Nationalism and Independence in Africa: Jomo Kenyatta

    Jomo Kenyatta was born in British East Africa in the 1890s.  Although Kenyatta studied in a mission and received a Western education, by the 1920s, he began to question European imperialism in the African continent and joined a nationalist movement.  One of Kenyatta’s goals was to reclaim land taken by white settlers.  During the 1930s, Kenyatta briefly joined the Communist party and opposed the Italian invasion of East Africa.  By 1946, Kenyatta assumed the leadership of the Kenya African Union.  By 1952, African frustration with British imperialists erupted in the Mau Mau rebellion.  This movement was directed against the white settlers and the land they had taken.  The colonial government arrested Kenyatta and imprisoned him for seven years.   Kenyatta denied the involvement of the Kenya African Union in the Mau Mau rebellion.  Eventually, the British began to transition their territory to African majority rule and in 1961, Kenyatta was released from prison.  In 1962, Kenyatta helped negotiate the terms for an independent Kenya and by December 12, 1963, Kenya celebrated its independence with Jomo Kenyatta as its Prime Minister.   Sadly, Jomo Kenyatta passed away in 1978.    

Primary Source: Excerpt from Jomo Kenyatta’s Speech “The Kenya African Union is Not the Mau Mau”, 1952

“... I want you to know the purpose of K.A.U. … It involves every African in Kenya and it is their mouthpiece which asks for freedom. K.A.U. is you and you are the K.A.U. If we unite now, each and every one of us, and each tribe to another, we will cause the implementation in this country of that which the European calls democracy. True democracy has no color distinction. It does not choose between black and white. We are here in this tremendous gathering under the K.A.U. flag to find which road leads us from darkness into democracy. In order to find it we Africans must first achieve the right to elect our own representatives. That is surely the first principle of democracy. We are the only race in Kenya which does not elect its own representatives in the Legislature and we are going to set about to rectify this situation…”

Questions:

1: Who was Jomo Kenyatta? ________________________________________________________________________

2: Why was Jomo Kenyatta a nationalist? ________________________________________________________________________

3: What was one of Kenyatta’s goals? ________________________________________________________________________

4: According to the primary source, what is the first principle of democracy? _____________________________________________________________________