Ng'endo Mwangi

Mwangi in 1965

Ng'endo Mwangi was Kenya's first woman physician.[1] She set up clinics serving a very large rural population. She was born in Kenya and studied in the United States.[1][2]

Born in Kinoo, Kiambu to Rahab Wambui Mwangi and Mwangi Muchiri, she attended Loreto High school Limuru as part of its pioneer class.[3] Mwangi was enabled to study in the United States under the Kennedy Airlifts program and she became the first black African woman to attend Smith College in Massachusetts.[4][1] She graduated from Smith College in 1961, after which she became the first African student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.[4][2] Returning to Kenya as a qualified physician, she opened her first practice, the Athi River Clinic, in an arid rural region southeast of Nairobi where she was the only doctor for over 300,000 Maasai people. In 1987 she founded the Reto Medical Center at Sultan Hamud.[4][5]

Members of the Black Students Alliance at Smith College made the case for additional facilities on campus and, in 1973, the Mwangi Cultural Center was established and named in her honor. At that time the center was located at Lilly Hall but it later was moved to the Davis Center at Smith College.[2][6][7] Mwangi formally changed her name from Florence Gladwell in 1967.[8] She was awarded an honorary degree by Smith College in 1987.[4] She died of breast cancer in 1989.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Friends salute Mboya's American airlifts 50 years ago". New African Magazine. 28 January 2014. Archived from the original on 2016-03-12.
  2. ^ a b c d Cole, Kristen (12 January 2005). "Thriving Mwangi Cultural Center Moves to Larger Home". Smith College. Archived from the original on 19 February 2016.
  3. ^ Kiili, Wangui (7 November 2011). "A True Kenyan Heroine". Kenya Rocks! Kenyan Spirit. Archived from the original on 14 March 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d Mwangi, Ng'endo (Fall 1987). "A Medical Center for the Masai". Smith Alumnae Quarterly: 12–13. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016.
  5. ^ "Florence N'gendo Mwangi · History of the Black Students Alliance at Smith College · Smith Libraries Exhibits". libex.smith.edu. Archived from the original on 2015-12-09.
  6. ^ "The Mwangi Cultural Center". The Black Students Alliance of Smith College. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016.
  7. ^ "Student Leadership & Cultural Centers. Mwangi Cultural Center". Smith College. Archived from the original on 3 April 2016. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
  8. ^ Mwangi, Ng'endo (3 January 1967). "Notice of change of name". Kenya Gazette. Retrieved 12 March 2016.