Kenyan author Dr Margaret Ogola, whose debut novel ‘The River and The Source’ won awards around the globe, was on Wednesday (12.06.19) honoured by Google with a doodle.
The acclaimed writer Dr Ogola who passed away 8 years ago in September 2011 at the age of 52, would have been 60 today.
Her debut novel ‘The River and The Source’ which was published in 2015 followed four generations of Kenyan women in a rapidly changing country and society. It traces the story of Akoko in her rich traditional Luo setting, through to the children who live and die in the 20th century.
“Happy to celebrate Kenyan award-winning author, activist and doctor, the late Dr Margaret Ogola, author of The River and the Source,” wrote Google.
Happy to celebrate Kenyan award-winning author, activist and doctor, the late Dr Margaret Ogola, author of The River and the Source. Which is your favourite quote from the book? #RememberingMargaretOgola #GoogleDoodle pic.twitter.com/jOpphTCkLZ
— Google in Africa (@googleafrica) June 12, 2019
Dr Ogola won several awards including Jomo Kenyatta Literature Prize, the 1995 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for the Best First Book in Africa. She burst into the Kenyan literary scene in the mid-1990s, and before her demise in September 2011, she had also written ‘I Swear by Apollo’ and ‘Place of Destiny’.
What many didn’t know is that Dr Ogola was not a full-time writer, but a paediatrician, the medical director of Cottolengo Hospice for HIV/Aids orphans.
‘The River and the Source’ was a KCSE set book for many years. It has been translated into several languages, including Italian, Lithuanian and Spanish.