African Independence Leaders & Post-Colonial Figures Codexery

Jomo Kenyatta

First President of Kenya, anti-colonial activist and KANU leader.

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Jomo Kenyatta

via Wikipedia: Jomo Kenyatta · see source

His exact birth date is unknown, with biographers suggesting 1890–1891 or 1897–1898.[1][2] He adopted the name Kenyatta from a beaded belt he wore while living among the Maasai.[2]

Life and work

He enrolled at the Church of Scotland Mission at Thogoto in November 1909, where he learned to read and write in English.[3] Kenyatta became secretary of the Kikuyu Central Association and traveled to Britain in February 1929 as their representative.[4][5] He studied at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in Moscow in late 1932.[6] Between 1935 and 1937, he worked as a linguistic informant at University College London, recording Kikuyu speech.[2]

He published Facing Mount Kenya in 1938, a collection of essays on Kikuyu society.[7] During World War II, he lived in the Sussex village of Storrington, growing vegetables and raising chickens.[2] Traditional Kikuyu customs and beliefs formed the basis of Kenyatta's upbringing, and he acquired the abilities necessary to tend the family's livestock.[8] In August 1914, after selecting the Christian name Johnstone, he was baptized as Johnstone Kamau.[2]

What the cited sources add

The book sold only 517 copies and was a commercial failure.[9] Scholar Bodil Folke Frederiksen called it "probably the most well-known and influential African scholarly work of its time"[10] Simon Gikandi described it as "one of the major texts in what has come to be known as the invention of tradition in colonial Africa".[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Jomo Kenyatta" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Archer 1969, p. 11 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Jomo Kenyatta" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Jomo Kenyatta" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Jomo Kenyatta" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Assensoh 1998, p. 42–43 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Jomo Kenyatta" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Jomo Kenyatta" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Jomo Kenyatta" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Jomo Kenyatta" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Archer 1969, p. 11; Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Jomo Kenyatta" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Bernardi 1993, p. 168–169 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Jomo Kenyatta" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Murray-Brown 1974, p. 323; Frederiksen 2008, p. 36; Gikandi 2000, p. 10 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Jomo Kenyatta (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Named in this entry

London School of EconomicsOne-party stateOrganisation of African UnityWestern worldNeocolonialismBibleKikuyu languagePound sterling

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Jomo Kenyatta · African And Asian Leaders

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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