 In the 1960s Waciuma and Grace Ogot became the first Kenyan women writers to be published in English.Charity Wanjiku Waciuma grew up in pre-Independence Kenya, during the violent anti-colonial struggle between the Mau-Mau and British rulers.In accordance with Kikuyu naming traditions she was given her father's younger sister's name Wanjiku ("the gossip"), her last name Waciuma, meaning "beads", being a nickname of her grandmother’s father "because he had as many goats as beads in a necklace".