From My Mother's Back: A Journey from Kenya to Canada

by Njoki Nathani Wane

In this warm and honest memoir, celebrated academic Njoki Wane shares her journey from her parents’ small coffee farm in Kenya, where she helped her mother in the fields as a child, to her current work as a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.

Moving smoothly between time and place, Wane uses memories, painful and tender, to show how her early lessons and the support given by her family allowed her to succeed as a woman of colour in the academy, and to later lift up her students facing their own difficult journeys.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Canada, Africa, Memoir, Autobiography, Biography Memoir

194 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 21, 2020

Reviews

[Lydia Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wane writes about the view from her mother’s back as her mother showed her the world, about losing her name and connection to her culture as she attended Catholic boarding school, her passion for learning and teaching, and what it means to be Black in Canada.

There is wisdom here, as Wane writes of overcoming hardship and also of her struggles.

It’s a wonderful, inspiring and hopeful read.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.6 stars
I chose to read FROM MY MOTHER'S BACK: A JOURNEY FROM KENYA TO CANADA by Njoki Wane because it is one of the books long listed for Canada Reads 2022.

The author's husband Amadou Wane wrote the Forword which included the following quote.
"In this memoir Njoki shares with the reader stories about her life in Kenya and Canada. With great humour, she tells of growing up in the countryside, going to boarding school and receiving her first pair of high-heeled shoes. She also shares her life in Canada as a graduate student, then as a University professor at the University of Toronto.… She is a person who realizes that she has been blessed with a lot of opportunities in life and who feels it's important to share with others."

There are twenty-five short and easy to read stories in the book, followed by an Afterword written by Njoki Wane's children.
A few of my favourite stories are My First Bed:A Shifting Bed, Strange Rituals, A Life-Altering Smile in Class, and the title story From My Mother's Back.

Some quotes that I want to share:-
"Struggle and challenge, appreciation and gratitude narrow our focus, define our values and provide us with stillness necessary for grounding...
Gratitude shapes a person as often as grief."

"Colonial education succeeded in planting seeds for the expansion, growth and sustainability of imperialism...education was an organized form of imperialism that allowed colonization to reproduce itself."

Njoki tells about her first breakfast at Catholic boarding school.
"I had begun to tip the bowl of porridge to my lips when I saw something strange. Pulling back, I observed my meal and realized it was moving, and not because I was tipping the bowl. There were little bugs in the porridge, weevils, but I was too hungry to care. I knew the other girls had received the same porridge and no one had brought it to the attention of the nuns. This must be common..."

Through hard work, determination, and the help of a loving family and friends Dr. Wane was able to make her dreams come true. This is the second successful refugee story I have recently read.
3.6 stars

[Cindee Ketches · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing was very simplistic. The author touches on many issues: racism, colonial type schooling in Kenya; etc, etc. But does so only superficially. I was expecting more analysis from a university professor of social studies. The little snippets about her life growing up in rural Kenya were interesting, but overall, the book didn’t speak to me.

[kim v · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️ beautifully written! The author describes her life growing up in Africa, going away to Catholic school, and then moving to Canada where she is now an award winning professor.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting, warm and honest memoir, this is the story of celebrated academic Njoki Wane as she shares her journey from her parents' small coffee farm in rural Kenya, to her current role as a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.
An impressive journey!

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Njoke Wane's voice - reading this was like listening to an actual person telling long, winding, digressive stories that began and ended all over the place. I did find myself taking notes as I went along because there were so many names, so many places, so many events. Truly wish I could meet this woman face to face.

[Margot · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was beautifully written. There was something so calming and peaceful about it and you can really feel the emotions along with the author. It makes me want to go to Kenya and experience the beauty and culture she describes. Everything she went through but she still came out this beautiful soul wanting to give back and who’s full of love. She’s very empowering.

[Menolly Lysne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. After the introduction, I was intrigued. I just found that the parts I wished the author discussed were missed out.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5. The first third or so of the book moved a little more slowly, with a couple of OK boomer moments - the cell phone laments, the interpretation of her students' motivations before the first lecture.

However, you can clearly understand the passion Wane feels when she talks about her upbringing, her family, and Kenya. The notion of kijiji - not just as a physical place, but an interconnectedness of the land and its inhabitants - is a strong theme here.

The missionary school that she describes attending sounds like a Canadian residential school. She was forced to give up her name, her spirituality, her culture, and adopt another language, all for the purpose of assimilation. The corporal punishment mentioned also hints at an underlying culture of abuse from the white nuns.

This could be a very interesting read for a Canadian Indigenous person to compare the history of cultural erasure and reconnection with your past.

Identity and change thereof plays a big role in this memoir, and Wane's writing left me emotionally satisfied.

[Jayme Holmes · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very personal memoir which felt like reading the author's journal. She comes across as a precocious, intelligent child with a mother who instills the value of education in her. It is through her own strengths that she continues on that, and leaves the small village she is from to pursue more education and eventually become a professor at the U of T.

At times the reading was a bit slow, but in the later chapters she turns to analyzing her own situation compared to the indigenous people of Canada, reflects on her days in a Catholic ran boarding school, and then includes an afterword written by her children. I found this portion to be the best reading.

Again I am reminded that reading truly opens our minds to situations far beyond our own little bubble and I appreciate her descriptions of so many things in her daily life, allowing me to envision a world so different than my own.

[Chade66 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a huge fan of memoirs as a genre. While many of the stories in this book are interesting, they only skim the surface and don't dig down in the depths of the stories. The language is academic in that there are few if any contractions, but in places spins a beautiful story.

There are things that she speaks about without giving you any real idea what happened and there were places that I wanted more in those moments. As I am writing this, I realize that it could be cultural that certain things are not spoken of in certain places, so it could be that.

This is a Canada Reads Longlist book for 2022.

[Sam Doyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the tone of this memoir - you could really hear the authors distinct voice. Wane’s story is fairly interesting and important, but I was expecting a little more from the chair of social justice. There was cursory mention of cultural genocide of Anishanaabe people of Turtle Island and the cultural genocide the author experienced by colonizers in Kenya. The poems to her dead relatives were not to my personal taste, but I understand why they were included.

[Jane Mulkewich · Rating 4 out of 5]

When she was an 8-year-old barefoot girl in rural Kenya, she announced that she wanted to be a professor, and today Njoki Wane is a professor at OISE / the University of Toronto. This is a simply-told beautiful memoir published by Wolsak & Wynn in Hamilton, and was just announced to be on the long-list for Canada Reads 2022!

[Sylvia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in episodes rather than a continuous account . An African woman, now a professor of Social Science at the University of Toronto, tells of her childhood and her education in Kenya and then her university degrees in Canada. She talks about how much she owes to her mother who wanted her to have an education

[Charles · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just couldn't get enthused about this memoir. I didn't like the style, the language, or the structure od the story alternating between childhood & Kenya and her adult life as a Canadian university professor teaching about cultural diversity, racism, etc...I quit P.43

[Teresa Mills-Clark · Rating 2 out of 5]

I cannot recall why I borrowed this book from the library. Perhaps because the author was recommended by CBC Books to read during this month which celebrates Black authors. There were a couple insightful phrases but overall my problem (and not the author’s) is that I am not a fan of memoirs.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning, honest, beautifully written memoir.

[Marion Listgarten · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read 44 pgs out of 148. I don't find it too interesting.

[Carol Stevenson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Having spent time in Kenya, the images in this text brought back memories. However, for a biography I thought more details could have been included.

[Steph Raph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! That was a great memoir! I loved each one of her stories/ chapters. It touched on so many beautiful topics so thoughtfully.

[HelenJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an easy, quick read. I loved the stories of Njoki Wane’s early life in her village where hard work and resourcefulness was key. Probably wouldn’t have found this book had it not been on the Canada Reads 2022 long list. Always glad to read of experiences of life in other cultures, especially when she compares and contrasts her life now in Canada.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This memoir took a look at the author’s life and how she got to where she is today thanks to the opportunities that her mother provided for her from a young age. From her early days in Kenya to her later days in Canada this took the reader on a journey through her life. This wasn’t what the reader was expecting, but they were pleasantly surprised with the story they read. Wane has a beautiful way of writing that just set her reader at ease; it calmed and lulled them into her story. Not only did this chronicle Wane’s life, but this also read like a love letter to her mother for all the things she did and how even in death her mother was by her side. It was moving to read and really left the reader feeling grateful and appreciative. We got to learn about Wane as a person in alternating chapters, her young years and her years now as a professor, which worked well for the storytelling. She touched on the topics she teaches and how that plays into her and her family’s life, culture and history. There were touches of race and social justice in this book, but in the end, that wasn’t what this book was about, so the bits we got made sense to add in the small doses they were presented. Overall, this was a short, yet heartwarming and inspirational read.