That academic feat would later inspire many more PhDs, particularly by women. I have personally met two female Kenyan PhD holders who have told me how crucial the academic achievements of Mĩcere were in their own conceptions of their abilities and ambitions. She was the first woman Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Nairobi.
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All this calls for a grand alliance of scholars, academies, publishers, and educational policymakers. Intellectuals inside and outside Africa must lead: they have to live up to their venerable tradition. The intellectual in all cultures and histories has been a pathfinder, and in all cultures, these intellectuals have had to pay a price, not too big a price, but a price all the same: prison, exile even. The intellectuals of our times must not run away from the fight, from the zones of war.
No university should be proud of monoculturalism or monolingualism. Building bridges between even apparently irreconcilable viewpoints is an important function of the university. Just as ecological diversity is important for a healthy and robust social life. In fact, cultural diversity is not an addendum to the intellectual life of a university; it is an essential. I believe it was Plato’s most famous pupil, Aristotle, one of the earliest academicians of Ancient Greece, who once wrote that while each one of us can know only a part of the truth, the union of many can illuminate a greater area of truth. An approximation of truth, of course, never the final truth. Given its very intellectual constitution and mission of truth and excellence, the university should strive for the aesthetic of a multicolored garden.
Fortunately, we have her words for how it felt: “Being at the school was like facing a monster. I felt angry, upset, and alone.” Mĩcere rose to the occasion and the demands of the time by excelling in everything, from sports, such as hockey, netball, tennis, and athletics, to debate and academics.
In her own words, “I told myself I had to be the best at everything I did.” She had to do it all under scrutiny, for herself, her family, her nation, her race. It was almost as if she was there to prove our worth for independence. She was only one person, but for Kenyans, she was the One!
If you ever expected to see Mĩcere bow down in sorrow or self-pity, then you don’t know the girl who once had to shoulder the whole of Kenya as the only African person in an all-white school. Mĩcere Mũgo is a fighter. Where there is a fight for human rights, she is there. In Canada, as a student, she was part of the Angela Davis campaign, and whenever I have met Angela, she always had a few kind words about Mĩcere. Unfortunately, she has also had to battle with cancer and the loss of her beloved daughter Njeri, but she still walks tall, still smiles, and still retains a great sense of humor.