Facing Mount Kenya

Last updated
Facing Mount Kenya
Author Jomo Kenyatta
Country Kenya
Language English
Genre Nonfiction, anthropology
Publisher Secker and Warburg (London)
Publication date
1938
Media typePrint (Paperback)
Pages339

Facing Mount Kenya, first published in 1938, is an anthropological study of the Kikuyu people of central Kenya. It was written by native Kikuyu and future Kenyan president Jomo Kenyatta. Kenyatta writes in this text, "The cultural and historical traditions of the Gikuyu people have been verbally handed down from generation to generation. As a Gikuyu myself, I have carried them in my head for many years, since people who have no written records to rely on learn to make a retentive memory do the work of libraries." [1]

Contents

The book's introduction was written by anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski, who mentored Kenyatta while both were at the London School of Economics. Malinowski wrote, 'As a first-hand account of a representative African culture, as an invaluable document in the principles underlying culture-contact and change and as a personal statement of the new outlook of a progressive African, this book will rank as a pioneering achievement of outstanding merit.'

The book was banned in Ireland. [2]

Book sections

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Kenya</span> Historical development of Kenya

A part of Eastern Africa, the territory of what is known as Kenya has seen human habitation since the beginning of the Lower Paleolithic. The Bantu expansion from a West African centre of dispersal reached the area by the 1st millennium AD. With the borders of the modern state at the crossroads of the Bantu, Nilo-Saharan and Afro-Asiatic ethno-linguistic areas of Africa, Kenya is a truly multi-ethnic state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenya African National Union</span> Political party in Kenya

The Kenya African National Union (KANU) is a Kenyan political party that ruled for nearly 40 years after Kenya's independence from British colonial rule in 1963 until its electoral loss in 2002. It was known as Kenya African Union (KAU) from 1944 but due to pressure from the colonial government, KAU changed its name to Kenya African Study Union (KASU) mainly because all political parties were banned in 1939 following the start of the Second World War. In 1946 KASU rebranded itself into KAU following the resignation of Harry Thuku as president due to internal differences between the moderates who wanted peaceful negotiations and the militants who wanted to use force, the latter forming the Aanake a forty, which later became the Mau Mau. His post was then occupied by James Gichuru, who stepped down for Jomo Kenyatta in 1947 as president of KAU. The KAU was banned by the colonial government from 1952 to 1960. It was re-established by James Gichuru in 1960 and renamed KANU on 14 May 1960 after a merger with Tom Mboya's Kenya Independence Movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jomo Kenyatta</span> President of Kenya from 1964 to 1978

Jomo Kenyatta was a Kenyan anti-colonial activist and politician who governed Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its first President from 1964 to his death in 1978. He was the country's first indigenous head of government and played a significant role in the transformation of Kenya from a colony of the British Empire into an independent republic. Ideologically an African nationalist and conservative, he led the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party from 1961 until his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kikuyu people</span> Ethnic group in Kenya

The Kikuyu are a Bantu ethnic group native to Central Kenya. At a population of 8,148,668 as of 2019, they account for 17.13% of the total population of Kenya, making them the largest ethnic group in Kenya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bronisław Malinowski</span> Polish anthropologist and ethnographer (1884–1942)

Bronisław Kasper Malinowski was a Polish-British anthropologist and ethnologist whose writings on ethnography, social theory, and field research have exerted a lasting influence on the discipline of anthropology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenya African Democratic Union</span> Political party in Kenya

The Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) was a political party in Kenya. It was founded in 1960 when several leading politicians refused to join Jomo Kenyatta's Kenya African National Union (KANU). It was led by Ronald Ngala who was joined by Moi's Kalenjin Political Alliance, the Masai United Front, the Kenya African Peoples Party, the Coast African Political Union, Masinde Muliro's Baluhya Political Union and the Somali National Front. The separate tribal organisations were to retain their identity and so, from the very start, KADU based its political approach on tribalism. KADU's aim was to defend the interests of the so-called KAMATUSA as well as the British settlers, against the imagined future dominance of the larger Luo and Kikuyu that comprised the majority of KANU's membership, when it became inevitable that Kenya will achieve its independence. The KADU objective was to work towards a multiracial self government within the existing colonial political system. After release of Jomo Kenyatta, KADU was becoming increasingly popular with European settlers and, on the whole, repudiated Kenyatta's leadership. KADU's plan at Lancaster meetings was devised by European supporters, essentially to protect prevailing British settlers land rights.

The Kikuyu Central Association (KCA), led by James Beauttah and Joseph Kang'ethe, was a political organisation in colonial Kenya formed in 1924 to act on behalf of the Gĩkũyũ community by presenting their concerns to the British government. One of its greatest grievances was the expropriation of the most productive land by British settlers from African farmers. Most members of the organisation were from the Gĩkũyũ tribe.

Sine qua non or condicio sine qua non is an indispensable and essential action, condition, or ingredient. It was originally a Latin legal term for "[a condition] without which it could not be", "but for...", or "without which [there is] nothing". Also, "sine qua non causation" is the formal terminology for "but-for causation".

The Gikuyu, Embu, Meru Association (GEMA) is an organisation in Kenya created to presumably advance the social and political needs of the Eastern Kenya Bantu people of Gikuyu, Embu, and Meru who though are closely related linguistically and culturally but don't have common mythologies or history. It was founded in 1971, with an economic arm, GEMA Holdings.

Mũmbi Muthiga is regarded as the mother of the Gĩkũyũ people. The word Mũmbi can be translated as the creator, "one who moulds/creates/builds". She and Gĩkũyũ were married, and both are claimed ancestor to all the Agĩkũyũ people. The story of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi has been recorded by various writers throughout the Gĩkũyũ orator and history; notable among them are Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of independent Kenya, Louis Leakey and the prolific Gĩkũyũ writer Gakaara wa Wanjaũ and another Gĩkũyũ writer known as Mathew Njoroge Kabetũ among many others. The name Mumbi comes from the Bantu root verb KUMBA, "BA", the same root word that gives rise to "UMBA". The prefix "Mu" is the Bantu noun classifier for nouns that have souls, like humans. The verb UMBA indicates the action of moulding, shaping, designing or creating. The suffix "i" replaces the terminal "a" in the Bantu language noun or verb to create the name for the performer of the action. Being derived from a Bantu root, the word Mumbi is also widely used by the Kamba ethnic community. Among the Kamba community the name carries the same meaning as among the Kikuyus.

Ngai is the monolithic Supreme God in the spirituality of the Kikuyu and the closely related Embu, Meru and Kamba groups of Kenya, and the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania. Ngai is creator of the universe and all in it. Regarded as the omnipotent God, the Kikuyu, Embu, Meru, Kamba and the Maasai of Kenya worshiped Ngai facing the Mt. Kirinyaga while prayers and goat sacrificial rituals were performed under the sacred Mugumo tree. Occasions which may warrant sacrifice or libation include times of drought; epidemics; during planting and harvesting; and human life stages such as birth, marriage and death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meru people</span> Kenyan ethnic group

The Meru or Amîîrú are a Bantu ethnic group that inhabit the Meru region of Kenya on the fertile lands of north and eastern slopes of Mount Kenya, in the former Eastern Province of Kenya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Arthur (missionary)</span>

John William Arthur was a medical missionary and Church of Scotland minister who served in British East Africa (Kenya) from 1907 to 1937. He was known simply as Doctor Arthur to generations of Africans.

Mugo wa Kibiru or Chege (Cege) wa Kibiru was a Kenyan sage from the Gikuyu tribe who lived in the 18th and early 19th centuries. His name "Mugo" means "a healer". Mugo wa Kibiru was born in Kariara, Murang'a, near Thika, but his exact dates of birth and death are unknown.

The Reverend Robert Anderson Philp was a Church of Scotland missionary in Kenya and acted as interpreter during the trial of Jomo Kenyatta in 1952.

Joseph Kamaru was a Kenyan Benga and gospel musician and political activist. He was an icon, a hero, and a leading Kikuyu musician, who has sold about half a million records. He was notable for his politically motivated songs either praising or criticising the government. His music covered the teachings of life, promiscuity and sexual harassment in Kenyan politics and social culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campaign against female genital mutilation in colonial Kenya</span>

The campaign against female genital mutilation in colonial Kenya (1929–1932), also known as the female circumcision controversy, was a period within Kenyan historiography known for efforts by British missionaries, particularly from the Church of Scotland, to stop the practice of female genital mutilation in colonial Kenya. The campaign was met with resistance by the Kikuyu, the country's largest tribe. According to American historian Lynn M. Thomas, female genital mutilation became a focal point of the movement campaigning for independence from British rule, and a test of loyalty, either to the Christian churches or to the Kikuyu Central Association, the largest association of the Kikuyu people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenyatta family</span> Family of Jomo Kenyatta

The Kenyatta family is the family of Jomo Kenyatta, the first President of Kenya and a prominent leader in that country's independence. Born into the dominant Kikuyu culture, Kenyatta became its most famous interpreter of Kikuyu traditions through his book Facing Mount Kenya.

The International Conference on African Children or Conference on the African Child was an international conference held in Geneva in June 1931.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pan-Africanism in Kenya</span> Ideology calling for the unity of Africa

Pan-Africanism is a cultural and political ideology calling for the unification of the various African communities and their diasporadic counterparts for the purpose of empowering each other. The heights of the movement is primarily characterized in the west by the black nationalist struggles of Marcus Garvey, and the push for greater self determination by W.E.B Du Bois during the early twentieth century. The literature is much vaster once one leaves the western world and enters the African continent, where one can find a consistent effort in much of the territory to unify themselves against the common enemy of Imperialism. Pan-Africanism's influence can be characterized through its contributions to art, media, and politics.

References

  1. Kenyatta, Jomo (1938). Facing Mount Kenya. Kenya: Secker and Warburg. ISBN   0435902199.
  2. Adams, Michael (1968). Censorship: the Irish Experience. University of Alabama Press. p. 248. ISBN   9780817347178.

Heinemann Kenya Ltd ISBN   9966-46-017-9