GLORIOUS GLORY
Educator’s voice for Africa and its women
GLORY Gatwiri finds it hard to fathom that her life’s journey has taken her from a tiny Kenyan village to the halls of academia at Southern Cross University.
Now spare a thought for the loved ones she left behind.
“I think they’re all in shock that this has become my life,” the 28-year-old said of living at coastal Kingscliff, earning PhDs, writing books, winning awards and being granted the choice of lecturing positions across the country.
“Seven years ago there was no hint my life was going to take this trajectory. It was going in a very different direction so I think we’re all in a perpetual state of shock and disbelief.
“But we’re also grateful for the opportunities I’ve had … I’ve been given this huge privilege to have a voice and the fact someone is listening and recognising that voice makes me very happy.”
Another line was added to Dr Gatwiri’s impressive resume this month when she submitted her first book to her publisher for review.
With a working title of African Womanhood and Incontinent Bodies, it builds on her research into vaginal fistulas, a condition that leaves women incontinent and is particularly prevalent in developing countries where access to emergency obstetric services is limited.
The fact it has been penned by an African woman with an intimate appreciation of the world she is writing about is all the more crucial.
“A lot of the (texts) we use back home are very Westerncentric,” Dr Gatwiri said. “We need our own scholars and people writing our stories in a way we understand.”
Dr Gatwiri’s journey to become one of those scholars is the stuff of romance – and damn hard work.
Born to a teenage mother, she mostly grew up with her grandparents in a village in eastern Kenya and recalls students at her primary school often sitting on the floor as there were not enough desks.
Until she was 11, she spoke her mother tongue Meru and only learnt Swahili and English properly when she moved to the capital Nairobi to join her parents as they battled to make ends meet.
At 17, she chose to specialise in social work at university, graduating with first-class honours and soon after having her sliding doors moment.
“A Melbourne philanthropist offered me a scholarship to study in Australia,” Dr Gatwiri recalled. “We became really close and after I finished my Masters, she offered to pay my PhD tuition fees as well.
“She said ‘I have a feeling you can achieve it’. She offered me a dream and I took it.”
That dream took her to Adelaide’s Flinders University where she not only earned her PhD but was named Young Kenyan of the Year by the state’s Kenyan association.
Then, with several universities offering her lecturing positions, she opted to call SCU’s Gold Coast campus home.
“I’m deeply grateful I get to do this,” Dr Gatwiri said of not only teaching and research but inspiring her countrywomen.
“I love receiving messages from women from my village saying I have inspired them and they are considering going back to school.
“My own mother has returned to school after more than two decades and she is now pursuing a Masters of gender and leadership.”
Before signing off on our interview, Dr Gatwiri made a final plea for this story not to resort to stereotypes of Africa.
“(A previous) article fell back on cliches of me being ‘rescued from poverty’ and it didn’t sit well with me because I didn’t consider myself poor.
“We didn’t have cars and big houses but I had a very enriching childhood that was filled with love and laughter. We were playing in trees and jumping around in the bush.
“That richness is always ignored when stories of Africans are told. If you want to say I was poor materially, that’s fine as it’s the truth but it’s incomplete because there were other things that enriched our lives and shaped our identities.”