In From My Mother’s Back: A Journey from Kenya to Canada, Njoki Wane introduces us to her mother, a woman of deep wisdom, and to all the richness of a life lived between two countries. A celebrated professor and award-winning teacher, she shares her journey from a Catholic girls’ boarding school in rural Kenya to standing in front of a lectern at the University of Toronto. Along the way she reflects on the heritage that was taken from her as a child and the strengths and teachings of the family that pulled her through and helped her to not only succeed as a scholar, but to reclaim her culture, her history and even her name.

Njoki Nathani Wane, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Toronto, was the Special Advisor on the Status of Women at University of Toronto. Currently, she is the Chair of the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. She was born in Kenya.

Dr. Wane received her education both in Kenya and in North America. From 2009 to 2012, she was the Director of the Office of Teachers Support at OISE (OTSO). OTSO’s central focus was to provide ongoing faculty development to the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto’s faculty and aspiring university graduate students. With a central focus on teaching, OTSO provided workshops, consultations and other professional development opportunities to the OISE community. In 2009, she was one of the TVO Ontario Nominees for Best Lecturer and in 2008, she received the Harry Jerome Professional Excellence Award. In 2007, she won the African Women Achievement Award. In 2016, she won the President’s Teaching Award.

For the last twenty years, she has been researching, writing and teaching in the areas of Black feminisms in Canada and Africa and African Indigenous knowledge, as well as African women and spirituality.

Njoki Wane's profile page

• Long-listed, Canada Reads

"The myriad topics covered in her engaging, often inspirational, vignettes range from insightful comparisons of the average kitchens in Kenya to those in Canada to the unique experiences of an African immigrant in higher education."

Kirkus Reviews

"A wonderful, inspiring and hopeful read."

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