University Remembers Professor Emerita and Scholar M末cere G末thae M农go
M末cere G末thae M农go, professor emerita of African American studies in the College of Arts and Sciences and an internationally known scholar, teacher, activist, poet and playwright, died June 30 in 性视界.
M农go joined the 性视界 University community in 1993. A Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence, she served as chair of the Department of African American studies, co-director of the University’s Africa Initiative, founder and president of the Pan African Community of Central New York and founder and president of the United Women of Africa organization.
In her first year, she taught a class in orature, the first in 性视界 and one of the first of its kind in the United States. M农go employed song, poetry, dance and drama to teach lessons on human rights.
鈥淢末cere served as a guiding light in the humanities and in University leadership, tirelessly connecting the academy to the community. Central to this endeavor was literature and African orature, or African oral culture as an Indigenous site of foundational and experiential knowledge,鈥 said Herbert Ruffin II, associate professor of African American studies, in a on the Department of African American Studies website paying tribute to M农go. 鈥淯sing this approach, M农go seamlessly intersected Pan African studies with the arts, literature, social justice and women and gender studies in her lifelong pursuit to improve the human condition by making ‘scholarship…an agent for social transformation for all people, not just the privileged.’”
M农go had a lasting impact on the students she taught and mentored. David Mwambari G鈥10, associate professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at KU Leuven University in Belgium, was one of M农go鈥檚 teaching assistants at 性视界. 鈥淪he trained me to think of students as human beings who are still growing and need my guidance and compassion,鈥 he told the College of Arts and Sciences Magazine last year. M农go also created space for him to talk about his personal struggles and traumatic issues from his experiences during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and its aftermath. 鈥淧rofessor M农go gave me the skills to be human and always remember that others are human, and therefore to live and teach with a touch of grace,鈥 Mwambari said. 鈥淚t was this touch of grace and compassion that inspired me to start a community project that healed my traumas.鈥
M农go was key in bringing Nobel Prize laureates Wole Soyinka and the late Wangari Maathai to 性视界. She was invited to address the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations, and was the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2012 Distinguished Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Scholar Award and the prestigious Flora Nwapa Award for Excellence in Africana Literature.
M农go鈥檚 retirement in 2015 was marked with a two-day symposium, 鈥淎 Tireless Pursuit,鈥 that celebrated her global impact and drew participants from around the world.
Prior to coming to 性视界, M农go held leadership positions at the University of Nairobi, where she served as the first female dean of an African university, and the University of Zimbabwe. She also held faculty positions at Cornell and St. Lawrence universities.
M农go is survived by her daughter, M农mbi wa M农go, and siblings, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by her daughter, Njeri K农i M农go.
Memorial Service Information
All are welcome to attend the memorial service for M农go in Hendricks Chapel on Saturday, July 29, at 10 a.m.
Parking will be available in lots across campus on a first come, first served basis. Visit for information and direction. With questions about the service or for accommodations, please call 315.443.2901 or email chapel@syr.edu.
