Festo Mkenda
Director - Jesuit Historical Institute in Africa at Hekima College Kenya
- Subjects:
- History
- Spoken languages:
- English, Swahili
- Status:
- Open to collaboration.
Work
- Subjects:
- History
- Research Keywords:
- History, African Political History, Nationalism, National Unity, Identity, Jesuits, Jesuit History, Jesuit Studies, Religions, Christianity in Africa, Religions in Africa, Islam and Christianity, Contextualized Theology, Contextualized Spirituality, Kiswahili Language
- Collaboration interests:
- Joint ventures and peer support in topics on African history, Jesuit studies and religions in Africa, including information about sources, funding and publishing opportunities, peer reviewing, and support to new scholars in areas of shared interest.
- Biography:
- Dr. Festo L. M. Mkenda, S.J., was born at Rombo in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. He joined the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and studied philosophy and humanities (Arrupe College, University of Zimbabwe, Harare) and theology (Hekima College, Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi). He was ordained priest in 2005, then pursued studies in history (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and University of Oxford) ultimately specializing in African political history. He researches in identity, nationalism and unity in Africa, and in Jesuit history in Africa; he also maintains active interest in contextualized theology and spirituality, and in the Swahili language. After doctoral studies, he served as assistant pastor at St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Nairobi, Kenya, and carried out freelance research. He then became Junior Research Fellow of Campion Hall and a Visiting Fellow of St. Cross College, both at the University of Oxford, for the year 2011. Since January 2011 he assumed the directorship of the Jesuit Historical Institute in Africa (JHIA), based in Nairobi. He joined the Jesuit Community at Hekima College, Nairobi, since January 2012 and now works full time for the JHIA and part time lectures in modern church history at Hekima College and in the history of consecrated life at Chemchemi ya Uzima. He is advisory editor of the Jesuit Journal Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu. Among his publications are Mission for Everyone: A History of the Jesuits in Eastern Africa, 1555-2012 (Paulines Publications Africa, 2013), and [edited together with Robert Aleksander Maryks] Encounters between Jesuits and Protestants in Africa (Brill, 2018).
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