Kenya

Martha Saavedra

Academic Coordinator, Emerita; Alum

Center for African Studies

Martha Saavedra was the Associate Director of the Center for African Studies from 1993 to 2025. She received a PhD and MA in a Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley and a BA in International Studies from Rhodes College. She taught at St. Mary’s College of California, Ohio...

Read more about Martha Saavedra

Jonathan Tin-Jun Wu

PhD Candidate

School of Music, Ethnomusicology

Receiving the Rocca Dissertation Fellowship for the 2023-2024 academic year provided significant support for the research and writing of my dissertation, currently titled “Negotiating Contemporary China-Kenya Relations through Sonic Infrastructures and Musical Imaginaries.” Based on fieldwork research in Nairobi, Kenya, my project explores how China and Kenya’s engagements are performed, developed, and imagined through sonic infrastructures that actively
produce, leverage, and circulate music between the two countries. Challenging simplistic “monster or messiah” narratives often used to...

Read more about Jonathan Tin-Jun Wu

“A Better World is Possible”: Brenda Ogutu, Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program Alumni, Leading through Research and Consultancy

August 14, 2025

By Paul de Morais

Professional headshot photo of Brenda Ogutu Brenda Ogutu is the Associate Engagement Director at Busara, a non-profit organization based in Nairobi, Kenya that uses social and behavioral scientific research to solve problems in development and poverty alleviation in the Global South. In her role, Brenda oversees and coordinates a diverse portfolio of governance-related projects. Her work at the firm began...

Read more about “A Better World is Possible”: Brenda Ogutu, Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program Alumni, Leading through Research and Consultancy

Fall Course Highlights - 2025!

August 12, 2025

African Language Courses

Informative poster about taking language courses in Swahili at UC Berkeley AFRICAM 11A 001 - REC 001 offered through African American Studies
Elementary...

Read more about Fall Course Highlights - 2025!

Duncan Omanga

Associate Director

Center for African Studies

Dr. Duncan Omanga is an educationist, program manager, and academic with a deep commitment to the study of Africa. He currently serves as Associate Director at the Center for African Studies (CAS) and Manager of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at the University of California, Berkeley.

Prior to joining CAS, Dr. Omanga was a Program Officer in the Africa Section of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in Washington, D.C. He previously served as...