Christine H. Sophie Kabuye
{{Short description|Ugandan botanist (* 1938)}}
Christine H. Sophie Kabuye (born 1938) is an ethnobotanist from Uganda. From 1971 to 1994, she served as botanist in charge of the East African Herbarium in Nairobi, Kenya.
Early life and education
Christine H. Sophie Kabuye was born in 1938 in Uganda.{{Cite web |title=Kabuye, Christine H. Sophie (1938-) |url=https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.person.bm000004191 |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Jstor Global Plants}}{{Cite web |title=Species information: Diospyros kabuyeana |url=https://www.mozambiqueflora.com/speciesdata/species.php?species_id=230470 |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Flora of Mozambique}}{{Cite web |title=Christine Sophie Kabuye |url=https://neglectedscience.com/christine-sophie-kabuye/ |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Neglected Science |language=en-US}}
In 1964, Kabuye graduated from Makerere University with a Bachelor of Science degree in botany and zoology.
Career
In 1966, Kabuye traveled to Europe to work at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where she focused her research on flowering plants in the Oxalidaceae family. Her research on Oxalidaceae was later included in the Royal Botanic Gardens' Flora of Tropical East Africa.{{Cite journal |last=Keay |first=R. W. J. |date=1971 |title=Review of Flora of Tropical East Africa |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42605012 |journal=The Commonwealth Forestry Review |volume=50 |issue=3 (145) |pages=273–273 |issn=0010-3381}}{{Cite journal |date=1971 |title=Review of Flora of Tropical East Africa |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1218278 |journal=Taxon |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=630–630 |doi=10.2307/1218278 |issn=0040-0262}} While in Europe, she also visited herbariums across Sweden, France, Italy, and other countries. She would later return to Europe to study Indigenous knowledge at Leiden University and the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania.
Kabuye is an expert in the ethnobotany and Indigenous knowledge of East Africa. Her taxonomic specialties include Oxalidaceae and Poaceae. She has worked both to collect plant specimens and to explore their use in partnership with Indigenous groups such as the Maasai.{{Cite book |last=Nazarea |first=Virginia D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mHj3RfaLCFYC |title=Ethnoecology: Situated Knowledge/located Lives |date=1999-01-01 |publisher=University of Arizona Press |isbn=978-0-8165-2364-1 |language=en}}
From 1971 to 1994, Kabuye administrated the East African Herbarium at the National Museums of Kenya, which she had first joined in 1964.{{Cite web |title=National Museums of Kenya, East African Herbarium |url=https://plants.jstor.org/partner/EA |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Jstor Global Plants}} She also led the Kenya Resource Center for Indigenous Knowledge from 1992 to 1996. She represented Kenya in the negotiations around the 1993 Convention on Biological Diversity.{{Cite web |date=2025-02-19 |title=History of the Convention |url=https://www.cbd.int/history |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Convention on Biological Diversity |language=en}} From 1994 to 1996, she served as president of the International Society of Ethnobiology.
In 1985, Kabuye spent time in the United States working at the Smithsonian Institution and Southern Methodist University. She was later chosen as a fellow at Australian National University in 1988.
After retiring from the East African Herbarium, Kabuye returned to Uganda, where she worked as a part-time lecturer at Makerere University beginning in 2004.
Recognition
In 1997, Kabuye received the J.W. Harshberger Medal and E.K. Janaki Ammal Medal from the Indian Society of Ethnobotanists.
The East African plant genus Kabuyea is named in her honor, as well as the tree species Diospyros kabuyeana.{{Cite journal |last=Brummitt |first=R. K. |last2=Banks |first2=Hannah |last3=Johnson |first3=Margaret A. T. |last4=Docherty |first4=Katharine A. |last5=Jones |first5=Keith |last6=Chase |first6=Mark W. |last7=Rudall |first7=Paula J. |date=1998 |title=Taxonomy of Cyanastroideae (Tecophilaeaceae): A Multidisciplinary Approach |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4118869 |journal=Kew Bulletin |volume=53 |issue=4 |pages=769–803 |doi=10.2307/4118869 |issn=0075-5974}}
{{botanist|Kabuye}}
References
{{Wikispecies|Christine H. Sophie Kabuye}}
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Category:Ugandan women scientists