KATAMA MKANGI (1944-2004) was a sociologist, activist, and Swahili novelist born in southeast Kenya. In the 1980s, during the authoritarian regime of Daniel arap Moi, he was among several members of the underground Mwakenya Movement to be arrested, imprisoned without trial, and subjected to torture in Nairobi's infamous Nyayo House. Although he worked as an academic sociologist for most of his life, Mkangi is best known for his novels, and he has been described as "the founder of the 'new' novel in Kenya." In addition to Walenisi, he wrote the coming-of-age love story Ukiwa and the absurdist allegory Mafuta.