Yesterday afternoon, in the University Bookstore, George O. Ndege, Ph.D., associate professor of history, received the 2002 Phi Beta Kappa Book Award for his book Health, State, and Society in Kenya–a look at the country’s healthcare system–which the University of Rochester Press published last December.
The award is presented every two years by the SLU chapter of Phi Beta Kappa of Missouri, a national honor society that is 200 years old. The organization focuses mostly on undergraduate work but offers this award to faculty who have published a book within the last two years. This is the fourth such award the society has given.
While considering the nine nominees, president Richard Kurz said the committee holds to three criteria: adherence to a high degree of scholarship, work with a significance to the larger society and accessibility to all members of the academic community–in short, everyone from students to specialists.
“The book does an excellent job of discussing the factors that created the situation in the colonial period that really [prevented] Kenya from having the higher-quality healthcare that it could [have had],” Kurz said. “It really gives a very interesting social analysis of the healthcare system in Kenya.”
Ndege, a native of Kenya, moved to the United States in 1992 and completed his Ph.D. in African history at West Virginia University. In August of 1996, he came to SLU as an assistant professor of history and received associate status this past July.
He began working on the book as soon as he came to SLU, having received funding from the graduate school faculty summer research award and a Mellon Grant from the College of Arts and Sciences in 1997. Ndege first traveled to Britain to do archival research, after which he went to Kenya to conduct field interviews.
“I was inspired by the need to write a book that would present the situation, the state of health care in Kenya, because when I began this research it was at a time when the health care system was quite weak,” Ndege said. “It also coincided with the pandemic of HIV-AIDS.”
Ndege explained that he looked at the way health care operated in the colonial period and followed its development through the challenges countries face as they gain their independence, all against the backdrop of very weak economies. But even though the book glances at history for perspective–showing how the colonial formed the post-colonial Kenya and, try as it might to break away, the post-colonial fell back on many of the old ways–Ndege said the book’s focus is contemporary times.
“That was basically the motivating factor–trying to understand the present,” he said. “I tried to talk to people, engage them in conversations and avoid an elitist approach to health care by just relying on records, but by incorporating the voices of the so-called voiceless.”
On the award itself, he said, “I think it is great, and I see it not just in terms of me as an individual, but I think it is something that I owe to many people. First and foremost, my students have been wonderful indeed.” He explained that dialogue with and input from students through discussions and essays was helpful in developing the ideas that went into the book. “I think this is something that is often forgotten, that students shape our ideas from their essays and what they say in class. And when I receive this award, I think I will be thinking about those very many wonderful students that I’ve had the opportunity to work with during my stay here at Saint Louis University.”
He also said he owes some thanks to the Phi Beta Kappa chapter. “It is through such awards that we really appreciate the work that we do. To me, it is not just an honor, it is a privilege. And I think it will go a long way in terms of sensitizing the general public to the state of health care in Africa, in general. I draw the attention of the people to what is happening there so that they can at least try to make a change in one way or another. I think this is a great development.”
After Kurz, Philip Gavitt, chair of the history department spoke. “George has a real gift for making a course demanding without being overwhelming,” he said, adding that Ndege worked with issues of healthcare in Africa in his dissertation but has now brought them full circle, “not only just bringing them up to date but adding to them a really very sophisticated economic analysis. One complaint that historians have about the field these days is that no one is doing really good, solid economic history. And what Prof. Ndege has done here is very skillfully woven in sophisticated and, indeed, rigorous economic analysis that makes this book extremely relevant and extremely solid.”
Gavitt then introduced Ndege, who spoke for about 10 minutes about the theories and goals of the book, after which Kurz presented the award itself.
Ndege said he thinks the award is just another step in feeling more welcome in the community. Last spring he won the student-voted SGA teaching award and, he said, “To me St. Louis is more like a home. This award just affirms what I saw the very first time I came here, that this is a home and I am among family members. So it inspires me to go beyond and be aggressive in terms of scholarship.”
