<!-- Important, do not remove anything above this line before article has been created. --> {{Short description|Kenyan historian and academic}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Infobox academic | name = Tabitha Kanogo | occupation = Historian; academic | discipline = History | sub_discipline = African history; Kenyan history | workplaces = University of California, Berkeley | alma_mater = University of Nairobi<ref name="BerkeleyHistory" /> | notable_works = ''Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau, 1905–1963''; ''African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya, 1900–1950''; ''Wangari Maathai''<ref name="OhioSquatters" /><ref name="OhioWomanhood" /><ref name="OhioMaathai" /> }}
'''Tabitha Kanogo''' is a Kenyan historian and academic. She is a professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Berkeley.<ref name="BerkeleyHistory">{{cite web |title=Tabitha Kanogo |website=Department of History, University of California, Berkeley |url=https://history.berkeley.edu/tabitha-kanogo |access-date=20 February 2026}}</ref> Her work focuses on the social and cultural history of Kenya, including colonialism, gender, and the history of childhood and youth.<ref name="BerkeleyHistory" /><ref name="VCRBio">{{cite web |title=Tabitha Kanogo |website=UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor for Research |url=https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/faculty/tabitha-kanogo |access-date=20 February 2026}}</ref>
Kanogo is the author of studies of colonial Kenya including ''Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau, 1905–1963'' (1987) and ''African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya, 1900–1950'' (2005).<ref name="OhioSquatters">{{cite web |title=Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau, 1905–1963 |publisher=Ohio University Press |website=Ohio Swallow Press |url=https://www.ohioswallow.com/9780821408742/squatters-and-the-roots-of-mau-mau-19051963/ |access-date=20 February 2026}}</ref><ref name="OhioWomanhood">{{cite web |title=African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya, 1900–1950 |publisher=Ohio University Press |website=Ohio Swallow Press |url=https://www.ohioswallow.com/9780821415689/african-womanhood-in-colonial-kenya-19001950/ |access-date=20 February 2026}}</ref>
== Education and career == Kanogo earned her PhD at the University of Nairobi.<ref name="BerkeleyHistory" /> She is a faculty member in the Department of History at the University of California, Berkeley.<ref name="BerkeleyHistory" /> Her work includes Kenyan social and cultural history and projects on Nakuru, and comparative histories of childhood and youth endangerment in Africa.<ref name="VCRBio" /> She was a senior fellow at the Townsend Center for the Humanities (2017–2018).<ref name="Townsend">{{cite web |title=Tabitha Kanogo |website=Townsend Center for the Humanities, UC Berkeley |url=https://townsendcenter.berkeley.edu/fellows/tabitha-kanogo |access-date=20 February 2026}}</ref>
== Works == Kanogo’s work has been situated within major historiographical discussions of colonial Kenya, with a use of archival sources showing how colonial rule reshaped social institutions affecting women’s lives.<ref name="Glazier1989" /><ref name="Clough2007" /> === ''Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau, 1905–1963'' (1987) === ''Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau, 1905–1963'' examines squatter labour on settler estates in colonial Kenya and tensions surrounding land and labour in the period leading to the Mau Mau uprising.<ref name="OhioSquatters" /><ref name="Glazier1989">{{cite journal |last=Glazier |first=J. |title=Review products: Tabitha Kanogo, ''Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau''; David W. Throup, ''Economic and Social Origins of Mau Mau'' |journal=Africa |year=1989 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/tabitha-kanogo-squatters-and-the-roots-of-mau-mau-london-james-currey-nairobi-heinemann-kenya-athens-ohio-university-press-1987-206-pp-2500-isbn-0-85255-018-9-hardback-895-isbn-0-85255-019-7-paperback-david-w-throup-economic-and-social-origins-of-mau-mau-london-james-currey-nairobi-heinemann-kenya-athens-ohio-university-press-1987-304-pp-2500-isbn-0-85255-023-5-hardback-995-isbn-0-85255-024-3-paperback/3B09DD5E7F34E680F57E83FBBD9EEC28 |access-date=20 February 2026}}</ref>
=== ''African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya, 1900–1950'' (2005) === In ''African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya, 1900–1950'', Kanogo examines women’s lives and changing social institutions under colonial rule in Kenya, including the relationship between formal legal regimes and customary practices.<ref name="OhioWomanhood" /> The book has been placed within broader debates on gender history and social change in colonial Kenya.<ref name="Clough2007">{{cite journal |last=Clough |first=M. |title=Review Essay: Tabitha Kanogo (2005) ''African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya 1900–1950'' |journal=Journal of Asian and African Studies |year=2007 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0021909607077934 |access-date=20 February 2026}}</ref><ref name="Shadle2006">{{cite journal |last=Shadle |first=B. L. |title=Review of ''African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya, 1900–1950'' |journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies |year=2006 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40033882 |access-date=20 February 2026}}</ref><ref name="JeanBaptiste2007">{{cite journal |last=Jean-Baptiste |first=R. |title=Kanogo, Tabitha – ''African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya, 1900–1950'' |journal=Cahiers d’études africaines |year=2007 |url=https://journals.openedition.org/etudesafricaines/9352 |access-date=20 February 2026}}</ref>
=== ''Wangari Maathai'' (2020) === Kanogo authored ''Wangari Maathai'' for the ''Ohio Short Histories of Africa'' series.<ref name="OhioMaathai">{{cite web |title=Wangari Maathai |publisher=Ohio University Press |website=Ohio Swallow Press |url=https://www.ohioswallow.com/9780821424179/wangari-maathai/ |access-date=20 February 2026}}</ref> This biography has been characterized as accessible, with an interpretive depth about Maathai’s public life and contradictions.<ref name="FAReview">{{cite journal |last=Kameri-Mbote |first=Patricia |title=Book Review: ''Wangari Maathai'', by Tabitha Kanogo |journal=Feminist Africa |year=2023 |url=https://feministafrica.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/10.FA_April-2023_Volume-4-Issue-1_Book-Review.pdf |access-date=20 February 2026}}</ref>
== See also == * Women in Kenya
== References == {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kanogo, Tabitha}} Category:Kenyan historians Category:Africanists Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty Category:University of Nairobi alumni Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people)