THE DON WITH A PEN

Biographical works received a severe beating when §communism walked half of the earth like a colossus. §It was claimed that propagandists had turned §biographies into exercises for exorcising the ghosts §of their rapacity, exploitation of the workers, §brutality, debauchery, and chicanery. So as to earn §its proper place, efforts that went into this §biography ensured, on the most part, that it falls §within the appropriate historical context. Drawing §from my knowledge of the history as well as the §literature informing this biography, care has been §taken to ensure it has relevance for future §scholarship; especially to disciplines like §political science, literature, and history. So as to §achieve this, an examination of documents together §with oral texts with a bearing on the life of the §subject was both necessary and inevitable. §Sometimes, such information was drawn from the often §subjective opinion of adversaries, rivals, §subordinates, family, neighbours, as well as §friends. The subject of the biography, Prof. William §Robert Ochieng, is a scholar of international §repute. In Kenya, he is one of the leading thinkers §in matters of history.