[African Photographica]: Mbirika, Vincent Elyidardy Abukuse:

$2,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

PORTRAIT OF THE LATE PETRO ANDAYI MBIRIKA [manuscript title]. A unique and heart-wrenching manuscript and photographic memorial documenting the last illness, death, and funeral of a Christian preacher in Kenya, Petro Andayi Mbirika, in the spring of 1960. The author of the narrative and captions, and compiler of the album, is Petro Andayi Mbirika's son, Vincent Elyidardy Abukuse Mbirika. Vincent signs his name on the third page of the album, at the conclusion of the introductory manuscript text. Also, three images in the album capture the younger Mbirika, including one showing him at the side of his father's coffin, dressed in coat and tie. According to the manuscript narrative at the beginning, Vincent composed the present album on his last night in Nairobi before returning to the United States "for higher studies." Mbirika would indeed go on to higher education in the United States, earning a doctorate from New York University in 1970. His dissertation is titled "An Examination of the Functions of the University of East Africa in Relation to the Needs of the People." He then returned to a professorship in Kenya, where he apparently still lives.Ever the devoted son, Vincent writes that his father "was a great person, not by body, even not by fame, but he was great in the way he dealt with different people and in the manner in which he handled everyone....My father preached the Gospel of Christ from 1913 to his death, and in so doing established 10 churches in Kisa Location."

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