Samson Ndanyi

Samson K. Ndanyi is a historian of eastern Africa who studies the region’s histories of expressive cultures, especially cinema in colonial and postcolonial eras. His first book, Instructional Cinema and African Audiences in Colonial Kenya, 1926-1963 (Lexington Books, 2022) explores the socio-political history of instructional cinema in colonial Kenya. He is at work on another book entitled Cinema, Homosexuality, and Power in Kenya, which examines the politics of cinema production, especially the constitutionality of free speech in cinema production and the right of representation. His other published works include:

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles 

“Cannabis in Kenya,” Southern Journal for Contemporary Africa 46: 2 (2021):4-23

“Film Censorship and Identity in Kenya.” Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies 42:2 (2021) 

“COVID-19 and the End of the School Year in Kenya.” Kenya Studies Review Journal (KSR)  Volume 8 Issue 2 (2020). 

“Cinema and Wage Labor in Colonial Kenya.” Africa Zamani, No. 27 (2019): 111-136.

‘Mau Mau’: Visualizing Mau Mau War in Colonial Kenya, 1953-60.” Journal of Black Culture and International Understanding  3 no. 1&2 (2017 © 2019): 5-28.

“‘Immoral in Dress’: Children, Clothes, and Cinema in Colonial Kenya,” Journal of African Interdisciplinary Studies 1, no. 3, (Dec. 2017): 24-40.

“Read Africans, Decenter Scholarship.” Africa Today 63, no. 2 (winter 2016): 112-116.

“‘God Was With Us:’ Child Labor in Colonial Kenya, 1922–1950s.” Journal of Retracing Africa 3, no. 1 (2016): 1-20. 

Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters

“A Film is Banned if the Ladies Say So”: Women and Film Censorship in Colonial Kenya, 1912 -1963.” In Transformations in Africana Studies: History, Theory, and Epistemology. Edited by Adebayo Oyebade (New York: Routledge, 2023).

“This is Our Problem”: Gender in Kenya’s Cinema Industry. In Gender and Sustainable Development in Africa. Edited by Maurice Amutabi and Elinami Veraeli Swai (Nairobi, Kenya: Centre for Democracy, Research and Development. CEDRED, 2020). 

“Reassessing Jomo Kenyatta’s Crackdown on Theatre for Education and Development.” In Kenya After 50: Reconfiguring Education, Gender, and Policy. Edited by Mickie Mwanzia Koster, Michael Mwenda Kithinji, and Jerono P. Rotich. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2016.

Book Reviews

Thomas, W. Michael. Popular Ethiopian Cinema: Love and Other Genres. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023. African Studies Review (2023) 

Switzer, D. Heather. When the Light is Fire: Maasai Schoolgirls in Contemporary Kenya. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2018. African Studies Review 1-3 (2020). doi:10.1017/asr.2020.82 

Fair, Laura. Reel Pleasures: Cinema Audience and Entrepreneurs in Twentieth-Century Urban Tanzania. Urban Tanzania. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2018. Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies 42:1 (2020). 

Spiers, Edward. The Victorian Soldier in Africa: Studies in Imperialism. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2013. Journal of Retracing Africa 2, no.1 (2015). 

Online Scholarly Platforms 

“Kenya Slides Back into Authoritarianism.” The African Exponent. April 18, 2023.

“How Young Filmmakers Are Protecting Artistic Freedom in Kenya.” The Conversation. February 21, 2019.

“The Tale of Two Presidents.” Africa is a Country, April 6, 2018. 

“Kenya’s Return to Despotism.” Africa is a Country, September 12, 2017     

“Kenya’s Supreme Court Justices Willing to Pay the Ultimate Price for Kenya and Africa.” Africa Cradle, October 21, 2017

Courses Taught

At Rhodes, he teaches courses in African history, Africana Studies, and World history. 

• Traditional Africa (before 1800. Survey)
• Modern Africa (1800-present. Survey)
• Ganja: A Global History of Marijuana (World history Survey). 
• Ocean Pirates and Piracy: A Global History (World history Survey). 
• Diseases and Healing in Africa
• Black Cinema 
• Black Protests (upper level)
• United States-Africa Relations
• Political Conflicts in Africa 
• Sex and Death in African films

Africana Studies Program

• Introduction to Africana Studies
• Black Diaspora 
• Cinema in Africa 

Instructional Cinema and African Audiences in Colonial Kenya, 1926-1963