Childhood Agency and Philosophical Becoming: Constructing Moral and Epistemic Subjectivity in Margaret Ogola’s The River and the Source

                @article{CRSIJ26000471,
                  author = {Malowa, Phelphonce Malowa},
                  title = {Childhood Agency and Philosophical Becoming: Constructing Moral and Epistemic Subjectivity in Margaret Ogola’s The River and the Source},
                  journal = {Cosmo Research and Science International Journal},
                  year = {2026},
                  volume = {2},
                  number = {2},
                  pages = {848-867},
                  issn = {3108-1584},
                  url = {https://cosmorsij.com/published/CRSIJ26000471.pdf},
                  abstract = {This study examines childhood agency and philosophical becoming in Margaret Ogola’s The River and the Source, focusing on how children develop moral and epistemic subjectivity through their experiences, relationships, choices, and interpretations of the world around them. Although scholarship on Ogola’s novel explores gender, generational change, cultural transformation, and the changing position of women in Kenyan society, childhood receives comparatively limited attention as a philosophical space in which young subjects learn to know, question, judge, choose, and act. The study draws on perspectives from childhood studies and philosophy of becoming and seeks to establish how children exercise agency, how their experiences shape moral reasoning and knowledge, and how familial and communal relationships influence their developing sense of self. A qualitative interpretive design guided the study, with close textual reading used to analyse selected childhood experiences, decisions, interactions, and moments of knowledge-making in the novel. The findings show that childhood is represented not as passive preparation for adulthood but as an active period of questioning, interpretation, moral judgement, and self-discovery. Children draw knowledge from lived experience, observation, relationships, and personal reflection rather than simply receiving it from adults. Their choices and interpretations also demonstrate an emerging capacity to negotiate social expectations and participate meaningfully in their communities. The study concludes that Ogola represents children as developing moral and epistemic subjects whose agency is central to their becoming. The study contributes to Kenyan literary scholarship by positioning childhood as a philosophical and argentic space and by extending the study of subjectivity beyond predominantly adult-centred readings of African literature.},
                  keywords = {Childhood agency, philosophical becoming, moral subjectivity, epistemic subjectivity, Margaret Ogola, Kenyan literature},
                  month = {September}
        }