The confession of a criminal woman: An interrogation of Saga McOdongo's Deadly Money Maker

Abstract

Autobiographical writing in Kenya, specifically crime writing, is dominated by male writers. Hence, Saga McOdongo's autobiography, Deadly Money Maker, is unique because it is one of its kind, written by a Kenyan woman to foreground the criminalisation of women in Africa. Other Kenyan texts tackling issues on prison and imprisonment, appear to be relatively well-represented with both male and female writers articulating their experiences in incarceration as a result of first, colonialism, and later for political reasons. McOdongo's autobiography deviates from the rest because it is the only one from a woman's perspective that explores the subject of criminalisation. However, although studies on confession normally deal with crime in relation to penitence and forgiveness, I argue that Saga McOdongo's Deadly Money Maker adopts a disruptive confessional mode because at the end of her autobiography, the aspect of redemption remains a contestable one. This article examines the writer's confession: that is, how she admits to getting involved in drug peddling, her experience of prison, assumed contrition and the complexities of restoration. Also, I demonstrate that criminal autobiographical writing is gendered and that a holistic study of prison literature in Africa cannot overlook women's prison writing.