Bumula South, the primary and secondary schools’ combined enrollment between 2003 and 2013 rose from 38 percent to 90 percent given governmental subsidies and bursaries, although less than half of Form One admits complete four years of secondary schooling. Girls drop out at higher rates due to pregnancy, sexual harassment, lack of school fees, sickness, and mistreatment by teachers.27

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STEM facilities Kenya plans to replace its secondary school restructuring. The initial 7-4-2-3 (primary, secondary, high school, college years) school structure distinguished secondary from high schools. A student’s performance in STEM-related subjects at the eighth-year KCPE determined their eligibility to prestigious national or provincial (extra-county) schools. Thereafter, a student’s performance on KCSE translated to greater choices at the university level. In both the 7-4-2-3 and current 8-4-4 models, only students who pass science courses at the A-Level/KCSE qualify for STEM programs. Since 1985, all students study art and science classes. The latest reform is a competency-based curriculum (CBC), 2-6-6-3 system, emphasizing formative and summative assessments that still drive and are driven by school rankings28 and reflected in tuition, STEM facilities, and curriculum. Nationally, top-performing schools and primarily boys’ schools are better equipped in STEM subjects and offer larger streams with science facilities as well as technical and vocational subjects, most of which exclude females. A student’s aspirations to STEM-related careers depend on admission to schools like Friends School Kamusinga and Lugulu Girls, which are more competitive and recruit nationally. Each form/class level (1–4) has 5/6 streams with both physical science and art, although performance is higher in the arts. Founded in 1956, Friends School Kamusinga pioneered Science School Projects (SSP) with classes in laboratories. Most extra-county and county schools have biology, physics, and chemistry laboratories. However, about half of the 126 sampled secondary schools in Bungoma County had less than 50 percent of resource materials for teaching social studies and ethics compared to the facilities required in STEM disciplines.29 Sifuna finds the lack of practical work, discussions, and presentations detrimental to students’ engagement of class material, particularly in STEM courses.30 Five of the key schools in Mount Elgon have science laboratories and more than one stream of each class. Kibuk Girls and Cheptais Boys, with the largest enrollments (800), both have four streams of forty-five students and three labs and offer computer courses; Kapsokwony Boys has forty-five students in each class and three labs; Kapkateny Mixed has two streams of forty students, while Chepkube Mixed has two streams of forty students and one laboratory. Though mostly under repair, Cheptais Boys and Kibuk Girls have more computers (10 to 17) compared to Kapsokwony Boys and Kapkateny Mixed, with fewer than ten computers. Out of 1,500 students who sat for their 2013 KCSE in Mount Elgon, only 120 scored a mean grade of B to qualify for public universities. In 2016, the extra-county Kibuk Girls lagged Kapsokwony Boys’ and Cheptais Boys, with a library, science laboratories, and comparable class sizes and teaching staff. Similarly, although Chwele Girls became a high

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school with a science stream in 1979 at the same time as Kibabii Boys, its reputation and performance lag the other. In Bumula, St. Jude Napara Girls and St. Peter’s Mwiruti Girls have one laboratory each, while St. Teresa’s Kabula Boys has two laboratories. A look at these three schools as well as Bishop Atundo Kimaeti Boys illustrates the interplay between gender and facilities. While Mwiruti Girls and Kabula Boys have comparable levels of teaching staff from the TSC and School Management Board, the boys’ schools have two or more laboratories and are better equipped. Kabula has two laboratories, a library, and dining hall. Yet, in 2013 three Mwiruti candidates qualified for university—one art and two sciences (biology/agriculture and chemistry/math), and in 2014 three more students qualified for university to study information science, physics, and biology/home science. In 2016, St. Peter’s Mwiruti still lacked library and dining facilities for the boarding school. Its readmission of girls who get pregnant and wish to complete studies is unique. On the other hand, Kimaeti Boys has physics and biology laboratories; about eighty-one students took the examination in 2016 but only three qualified for university. The school enrolls 420 students and has comparable numbers of teaching staff to St. Jude Napara Girls. St. Jude Napara completed its functioning biology lab in 2016 and yet it qualified four students for university. Exceptions occur, although these arise due to established exemplary test scores. The Kanduyi Constituency–based mixed school, Namachanja High, has one laboratory but posts impressive results relative to other mixed schools. At the sub-county level, one student from Masielo Mixed, with one stream and no science laboratory, qualified for university with a B-. Curriculum Disparities in schooling access reinforce prevailing gender hierarchies. Teachers expect less of girls in subjects such as math and interact with boys (questions, praise, criticize, correct) more frequently. They tolerate mediocre performance among girls in science subjects like technology, engineering, and mathematics (“it is too hard for them”), whereas boys are challenged to develop their potential (“of course, you can do it!”).31 Successful women are typically from middle-class families and tend to be nonconformist, as well as self-motivated enough to break with tradition and gender stereotypes.32 Vickers refutes claims of gender roles as reflective of biological differences.33 Government funding of technical and science subjects compared to humanities sidelines girls who lack the STEM preparation for traditional male-oriented fields and better- paying professions.34 Oyoo acknowledges the rarity of science demonstrations and class experiments prior to secondary education.35 In technical and industrial institutes which offer courses in power

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mechanics and woodwork, women drop out due to “dissatisfaction, misplaced expectations, pregnancy, harassment, and academic problems.”36 Girls are overrepresented at private institutions, which offer arts-based programs. They concentrate in stereotypical and traditional fields of home science, business studies, tailoring, and dressmaking. Within corporations, feminized occupations like secretarial work and nursing have low status and pay. Educational inequalities reflect differences in the quality of teachers and learning materials, parental support, school management, and students’ motivation: “Seven in every 10 pupils are taught math by a teacher who can demonstrate math concepts at a level of 40 percent or above. . . . With a population of over 10 million primary school learners, over 30 million are taught math by ‘weak’ teachers.”37 In some schools, five students share a textbook. Further, colleges require primary school teachers to take thirteen subjects. Few have the ability to demystify science in teaching, which Oyoo attributes to conceptual gaps.38 One teacher in the study could not explain to a student why the symbol for sodium is Na instead of SO, unaware of its Latin roots. His advice, “Memorize the term!” Notwithstanding resources, factors impacting teacher productivity range from conflicting sideline ventures to poor supervision due to limited personnel and funding.39 Teacher strikes also cut into school days, and many teachers run private businesses to make ends meet. A rarely acknowledged handicap is the role of language in the study of other disciplines. Since English is the primary medium of instruction, facility in the language affects a student’s performance in other subject areas. Rural students experience greater difficulty communicating in academic concepts and settings in contrast to counterparts’ fluency in Sheng, Swahili, and English. While Oyoo focuses on teaching expertise in science,40 Sifuna underscores the difficulty of teaching scientific terms to students who already struggle with English as a second language.41 First-language interferences further complicate the transmission of facts when academic terms are mispronounced, misspelled, or misused in communications. While universities complain about incoming students’ poor facility in English, they too face criticism for graduating students with “appalling” English-language skills.42 Tertiary Level Bungoma County has one university, a few diploma courses, and a larger number of polytechnics whose publicity reflects neither the infrastructure nor course offerings. Kanduyi Constituency has the university and three diploma-granting colleges. Kimilili Constituency has two polytechnics. Sirisia and Kabuchai have four to Mount Elgon’s two polytechnics. Bumula acquired a Teachers Training College in 2012 and has about nine understaffed and poorly equipped programs. Students pay between KES25,000 and

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40,000/- annually for more technical subjects, though these register fewer than ten students with highly irregular attendance. Longer established polytechnics like Sang’alo Institute of Science and Technology in Kanduyi Constituency grant diplomas as well as trade certificates. The county has 258 non-formal adult education centers that provide life skills learning, with greater numbers in rural Mount Elgon (31) and Bumula (32) compared to urban-centered Kimilili (21) and Kanduyi (19).43 In 2014, Bungoma County required an extra 500 tutors for youth polytechnics, amid high staff turnovers. Government subsidies cover about 50 percent of tuition. While youth polytechnics serve specific communities, degree-granting colleges and universities admit national and international students. Kenya has thirty-one public universities (up from six in 2003 and twenty-two in 2013), fourteen chartered universities, and thirteen private universities with Letters of Interim Authority (LIA). There are several international schools catering to European and Japanese education systems; none are in Bungoma County. The 2010 Constitution’s devolution of resources to counties included the establishment of tertiary institutions across the country. The 1985 school reform from a 7-4-2-3 to an 8-4-4 system increased university intake by 98 percent compared to previous years and led to the creation of the parallel or module 2 programs of the 1990s, with about half self-sponsored students. In 2008, the Joint Admissions Board (JAB) recruited 16,151 out of 82,134 qualified applicants.44 That year, university admissions of females rose by 30 percent to 100,000, due to JAB’s decision to lower the entry mark from 63 to 61.45 In general, ineligible students enroll in private universities offering limited programs or enroll in comparably costly “parallel” certificate and diploma programs at public institutions. Yet again, a structural impediment takes a further toll on women and the rural poor. Wachiye and Nasong’o found that 38.6 percent females and 61.4 percent males from a sample of 275 university students from Bungoma County received Higher Education Loan Board (HELB) funds ranging from KES30,000 to 60,000; further, only 23.6 percent of the predominantly male recipients came from low socioeconomic status compared to an estimated 67.9 percent of loan recipients from middle-class families.46 The growth in university admissions far supersedes the availability of resources and personnel. General courses serve about 1,000 students. The number of professors has stood at 352, with moderate increases in lecturers in public and private universities from 7,000 in 2007 to 9,000 in 2010. In the four-year period, student enrollments increased from 91,541 to 140,000.47 In 2009–2010, public universities admitted 32,611 out of 96,000 in comparison to the previous year’s 24,000 admissions.48 By 2012, Kenyan private and public universities increased intake by 21 percent (198,260), an increase from 240,551 in 2011. Female admissions rose by 30 percent to 105,115. Similar

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increases occurred at the primary school level, with an increase of 1.6 percent (to 4.9 million), and the secondary level whereby the total enrollment of girls rose by 9.4 percent to 895,792, illustrating the significance of improvements at earlier levels of education.49 In 2015, about 80,000 students qualified for admission to the various universities and colleges, of whom some 67,790 students pursued degree programs. STEM-related courses remain the most competitive programs across all the universities.50 ANALYSIS Male privilege in myth and real life codifies, institutionalizes, and legitimizes patriarchy, a factor that is prominently on display in the educational system. Community value for marriage and family raises dropout rates. In 2015, Chipkurkur Primary School lost nineteen girls to pregnancies, and the next year, Chelebei Secondary Day School lost twenty students.51 In adulthood, male elders, teachers, or supervisors in public spheres wield significant authority. Teacher-centered pedagogies and passivity could well reflect a cultural reverence for elders. Feminist scholars like Steinberg underscore the impact of patriarchy; it “goes beyond gender relations and identity insofar as it pervades social institutions, including education, the welfare establishment, the police, the military, the legal system, the media, etc. . . . [as a system that] induces women to accept a passive view of their femininity and men to embrace unproblematically their gender privilege.”52 In Space, Text, Gender: An Anthropological Study of the Marakwet in Kenya (1986), Henrietta Moore shows how patriarchy determines the use of space, language, authority, and identity. Bukusu folktales reflect prevailing social norms, with an absence of tales depicting cross-gender interactions or female protagonists. The reader meets Kulundu the livestock-rancher; Kasaawa the farmer; Manyonge the hunter; Opicho, Namumguba, and Waswa the herd boys; and Nyaranga the ironsmith. Women appear less ethical, often indecisive, and dependent on male folk. Co-wives take out marital frustrations on vulnerable stepchildren, rather than cultural authorities or structural organization.53 Stories are key cultural conduits in physically remote and economically underprivileged communities. Personal and structural factors compound the plight of girls who embark on science careers. Girls have limited access to high-performing schools, often due to poor preparation although lack of tuition also relegates many to underperforming secondary schools and thereafter polytechnics. They are overstretched by domestic and child-rearing responsibilities. They lack private space and electricity for night study, can face harassment from boys and teachers, and often fall prey to early pregnancy and secondary school dropout.

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Girls shy away from STEM subjects and find it overambitious if they aspire to high-powered careers and professions. Many internalize self-censorship to avoid being a threat or too visible in male-dominant structures. Campaigns for girls in STEM is like planting seeds that fail to sprout amid overwhelming cultural hindrances, school rankings, and geography. Access disparities Education has perpetuated deprivation, social disadvantage, regional imbalance, and other inequalities as out-of-school factors compound in-school limitations on academic access and success.54 Secondary school rankings reflect disparities in infrastructure, admissions standards, tuition, curriculum offerings, teacher quality, laboratory facilities, and qualifying test scores to tertiary education. The percentage of university admissions decreases in respective order, from national, extra-county, county, and sub-county schools. Within Bungoma County, the top schools, mostly boys,’ consistently compete among each other. The urban-based Kanduyi Constituency posted the largest number of students who qualified for public universities.55 In a self-fulfilling prophecy, rankings establish a school’s status and guarantee high standards of performance. The highest concentrations of Bungoma County residents are mostly in centers with social amenities like Kimilili (52,488), Bungoma (71,322), and Webuye (29,768). Differences in academic access between the urbanized Kanduyi and Kimilili constituencies relative to the more rural Bumula and Mount Elgon constituencies, both of which comprise about 25 percent of the county population (659,073), illustrate the significance of location: proximity to urban centers, other secondary schools, and tertiary institutions. Schools close to urban centers benefit from visibility, accessibility, teacher preference, and closer supervision. Similar benefits emerge from alliances based on religion and the proximity to high-performing schools. Mount Elgon schools face infrastructural hurdles, political instability, and teacher shortages.56 In the 1980s, Kapsokwony and Kibuk enrolled close to 1,000 students. Both the enrollments and performance on KCSE examinations have gone down. Out of 1,500 students who sat for their 2013 KCSE in Mount Elgon constituency, only 120 scored a mean grade of B plain and above that qualified them for public universities. In the 2016 KCSE, Kibuk Girls (1 B, 5 B-, 4 C+, 21 C, 47 D+, 34 D, 20 D-) performed better than the Kapkateny Mixed school (3 B-, 3 C+, 6 C, 11 C-, 15 D+, 31 D, 16 D-) but lagged behind Kapsokwony Boys’ (1 B+, 3 B, 4 B-, 4 C+, 11 C, 8 C-, 21 D+, 25 D, 13 D-) although both have science laboratories. The smaller population sizes in Mount Elgon schools—Kibuk (700), Kapsokwony (800), Cheptais (800),

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Kapkateny (600), Chekube (400)—arose from the new 8-4-4 education system and the loss of students during ethnic clashes in 1992 and 2007. The issue of disparities in education access also stokes patriarchal expectations: Although male students have greater options in schools and curriculum as well as the cultural sanction of progress, policy makers raise alarms with any advances in girls’ education. When 14 out of 47 of the counties registered more boys than girls in the 2011 KCPE, the Minister for Education cautioned leaders, parents, and communities to monitor endangered boys. A similar angst made the airwaves in 2012, when 36 out of 47 counties achieved gender parity with 18 of the 36 countries enrolling more girls. Yet, private schools dominate the top-performing category comprising 20 of the best schools at district and national levels.57

Over 30 percent of girls qualified for Kenyan universities in 2013, taking the number beyond 100,000. The five-year trend reflects similar enrollment increases at the primary level by 1.6 percent to 4.9 million and in secondary school by 9.4 percent to 895,792, compared to the percentage in boys at 0.7 percent and 7.4 percent, respectively, both of which closed the gender enrollment gap.58 Traditionally, few female students enroll in departments of science and technology or even hold professorial ranks at tertiary institutions. They comprise about 30 percent of university enrollments but fall to about 15 percent in the sciences and 4 percent in engineering.59 In the engineering, mechanical, and electrical departments at the Kenya Technical Teachers College, female students are fewer than 13 percent and upon graduation, female engineers have fewer job offers, receive lower pay, and have limited prospects.60 Only 2 percent study science, technology, and engineering curricula.61 In Kenya’s National Polytechnics, females feel alienated and face subtle harassment from male classmates. The school-to-career pipeline reflects and reinforces gender disparities in STEM programs and thereafter. The 2016 KCSE results caused much soul-searching nationwide and disrupted mainstream narratives of gender, social class, and school ranking. Girls surpassed boys at all grade levels except A. There was a 63 percent drop in the number of As earned in 2016, and about 50 percent of students qualified for university in 2015. Of the top twenty students in 2016, sixteen were girls, although a boy, Jacob Wekesa from Alliance, scored straight As with the highest grade-points (86.794/100). The number of students eligible for university decreased from 169,910 in 2015 to 88,929 in 2016.62 In Bungoma County, one national school, Lugulu Girls, and an extra-county school, Teremi Boys, tied at qualifying the highest number of students (250) for university in 2016.

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Overall, boys’ schools dominate in school performance and subsequently eligibility for university education. A student’s academic performance at various levels reflects the interplay among gender, location, class, and topography, as university admissions indicate. Despite a shared location, St. Teresa Kabula Boys maintains a momentum of higher college admissions compared to its female counterpart, St. Peters Mwiruti Girls, which relocated in 2013. While they have comparable resources and personnel, the boys’ school with a hundred more students posts superior results annually. In 2013–2014, Kabula Boys led among Bungoma County schools in KCSE results. Overall, although fewer in number, exclusive boys’ schools (thirty-four) within Bungoma County dominate university entry candidates compared to girls’ schools (fifty-two). In one of Bumula’s constituency wards, Kimaeti, not a single student in twelve of its sixteen schools qualified for university (C+ and above), while six other schools produced a single qualifying student. In contrast, about 80 percent of the 2016 college entrants in Bungoma County were from schools in the more urban Kanduyi, Kabuchai, and Kimilili constituencies. Mount Elgon schools lag behind Bumula and Kanduyi constituencies in performance at both the KCPE and KCSE. Paradoxically, and five decades after Nangoka lost her battle for schooling, education, however limited, is an accomplishment. Since independence, boys’ schools outnumber girls’ schools in resource allocation, enrollment, and test score representation in the top one hundred national schools. Further, the male-to-female ratio of teachers grows with the progression of educational levels. Despite improvements in enrollments at all school levels, fewer girls pursue science degrees. The disparity can be attributed to underrepresentation of females in STEM-related programs as well as to low esteem and lack of role models among female teachers. In schools where female teachers teach math and the sciences, like Lugulu Girls, Cardinal Otunga Girls, St. Cecilia Misikhu, and Chwele Girls, students tend to perform well in those subjects.63 Academia Predictably, more male students join and later work in universities, as the 2016 KCPE performance demonstrates. Bungoma County female professionals account for about 6 percent with three in administration, one of whom served as vice chancellor of Kiriri Women’s University of Science and Technology, the only university that caters specifically to women in STEM. Political access as well as barriers to their entrance to higher education account for the low numbers of women administrators,64 which limits women’s influence on education policy and regulations. Within Mount Elgon,

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three professors, including one female, studied in the current extra-county/ provincial secondary schools that qualified thirty-nine students for university. Although comparable in resources, the lowest number was from a girls’ school. Urban-based schools typically register better results.65 In academia, professors from Bungoma County are mostly male. Two female professors attended provincial schools that qualified 43 candidates; one attended an out-of-county school, which qualified 164 students for university. At the time, some students, including one Bungoma female student, studied in neighboring Uganda. By contrast, except for the remote Mount Elgon, which lags in number of professors and qualifies even less for university (twelve students), Bukusu male professors attended high-performing schools that have retained dominance in students’ university eligibility. A total of eighteen professors attended six schools that qualified 949 students (199, 218, 117, 210, 193, 12). Historically, Harambee schools (initially private and community-based) rarely qualified students for university. In one rare instance, a student qualified for university in a secondary school that is currently government funded. The school qualified thirteen students for university. About four Bungoma County professors attended a neighboring county with the schools qualifying 194 students for university. STEM professors are male, in the areas of mathematics, aquaculture, agricultural economics, electrical and electronic engineering, agriculture, physics, engineering, chemistry, business, and entomology. Overall, while primary to secondary and postsecondary transitions show improvement among girls, the numbers dwindle drastically at upper echelons particularly in science fields, as the professorial lineup indicates. Mehta points to a lingering gender disparity in STEM fields.66 Families, communities, and the national government play a key role in guaranteeing women’s access and academic success. Two Bukusu undertook STEM courses outside Bungoma County schools before pursuing BSc degrees in the early 1970s. They attended two provincial secondary schools (Bunyore Girls and Highlands Eldoret Girls/Moi Girls) that qualified 265 and 292 candidates for university.67 Many more girls aspire to degrees in STEM fields, although the gender disparity persists. CONCLUSION Economic advances, however laudable, create STEM-related opportunities for few students, specific regions, and socioeconomic classes. In the existing educational ladder, privilege begins with ECDC and primary school opportunities, whereby a good foundation determines one’s trajectory in life. Gender disproportions within STEM arise from systemic discrepancies in access. The

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dominance of primary over secondary schools in Bungoma County is a major roadblock to students’ aspirations to higher education. Few girls have access to rigorous math studies or adequately equipped science labs. Fewer still train in computer science, coding, and game design for technological careers, and selectivity in college admissions, specifically coveted STEM programs, disqualify many more. Mount Elgon highlights the plight of female students in culturally isolated communities. Media coverage of exemplary students and schools obscures the impact of parental resources, school rankings, culture, and geography on students’ academic success while fueling ethnic rhetoric. Residents attribute Mount Elgon’s underdevelopment to being a linguistic minority in a predominantly Bukusu-speaking county.68 In Kenya’s examination-driven educational systems, test scores are the badges of honor to schools, parents, and students alike. Private ECDCs and primary schools consistently outperform public schools and qualify more candidates to national and extra-county high schools. Most high-performing schools are for boys, particularly at the pivotal secondary school with an established tradition of academic rigor, school ranking, STEM facilities, and personnel, regardless of constituency. These competitive schools charge higher fees coupled with generous government funding. Female students face insurmountable hurdles in schools lacking science labs. Dropout rates increase by grade level. Girls who persevere wrestle with the impact of a poor education foundation, and those who enter STEM-related fields face ongoing dismissal and discrimination from family, peers, teachers, and, later, business colleagues and clients alike. Conventional portrayals of women as desirable, amiable, and obliging draw many to service occupations. The stereotyping undermines aspirations and discourages the pursuit of STEM-related disciplines and careers. Even educated adults exhibit authoritarian and conservative attitudes toward women.69 The impact of structural factors on the disempowerment of females illustrates the interlocking nature of bias in inhibiting social change. At the structural level, sporadic and piecemeal presidential decrees are small but significant milestones in the right direction, but this traditional approach to addressing social inequalities falls prey to prevailing historical disparities. Girls’ schools are few, particularly in rural areas, a hindrance further compounded by familial and government investments in boy’s schools and STEM-related careers, which systematically marginalize girls. To counter the underrepresentation of girls in STEM programs calls for a collective and concerted effort at the grassroots, county, and national level. The interplay of culture and language as well as policy and practice compound male privilege. The silence on patriarchal privilege in family circles and school settings circumscribes the agency of girls because identity and aspirations begin early in life. As such, while restructuring domestic chores

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promises space and time for girls to pursue more interests, it threatens taken-for-granted gender stereotyping many find central to social harmony. Opponents of campaigns for women’s rights and remuneration for childcare, domestic chores, and farming allege imperialistic impositions (read, feminism). As such, urging girls to work hard and set high academic goals is sowing in the wind. Acknowledging women’s interests, identities, and issues involves recognizing that their way of being, thinking, and doing neither hinders self-fulfillment nor undermines their communal significance. Uplifting girls is an investment in the family she raises as much as the community to which she belongs. NOTES 1. Mehta 2022; Sifuna 2015. 2. Slack and Grossberg 2016, 77. 3. R. K. Nangoka (pseudonym), personal communication, June 9, 2014. 4. University of Nairobi 2013; Mwangi 2013; Nyakang’I 2016. 5. Khisa 2018. 6. Khisa 2018. 7. Mabonga 2013. 8. Government of Kenya 2013. 9. Government of Kenya 2013. 10. University of Nairobi 2013. 11. Mwangi 2013. 12. Government of Kenya 2013. 13. See tables A.4, A.5, and A.6 in appendix. 14. Uwezo 2021; Mwangi 2013; Chemonges and Otieno 2020. 15. Chege and Sifuna 2006. 16. Government of Kenya 2013. 17. University of Nairobi 2013. 18. Muyoka, Kafu, and Nyandusi 2012. 19. University of Nairobi 2013. 20. Nalianya 2015. 21. N. Changeywo (pseudonym), interview, March 13, 2017. 22. Government of Kenya 2013. 23. See tables A.4 and A.5 in appendix. 24. Education News Hub 2023. 25. N. Changeywo interview. 26. University of Nairobi 2013. 27. Passy 2014. 28. Wanzala 2017. 29. Andambi and Kariuki 2013. 30. Sifuna 2015.

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31. Oyoo 2010. 32. Wambua 2007. 33. Vickers 2010. 34. Ruto and Ndaloh 2013. 35. Oyoo 2010. 36. Chege and Sifuna 2006, 103. 37. Ngware 2016. 38. Oyoo 2010. 39. Duflo, Dupas, and Kremer (2009). 40. Oyoo 2010. 41. Sifuna 2015. 42. Mutai 2012; Oyoo 2010. 43. Government of Kenya 2013. 44. Wambua 2008. 45. Nganga 2013a. 46. Wachiye and Nasong’o 2009. 47. Nganga 2010. 48. Nganga 2013a. 49. Nganga 2013b. 50. Oduor 2015. 51. Citizen TV Kenya 2016. 52. Steinberg 2012, 365. 53. Florence 2005. 54. Oyoo 2010. 55. See tables A.1, A.2, A.3, A.4, A.5, and A.6 in appendix. 56. Government of Kenya 2013. 57. Florence 2017, 55. 58. Nganga 2013a. 59. Chege and Sifuna 2006. 60. Wambua 2008. 61. Mbarika et al. 2007. 62. Nyakang’i 2016. 63. The author holds strongly to this opinion and the entire chapter demonstrates that. 64. Chege and Sifuna 2006. 65. This is public information accessible to Bungoma County residents from mass media and village talk. However, the ranking of secondary schools as national, county, and sub-county is about a decade old, previous to which schools were ranked as national, provincial, district, and Harambee/self-help community ventures. Linking the facts is by the author. 66. Mehta 2022. 67. S. Wanani (pseudonym), interview, October 26, 2017. 68. Siriishet, Sicheey, and Yobo 2001. 69. Mbarika et al. 2007.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Andambi, R., and B. Kariuki. 2013. “The Effect of Use of Language Resources in Teaching Social Education and Ethics in Bungoma County, Kenya.” Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies 4, no. 1: 157–63. Chege, F. N., and D. N. Sifuna. 2006. Girls’ and Women’s Education in Kenya: Gender Perspectives and Trends. Nairobi: UNESCO. Chemonges, Cheboriot Lindah, and Calvins Otieno. 2020. “Socio-Technical Components Affecting Enrollment of Needy Students into Free Secondary Education in Kenya: Survey of Mt. Elgon Sub-County, Bungoma County, Kenya.” International Journal of Recent Research in Commerce Economics and Management 7, no. 2: 128–45. https://www​.paperpublications​.org​/upload​/book​/ paperpdf​-1592912199​.pdf. Citizen TV Kenya. 2016. “20 Girls Found Pregnant at Chelebei Secondary School in Mt. Elgon.” YouTube, March 10. https:​//​www​.youtube​.com​/watch​?v​ =e9tsJp0DC88. Duflo, Esther, Pascaline Dupas, and Michael Kremer. 2009. “Can Tracking Improve Learning? Evidence from Kenya.” Education Next 9, no. 3: 64–70. Education News Hub. 2023. “2023 New Reduced School Fees Structure and Guidelines for All Secondary Schools in Kenya; Education Ministry Releases Guidelines.”  Education News Portal, accessed April 4, 2013. https:​ //​ educationnewshub​.co​.ke​/2023​-new​-reduced​-school​-fees​-structure​-and​-guidelines​ -for​-all​-secondary​-schools​-in​-kenya​-education​-ministry​-releases​-guidelines. Florence, N. 2005. From Our Mothers’ Hearths: Bukusu Folktales and Proverbs. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. ———. 2017. “Wangari Maathai the Educator: Straddling Tradition and Modernity.” Journal of Global Education and Research 1, no. 1: 48–67. Government of Kenya. 2013. Bungoma County Integrated Development Plan 2013– 2017. Nairobi: Government Printers. Khisa, Edwin. 2018. “KCPE Candidate Beaten to Death by Parents over Low Marks, Spending Night with Boyfriend.” Radio Halisi, November 22. https:​//​ www​.radiohalisi​.co​.ke​/kcpe​-candidate​-beaten​-to​-death​-by​-parents​-over​-low​-marks​ -spending​-night​-with​-boyfrien. Mabonga, R. M., S. Away, and M. Poipoi. 2013. “The Relationship between Students’ Socio-Economic Status and Access to Public University Education in West District, Kenya.” International Journal of Advanced Research 1, no. 4: 244–51. Mbarika, V. W. A., F. C. Payton, L. Kvasny, and A. Amadi. 2007. “IT Education and Workforce Participation: A New Era for Women in Kenya.” Information Society 23, no. 1: 1–18. Mehta, Neil. 2022. “Faculty, Students Reflect on STEM Faculty Gender Gap.” Brown Daily Herald, April 4. https:​//​www​.browndailyherald​.com​/article​/2022​/04​/faculty​ -students​-reflect​-on​-stem​-faculty​-gender​-gap. Mutai, N. C. 2012. “A Critical Review of Oral Questioning Technique in Secondary School English Language Teaching in Eldoret Municipality, Kenya.” Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies 3, no. 3: 323–30.

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Muyoka, W. V., P. Kafu, and C. Nyandusi. 2012. “Quality Assurance in ECDC Monitoring and Funding for Early Childhood Development Education in Bungoma South County, Kenya.” Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies 3, no. 3: 331–37. Mwangi, T. W. 2013. Exploring Kenya’s Inequality: Pulling Apart or Pooling Together? Nairobi: Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and Society for International Development. Nalianya, John. 2015. “Mt. Elgon School Has Few Desks and Toilets.” Accessed October 7. www.the-star.co.ke/news/2015/10/07/ mt-elgon-school-has-few-desks-and-toilets_c1218328. Nganga, G. 2010. “Kenya: Acute Shortage of Professors.” University World News, November 28. ______. 2013a. “Admission of Women Students Soar to More Than 100,000.” University World News, June 1. ______. 2013b. “Kenya: Double Student Intake Kicks Off at Kenyatta.” University World News, October 2. Ngware, M. 2016. “Clean KCSE Results Will Run Cartels Out of Business.” Daily Nation Online, December 29. http:​//​mobile​.nation​.co​.ke​/news​/education​/Clean​-test​ -realised​-for​-first​-time​-in​-KCSE​-history​/3126398​-3501714​-f0fhqb​/index​.html. Nyakang’I, E. 2020. “KCSE 2016 Comprehensive Data.” KenyaYote. http:​//​ kenyayote​.com​/kcse​-2016​-comprehensive​-data​-report. Oduor, A. 2015. “80,000 Students to Join Various Universities & Colleges.” The Standard, July 16. Oyoo, S. O. 2010. “Science Teacher Effectiveness as a Condition for Successful Science Education in Africa: A Focus on Kenya.” The International Journal of Learning 17, no. 9: 469–84. Passy, E. M. 2014. Factors Influencing Girl Child Dropout Rate in Mixed Secondary Schools in Kenya: A Case Study of Bumula Sub County. Nairobi: University of Nairobi. Ruto, Zipporah Jerotich, and Agumba M. Ndaloh. 2013. “Overcoming the Challenges of Using Instructional Methods and Materials Encountered by Teachers of History and Government in Wareng County, Kenya.” Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies 4, no. 2: 265–73. Sifuna, D. N. 2015. “Universities’ Collaboration in Education: A Survey of Hiroshima, Kobe (Japan) and Selected African Universities.” African Educational Research Journal 6, no. 6: 16–25. Siriishet, Kayoong’teneek Kaab, Cheenrose Sicheey, and Rutin Yobo. 2001. Voices from the Mountain: Kenya A Selection of the Oral Testimonies Gathered from the Upper and Lower Slopes in Mount Elgon County. London: Pano Institute. Slack, Jennifer Darly, and Lawrence Grossberg. 2016. Cultural Studies 1983: A Theoretical History: Stuart Hall. London: Duke University. Steinberg, Shirley R. 2012. “It’s All Just Smoke and Mirrors: Isn’t There More Than One Way to be Diverse?” In Precarious International Multicultural Education: Hegemony, Dissent and Rising Alternatives, edited by Wright, Handel Kashope; Singh, Michael; and Race, Richard, 347–471. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

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University of Nairobi, Population Studies and Research Institute. 2013. Kenya— Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2013–2014, Bugoma County. New York: World Bank. Uwezo. 2021. Are Our Children Learning? Uwezo 7th Learning Assessment Report. Nairobi: Uwezo Agenda. https:​//​usawaagenda​.org​/project​/uwezo​-learning​ -assessment​-2021. Vickers, M. 2020. Gender Education, Change and Society. South Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press. Wachiye, H. J., and J. W. Nasong’o. 2009. “Equity and Access to University Education through Higher Loans in Bungoma District.” Educational Research and Review 4, no. 10: 475–89. Wambua, R. 2007. “The Making of an Engineer: Background Characteristics of Female Engineering Students in Kenyan National Polytechnics.” International Journal of Learning 14, no. 2: 31–39. _______. 2008. “Efficiency in the Selection of Students in Kenyan Public Universities.” International Journal of Learning 15, no. 10: 183–90. Wanzala, O. 2017. “Kenya: Roll Out of Revised Education System to Begin in May.” All Africa, January 22. https:​//​allafrica​.com​/stories​/201701230305​.html.

Chapter 2

Gendered Political Institutions and Women’s Career Identity Construction Wakil Ajibola Asekun

There is a general notion among Nigerians that people go into politics to make money, though there are evidences in literature that people engage in various human endeavors (including politics) not only for money but also for other psychological reasons such as the need for self-esteem, meaning, social affiliation/networking, and prestige, among others.1 Thus, many people who are in politics may not like to be perceived as being in the vocation just to make money but as individuals engaging in altruistic behaviors, selfless acts, kind gestures, and making efforts to lessen the hardships of the people they govern or make laws for. Due to the fact that politicians possess the powers to allocate resources of states or the political entity that they govern—a privilege that confers prestige and high esteem to their position—a politician would like to construct an identity that is based on these positive attributes and values. Career identity is one’s sense of self, which is based on the possessed professional attributes of the individual and entails the values, beliefs, motives, and experiences of such an individual.2 One’s identity construction as a politician under conditions of marginalization, therefore, should be of interest; this is because minority career people are often accorded little or no prestige and/or privilege because their identities are perceived as inferior.3 Career identity has been studied in many professions, but careers in politics have not been looked into because of the notion in Nigeria that politics is not a career but an endeavor that many individuals spend all their lifetime as adults engaging in. It is against this backdrop that this chapter considers it necessary 27

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to conduct the study of career identity of women in politics. Moreover, one’s career provides the opportunity to satisfy the need to belong.4 Work confers an identity on individuals, and this is also true of work in the government as politicians. Work helps in terms of the construction and maintenance of individual esteem, status, and meaning.5 Further, work helps the individual to achieve a shared experience, a structured sense of time, and a collective purpose. This is why an individual may experience psychological distress if there is a failure to get meaningful work.6 Thus, loss of career comes with negative psychosocial consequences. A woman who pursues a career in politics would have to compete in a field that is traditionally assigned to men, and this may be extremely tough going by the theory of gendered institution as propounded by Acker.7 By this theory, Acker points to the persistent gender inequality that has been inherently built into social institutions. She demonstrates this reality by explaining the four gendered processes that serve as hindrances to women who work in male-dominated professions. Acker believes that these processes maintain and sustain imbalanced gendered practices that pose difficulties mainly for women to adapt and progress in the gendered institutions. One way this is orchestrated is through the creation of stereotypes, symbols, and ideologies with the aim of validating and keeping hegemonic masculinity.8 The second way is that policy decisions are deliberately made to put in place practices that put women in positions of disadvantage. Such practices may include political and legal practices that support the negative actions of male colleagues toward the female workers. Acker’s third and fourth conceptualization of creating and keeping intact a gendered institution involves the processes of interaction and the construction of “gendered personas” based on the formation. This chapter aims at examining how female politicians construct political identity in the described context of gendered institutions as conceptualized by Acker in Nigerian’s political space. The chapter further identifies the peculiar factors that reinforce gender inequality in filling opportunities in political space. OBJECTIVE 1.  To know how female politicians construct political identity in a gendered institution. 2.  To describe female politicians’ experience in Nigeria’s political space. 3.  To know how women with political accomplishments/achievements are perceived. 4.  To ascertain whether a difference exists between men and women in the construction of political identity.

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LITERATURE REVIEW Career identity’s study is an important component of personal identity research, which is defined by Gecas and Burke as “the arrays of meanings assigned to oneself by the ‘self’ as well as others.”9 According to these scholars, identity is critical to fixing an individual’s place within a social milieu that one is located and it is also a determinant of the meaning individuals adopt for themselves and what others perceive of the individual. Our professions influence how we define the “selves” and shape how others think about us as individuals. Career identity is further defined as a recognizable pattern of beliefs, values, and attributes which define a group of persons with a particular set of specialized skills.10 People use these skills to define themselves in a specific field of human endeavor.11 Current findings in career identity construction show that self-views on this process are shaped in three primary ways: (1) as a product of the socialization process and the information provided for one regarding the enterprise that one is engaged in; (2) how an individual adjusts and fits herself/himself into her/his professional role during periods of career transition; (3) work experiences acquired and clarified through one’s priorities and self-understanding. Other studies in literature give further explanations of identity construction. For example, Beijaard et al (2004) was of the view that the process is a result of one’s acquired knowledge of the field; that is, sufficient knowledge about politics before entrance can influence the construction process upon entrance into the field. Meanwhile, Wenger (1999) thought that the construction process must take place in an array of social contexts where an individual is actively engaged, the engagement is a continual process.12 However, what many existing studies on career identity construction have not addressed is the manner in which the construction process occurs in individuals who are marginalized specifically on the account of gender, thus the existing literature may be inadequate in considering the professional identity construction processes of minority and marginalized groups.13 Although a previous study conducted by Billing (2011) sought to offer a detailed account of the behaviors as well as the affective experiences of female executives who strive to make meaning of their everyday struggles of seeking to attain their present managerial positions as well as navigating their way as female bosses, there has been no known other studies that examine the process of identity construction in the political sphere. On the experiences of professionals as regards racial background, Bell and Nkomo (2001) examined professional identity formation of women of color and white women, seeking to differentiate the distinctive experiences

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and coping strategies of the two groups as they contend with gender/racial discriminatory issues and (im)possible career expectations. Powell et al. (2009) examined the gender negotiation tactics adopted by female engineering students to become “accepted” into their profession and gain male approval. These tactics included performing like one of the boys, consenting to anti-women workplace practices, and acceding to gender stereotypic values and beliefs, among others. Finally, Charles and Grusky (2004) examined the career paths of minority female company executives in the course of attaining the managerial positions of their companies. Although they did not specifically study the processes of professional identity development, they explained based on their findings the processes involved in the formation of an “integrated self”; i.e., the successful unification of gender and professional identity, which they consider an important determinant for attaining success by the female managers as a marginalized gender. Going by past studies on gender and career, there is a good number of reasons to think of the process of professional identity construction of women is somewhat different from that of men. For example, sexism and discrimination have become the bottlenecks for the expression of the possible and provisional selves. Markus and Nurius (1997) believe that the possible selves are largely influenced by sociocultural and historical factors. Thus, in a field such as engineering where women as minority group members have been projected as less-professionals and persons with limited prospects for growth14 or in management where women have been branded as semiprofessionals,15 minority individuals may develop a glass ceiling in their minds of who they could become professionally. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND This study is anchored on career motivation theory as propounded by London (1983). London submitted that motivation to career should be considered as a multidimensional process, which involves individual traits, career identity, career insight, and career resilience. He attempted to integrate the psychological and organizational processes to explain career-related motivation. London referred to individual variables as the needs, interests, and personality variables which can be organized into a set of a prori dimensions that include one’s traits, attributes, and aptitude among others. Situational variables, according to him, comprise work design, work conditions, and organizational policy. These dimensions are clustered into three domains: career resilience, career insight, and career identity. Career resilience is the ability to withstand changing and difficult circumstances, even when the circumstances are disruptive or discouraging. It has to

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do with organizational and professional involvement and the need for growth and recognition. Career insight is the ability to view one’s career progression realistically and also involves setting clear and achievable goals about one’s career. Career identity is the extent that an individual defines herself or himself by his or her activities in a particular endeavor. It is associated with the tasks of a job, organizational and professional involvement, need for advancement, and recognition.16 The last dimension, which is the most relevant to the present study, is of great importance to career advancement. Unfortunately, it appears that it can only be achieved through involvement and recognition; but with the gender prejudices and discrimination women suffer in the political space, it becomes curious to see how women in Nigeria construct their career identity politically. HYPOTHESIS 1.  Women politicians have a significant low political identity. 2.  There is a significant difference in the construction of political identity between male and female politicians. 3.  The gender of a politician would significantly determine whether she/he is perceived as performing well politically or not. METHOD The study was carried out among sixty elected politicians who were majorly women purposively selected. The location of study was Lagos; participants consisted of representatives in the Lagos State House of Assembly and local government elected council members, all in Lagos State. The research adopted a mixed method; that is, quantitative and qualitative approach. The participants responded to a questionnaire named the Professional Identity Scale. This measure is a 4-Likert format scale designed to measure identification with one’s professional career. The scale was originally developed and validated by Barnett and Kimberlin (1986). It has a correlation coefficient of 0.87 and Spearman correlation reliability of 0.79. Participants were required to rate their level of sense of self with the options available; for example, item 1 states: the social status of a politician is (a) high (b) moderate (c) low. High scores on the scale imply high career/ professional identity. Besides this, participants’ demographics were obtained; this included their age, marital status, political positions, and employment status. Data were coded and analyzed using simple percentages and t-test to

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compare responses of male and female to determine trends in career identity construction. On the qualitative measure, twenty of the participants who were all women participated in an interview in which they were asked questions on their experiences as female politicians, how they got elected, what they thought about working with their male colleagues, and the perceptions of the public to their profession as politicians. All interviews were conducted by the author at the participants’ offices, and each lasted between twenty and thirty minutes. DEMOGRAPHICS Table 2.1 shows the frequency distribution of respondents by sociodemographic characteristics. On gender, 63.3% of the respondents were females, while 36.7% were males. On age, 61.7% of the respondents are between the age of 30 and 35 years while 38.3% of the respondents are between 36 and 39 years. On marital status, 36.7% of the respondents were married, while 63.3% were single. On elected position, 41.7% of the respondents were councilors, 5.0% were house of assembly members, and 31.7% held other positions in political space, while 21.7% did not respond. On whether they have other jobs aside politics, 53.3% answered yes and 41.7% had no other jobs except politics, while 20.8% did not respond. Hypothesis 1: Women politicians have a significantly low political identity. Table 2.2 shows frequency distribution of respondents to questions on perceived identification on social status of politicians. On status, 7.9% of respondents perceived themselves as having high social status and 13.2% perceived themselves as having moderate status, while 92.9% had low status. On being a politician, 7.9% of the respondents believed that as female politicians they contributed and were engaged in a delightful career, 15.7% just saw it as a means of earning a living, and 89.5% see it as an irksome profession. On the feeling experienced when introduced as a politician in a social setting, 21.1% felt pride for being introduced as a politician, 39.5% picked “self-contempt,” and 39.5% felt insensitive. On the significance of being a politician, 39.5% of the respondents claimed being a politician made them realize their life dreams, while 21.1% found pleasure in politics and 39.5 believed that through politics they were making impacts. On career expectation, 21.1% of the respondents will quit if they are unsatisfied, while 79.0% will be in politics until death. Hypothesis 2: There is a significance difference in the construction of political identity between male and female politicians.

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Table 2.1: Socio-demographic characteristics of respondents Frequency

Percentage

Gender Male Female

22 38

36.7 63.3

Age 30–35 years 36–45 years

37 23

61.7 38.3

Marital Status Married Single

22 38

36.7 63.3

Elected Position Councilor Assembly member Other No response

25 03 19 13

41.7 5.0 31.7 21.7

Any other job aside pol. position? Yes No No response

32 25 03

53.3 41.7 5.0

Total

60

100

Source: Researcher’s computation, 2021

An independent samples t-test was conducted to compare male and female scores on political career identity construction measure (table 2.3). Male scores on political career identity (Mean = 2.50, SD = 1.56). Female scores on political career identity (Mean = 2.53, SD = 1.34), t (51) = 1.96, p < 0.01. The result shows that there is a significant difference between male and female on political career identity construction. The hypothesis is therefore upheld; i.e., there is a significance difference between men and women in the construction of political identity. Hypothesis 3: The gender of a politician would significantly determine whether she/he is perceived as performing well politically or not. The adjusted R2 value reveals that the model accounts for 56% of variance in the perceived political performance score. Table 2.4 also shows an ANOVA which assesses the overall significance of the model as p