Kenya's Running Women: A History

Michelle Sikes succinctly explores the evolution of gender boundaries through sports in Kenya's Running Women: A History. Sikes describes the crucial role of sports, specifically women running, in Kenya's history in the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial eras. The book tells a story of collaboration, rebellion, and the resilience of African women, who are often marginalized in their social, political, and economic roles. It offers in-depth content that smoothly introduces casual and serious readers into the world of sport, running, and gender politics. Capturing the realities and experiences of Kenyan women runners, Sikes demystifies the assumptions and myths about women running, while instilling a high regard for Kenya's running culture.Kenya's Running Women explores gender through Kenya's history that documents the origins and development of running. Sikes consistently weaves in colonization, gender, and nationalism through the five chapters and contextualizes the past. Through a variety of narratives, the book offers readers an inside look into the realities of female runners in Kenya. The chapters expound on the binary categorization of gender in sports while intertwining the lasting impacts of colonization on the practice of social roles since the twentieth century.Sikes draws from Kenya and other African countries to discuss sport as a “civilizing” mission to the “undisciplined” Africans through organized systems that segregated sport through race, gender, and class. Kenya's Running Women traces the history of running, highlighting how sport was initially used to target male rebels of the colonial system, rehabilitating them in detention centers through athletic training. Concurrently, other boys were introduced to sports while in the military or mission schools, where the emphasis was on promoting Muscular Christianity and moral discipline. Through the prism of running, Sikes documents different realities that did not merely rely on talent but also a varied level of access, opportunity, and agency—depending on identity. This focus on young men served a stark comparison to the intentional marginalization of women in sports in practice and research. However, Kenya's Running Women steps in to fill this lacuna. In chapters 2–5, Sikes grapples with the political climate of newly independent Kenya, heavily influenced by the Pan-African sentiment sweeping the continent. African leaders pushed for patriotism and nationalism using running as a way of reclaiming power and wringing the vestiges of colonialism from African governance systems. Through running, we see concepts of citizenship and sports diplomacy as crucial to present the image of a newly independent Kenya to the world, and the value of runners as representatives of Kenya.Perhaps the significant analytical contribution of Kenya's Running Women is its focus on women, boldly documenting their pivotal role in African and sport history, which is inextricable from the social, political, and economic development of running and nation building. Sikes acknowledges important authors in African sport history and elevates the conversation through the gender lens. The book explores various women runners and emphasizes that women are not a homogeneous group, yet they still experience blatant blanketed marginalization from social activities like running due to their gender. Sikes contends with the gradual changes of equality, parity, and equity through the years by outlining the policies and laws that were adjusted in sports and running, pulling even from international cases such as Title IX in the United States. The outcome is a delicate balance of situating local issues in running while mapping connections to global events and systems within and outside of Africa. Importantly, Sikes also discusses various aspects of men's running, which contrast vividly with experiences of women, and she paints in detail the path it took for Kenyan women runners to achieve recognition, respect, and economic freedom despite the criticism, stigma, and restrictive social norms they faced.Sikes's writing flows in a rhythm that captures the reader's attention seamlessly through the five chapters, highlighting the history of running that is the identity of Kenya's image. Chapter 2 is a case study of race relations in Kenya, a topic rarely analyzed through a gendered lens. Although Sikes effectively presents different perspectives, a more thorough intersectional analysis of gender, race, class, and nationalism would have enriched the discussion, particularly in exploring the role of whiteness during the early years of Kenya's independence. She offers a unique perspective of a white female runner, Diana Monks, who is silent while men speak for and about her, yet policies are created in response to her situation. Her story was an opportunity to understand the experiences of white women in African colonial systems. Her social position as a white woman in a newly independent country, with remnants of resentment towards former white colonizers that transitioned into settlers, offers a glimpse into the turmoil experienced by the Kenyan public and leaders as they navigated newfound freedom after years of oppression. Sikes recognizes that the chapter contains sensitive information and crucial data from various sources, but it is still important to provide a rarely explored point of view on Kenyan history. Therefore, the chapter serves as a baseline of race analysis for women runners in Africa, which could benefit from future intersectional analysis.Kenya's Running Women elucidates the centrality of women in African history and is a fine contribution to sports scholarship and African history while also solidifying a key component of Kenya's identity to the world.