(London: Radcliff e, 1993), 153–5, 160–3, 263; Joanna Lewis, Empire State-Building: War
the home coming of our great hero jomo kenyatta
313
and Welfare in Kenya 1925–52 (Oxford: James Currey, 2000), 157–61; and Lonsdale’s private correspondence with Kelly.
61. Muoria implies that such courtesy was not normally to be expected from British offi
cials.
62. Th
e doors to the town houses of East Africa’s Islamic port cities indicated the status of the family within. See, J. de V. Allen, ‘Th
e Swahili House: Cultural and Ritual
Concepts Underlying its Plan and Structure’, Art and Archaeology Research Papers 11 (1979), 1–32; Linda Donley, ‘House Power: Swahili Space and Symbolic Markers’, in Ian Hodder (ed.), Symbolic and Structural Archaeology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 63–73.
63. Fort Jesus had been a Portuguese fort, built in the late sixteenth century with a labour force recruited in Goa, the Portuguese base on the far side of the Indian Ocean. In 1698 Omani Arabs captured it aft er a three-year siege. Mombasa’s strategic importance as a naval base was rediscovered in the Second World War and continues to this day, with facilities enjoyed by American and other navies deployed in the Gulf area and the Indian Ocean.
64. Both Muoria and the white swimmers were very up-to-date, since ‘Bikini’ had become the popular name for two-piece swimsuits only two months earlier, aft er the American atom-bomb test on Bikini Atoll in the Pacifi c Ocean.
65. Much cultural disapproval lies behind this question. Beauttah asks if the bathers are without thoni, ‘shyness, shame; respectful, courtesy, decorum and reserve’
(Benson, 524).
66. Ruhonge is, literally, the branch of a tree.
67. Jiggers are sandfl eas, apparently introduced to East Africa in the 1890s, that lay their eggs under toe-nails, causing potentially serious damage unless dug out with a pin. Loan-fi nanced housing schemes for African urban workers with families were a new priority for the Kenya government aft er the Second World War, due to a growing desire to ‘stabilise’ urban labour rather than, as before the war, relying on migratory labour by single men. Mombasa presented particular planning diffi
culties because of
long-established African private housing interests: Richard Stren, Housing the Urban Poor in Africa: Policy, Politics, and Bureaucracy in Mombasa (Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, 1978).
68. Th
e fi nancing of African housing and other urban facilities through a municipal monopoly on maize-beer brewing, to be drunk in a municipal beerhall, had spread throughout British-ruled eastern Africa in the 1920s, based on practice pioneered in Durban. Nairobi’s beerhall dated from 1922, Mombasa’s from 1934: Justin Willis, Potent Brews: A Social History of Alcohol in East Africa 1850–1999 (Oxford: James Currey, 2002), 114–17.
69. Other Kenyans had diff erent objections: that municipal monopoly hindered African private enterprise in the supply of alcohol: Willis, Potent Brews, 150–56
70. An interesting comment on the cross-racial fantasies of African workers when drunk.
71. Th
e type in the Gikuyu text is broken here. But it does not describe the parting in such detail, mentioning only its sadness and that the train must cover 330 miles from Mombasa to Nairobi.
72. Muoria added all the next three paragraphs in his English text. Th
e Gikuyu
text follows thereaft er and recounts neither Kenyatta’s prophecy, nor the exchange about Muoria’s self-interested journalism. Why Muoria omitted these details from his Gikuyu text is not clear but there is no reason to doubt their veracity. Kenyatta’s belief in the political utility of white settler repression of African protest refl ected his trust in his Labour Party friends, some of them now in government. His precedent for British intervention to relieve colonial crisis was the causal sequence, oft en mentioned in his writings, between the killing of unarmed African protesters in Nairobi in 1922, and the Colonial Offi
ce’s 1923 ‘Devonshire Declaration’ that African interests were
314
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‘paramount’ in Kenya, over those of European and Indian interests. For his interest in the British monarchy see, Lonsdale, ‘Ornamental Constitutionalism’. African troops who had served in India during the recent Second World War noted that most Indians appeared to be poorer than they themselves (information from the late Professor Fergus Wilson, intelligence offi
cer in a Tanganyika battalion of the King’s African Rifl es,
citing soldiers’ opinions in their letters back home which it was his duty to censor), while Eliud Mathu, a nominated member for African interests, refl ected in Legislative Council in 1950 that Indians were just as much ‘a conglomeration of races’ as Kenya and had yet won national independence (cited in Jack R. Roelker, Mathu of Kenya: A Political Study (Stanford CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1976), 76. Kenyatta’s cynicism over an editor’s motives may have been learned from his experience with the British press in his London years.
73. Th
e Gikuyu verb is gutaarana, to ‘advise, instruct, admonish each other’ (Benson, 423). To speak in such a manner was the privilege of a learned elder.
74. Kenyatta had indeed studied farming when in Europe; he had shown interest in co-operative farming in Denmark (‘What Should we Do?’ endnote 55, page above), and had worked on the land in Sussex during the war, while living with his English wife Edna. He also lectured to British troops on courses organised by the Workers Educational Association: Murray-Brown, Kenyatta, chapter 18. Th
at Kenya had lived
in Germany and had learned the art of political organisation from Hitler was a widely-believed myth at the time of his arrest, allegedly for ‘managing’ Mau Mau, in October 1952: John Lonsdale, ‘Kenyatta’s Trials: Breaking and Making an African Nationalist’, in Peter Coss (ed.), Th
e Moral World of the Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2000), 196–239, p. 214.
75. Muoria’s Gikuyu carries more weight than ‘friends’. Kenyatta’s icera riake are his ‘group, gang, clique’, or ‘those with whom he keeps company’ (Beechers, 57). His most valuable friends were in the now-ruling Labour Party, including Arthur Creech Jones, who became Secretary of State for the Colonies one month aft er Kenyatta’s return to Kenya.
76. It is certainly true that missionaries and others with Kenyan experience disapproved of Kenyatta’s alleged fondness for good living and white women when he was in London, and tried fruitlessly to get him to return to Kenya: Murray-Brown, Kenyatta, chapters 10, 12, 14, 15.
77. Kinyatta ahana muhonokia witu, ‘or Kenyatta is like our saviour’ is a rhetorical riposte to the East African Revival, whose converts in the 1940s declaimed: Jesu ni muhonokia wakwa, ‘Jesus is my saviour’. Muoria had earlier inveighed against the Revival in his pamphlet ‘What Should We Do, Own People’, section 6, ‘Th
e Reason
of Prayers and Belief ’, above.
78. Kenyatta himself voiced the same frustrated opinion a few weeks later: see below,
‘Kenyatta is our Reconciler’, section headed ‘How the Kikuyu could be respected.’
79. Th
e Gikuyu here is very strong, since twathaya, to be lazy, is also to be ‘bound up’ (Benson, 498).
80. Muoria reports Kenyatta’s theology as being much like his own, for which, again, see ‘What Should We Do?’ above, section headed ‘Th
e Reason of Prayers and Belief ’.
81. (Peter) Mbiyu Koinange, son of chief Koinange (and soon to be Kenyatta’s brother-in-law), now 40 years old, had also received some of his schooling at the Anglican school at Kabete, close to his father’s property. One of the fi rst Kenyans to go to America for further education, he was briefl y at St John’s College Cambridge, thanks to his father’s ties with the Leakey family, and met Kenyatta in London in 1938,
before returning to be the fi rst headmaster of Githunguri school. Conveniently absent from Kenya’s years of turmoil, 1950 to 1962, he was minister of state in the President’s offi
ce until Kenyatta’s death in 1978.
the home coming of our great hero jomo kenyatta
315
82. Dagoretti, west of Nairobi, was one of the nearest Kikuyu villages to the city, where Kenyatta had lived aft er the First World War and where Grace Wahu still lived.
Kenyatta would soon seek a base deeper into the Kiambu countryside.
83. Muoria inserted this section heading when in his London exile, where his relations with Koinange had become strained.
84. Kenyatta calls God by the name Mwene-Nyaga, the ‘owner of brightness’, not by the singular name Ngai of Protestant missionary texts.
85. Mbombomu: another expressive new loan-word.
KENYATTA NI MUIGWITHANIA WITU
(1) Kenyatta Ekwira Agikuyu Othe Marugure Miario ino
Ituike Ciiko
Kari kirindi gia Gikuyu na Mumbi giothe hau kiaruma, ngumuririkania
ati maithe maitu ma tene nimatutigiire igai ria kuga ati ‘Kamugambo
gatioraga’. Tondu ucio nikio miario ino yandikitwo haha nigetha
andu aria matari na ihinda ria gukoruo ho mamithomere, na matuike
ota mari micemanio-ini io, nao aria mathikiriirie maririkanio ciugo
iria mangikoruo mariganiiruo. Tondu ucio ningwihoka ati andu othe
nimeguthoma miario ino mena tibiri ota uria yaririo ina tibiri. Ona ningi
ati niwega miario ino irauguruo ituike ciiko. Tondu ingiaga kurigicirio
ni ciiko ndingituika ya kiguni muno. Ni tondu mbeu ingibuthira irima
yage gukunuka igie na maciaro no ituike ati ndiri na kiguni. Nayo
miario ingiaga kurumiriruo na gutungatiruo ni ciiko no ituike mihumu
ya tuhu kana mihumu itari kiguni Ingienda muno kamuririkania kiugo
kiugaga ‘Ngai ateithagia aria megwiteithia’ na nikio nduriri iria ithiite
na mbere irumagirira kiugo kiu, nikumenya ati, ‘Mwana wi kiyo nda-
gaga muthambia’.
Ithui na ithui nitwirikanie ati Mwene-Nyaga niatuhete iheyo njega
na ina riri, agatuhe maitho makuona, ag tuhe matu makuigua, agatuhe
moko ma kuruta wira ohamwe na ciiga iria ingi cia gututeithia maundu-
ini macio. No makiria Mwene-Nyaga agatugaira igai rimwe inene
muno nario niguo tombo wa gwiciria. Na kwondu ucio nitwagiriiruo
ni kuhuthira tombo ucio na muthemba uria wagiriire, naguo ni wa
CHAPTER SIX
KENYATTA IS OUR RECONCILER
Th
e above is the title I gave my pamphlet containing the speeches Kenyatta delivered to Kenya’s Africans aft er his return.
I produced it in early 1947, in late February. Kenyatta had by then
moved to Githunguri, to be Principal of the Kenya Teachers College.
Since I needed his introduction to the new pamphlet, I had to go to
Githunguri. He cheerfully agreed to give me one. He then dictated to me
what he wanted to say and which I published on the fi rst page, under
the following bold heading:
(1) Kenyatta Tells All Kikuyu To Translate 1 Th
ese Speeches
Into Action
To all the community of Gikuyu and Mumbi wherever they may be: I
want to remind you that our forefathers left us an inheritance,2 namely,
the saying: ‘Th
e small voice does not perish’. Th
at is why these speeches
have been written down, so that those who weren’t there when they
were spoken can read them and feel as if they too had been present. And
those who were there, listening, may be reminded of words they had
forgotten. So I hope people will read these speeches with care, since they
were spoken with great care in the fi rst place. It would be [even] better
if they were translated into action, for if they are not surrounded3 by
action they won’t be of much importance. If a seed rots in the ground
and does not sprout, it will not produce fruit and so be of no use to
anyone.4 Similarly, if speeches are not followed up and translated into
action, they become nothing but empty, worthless, breaths of air.
I’d like to remind you of another saying, that ‘God5 helps those who
help themselves’. Th
at’s why all advanced nations follow that advice,
since they are aware that our own proverb asserts: ‘A diligent child will
always fi nd an adopter’.6
For our part, we should remember that Almighty God7 has bestowed
on us good gift s that are also very beautiful. He gave us eyes to see. He
gave us ears to hear. He gave us hands with which to work, and other
limbs too, all of which are intended to help us work.
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chapter six
kurutira bururi witu wira twina kiyo na uhoreri na tutari na witii kana
wicukumithania tukimenyaga ati ciiko ciitu ciothe iria tungikoruo
tugiika ciagiriiruo ni gukoruo i cia gutiithia na gukumia aciari aitu, na
nio Gikuyu na Mumbi Nitwagiriiruo nikwanirira na mugambo munene
tukiugaga atiriri: Mundu uria ukamenithia kana anyararithie Gikuyu
kana Mumbi, ucio agiriiruo ni gukua ainii ta ruhuhu.
Nituhoei na hinya ati Th
aaai wa Mwene-Nyaga utuiyurie wendo na
kiyo tuhote kuruta mawira maitu mothe tutari na meririria mangi tiga
o meririria ma gutwara bururi witu na mbere wina ugariru.
Jomo Kenyatta
Githunguri 26–2–47
(2) Kenyatta ni Muigwithania Witu: Kiugo Kia Uiguano
Kuuma Muthuri Mugathe muno tii Kinyatta oka, nietiiruo cai kundu
kuingi ni Ciama cia Nduriri o undu umwe na Ciama cia Agikuyu, na
thutha wa cia ucio niakoragwo akiaria miario iria yandikitwo kabuku-
ini gaka.
No riri maundu maria mandikitwo haha ti kuga ati nimo miario iria
yothe Kinyatta aritie kuma oka. No ino ni iria Mwandiki wa maundu
maya akoragwo e ho.
kenyatta is our reconciler
319
Above all, God has shared with us another very important inheritance.
Th
at is the Brain, which enables us to think.
We ought therefore to make good use of that brain power. Th
at
means serving our country with energy and an honest heart, without
either pride or seeking to curry favour, recognizing that everything we
do is intended to enhance and bring respect to our parents, Gikuyu
and Mumbi. We ought to shout loudly as we make known to all that
any man who brings disrespect to our ancestors Gikuyu and Mumbi
should die a cowardly death with his face downward like a bat. Let us all pray hard that the Peace of Almighty God may fi ll our hearts with
love and energy, so that we may do all our tasks without any thought
other than our desire to uplift our country, to go forward peacefully.
Yours, Jomo Kenyatta. Githunguri 26–2–47
(2) Kenyatta is our reconciler Th
at Word Unity
In my own introduction, I had this to say:
Since Kenyatta returned he has been invited to many Tea Parties,8 by
unions of other tribes as well as those belonging to the Kikuyu tribe.
Aft er those Tea parties, he made speeches which are now reproduced
in this little pamphlet.
But the speeches published here do not represent all he has said
since his return. For he has been invited by diff erent groups in other
parts of the country where the ed
itor could not attend, and could not
therefore write down the speeches for publication.
Th
ose published here, other than the one from Nyeri, are what the
editor reported because he was present at the meeting where [Kenyatta]
spoke and was therefore able to note them down as he spoke the words
published in this pamphlet.
It is interesting that our highly respected speaker appears to possess
a valuable gift , not given to many by Almighty God, in the shape of the
kind of knowledge that God also gave Saint Paul, the writer of many
Epistles in the Holy Bible, who could say that: ‘Wherever he went, he
was able to associate himself with the local people, so that they started
to think of him as one of them’.9
Likewise, if the reader of these narratives takes the trouble to ponder
what Kenyatta says in his speeches, he will fi nd that what the editor
says is true. For when Kenyatta talks to the Kikuyu people, his mes-
sage relates to their aff airs. When talking to Indians or Somalis, his
320
chapter six
Uhoro ungi wa bata na wakugegania wa Muthuri uyu Mugoce, ni
ati ena kiheo kinene kia Mwene-Nyaga kiria ahetwo ugi-ini ota kiria
kiahetwo Muthuri uria wa tene wetagwo Mutheru Paulo. Nakio kiheo
kiu nikio giatumaga Muthuri ucio wa tene oige ati o kundu kuria
guothe athiaga niahotaga kwigarura akahanana na andu akuo. Kiheo
to kiu gitiheagwo andu aingi guku thi. Nake muthomi o wothe wa
mohoro maya, athoma agiciragia niekuona ati uhoro ucio ni wa ma.
Tondu akoruo Kinyatta ekwariiria Agikuyu uhoro wake ugukoruo
ukonii Agikuyu. Ningi aakoruo ni Uhindi kana Cumari uhoro wake
ugakoruo ukonii o uhindi ucio ona kana Cumari ucio. Naguo uhoro
ucio ugukoruo ukonii kuguna and aria mekwaririo, akoruo mahatitie
muhari wao makeruo. Na akoruo mekite wega makagathiririo.
Th
utha ucio magacoka makaheo kiugo oro kimwe gia kumanyititha-
nia othe na nikio giki: UIGUANO. Makeruo ati twaiguana twarie twi
mutwe umwe kana na mugambo umwe, hatiri undu ona umwe tuk-
wenda gwika tutekuhingia. Kiugo kiu kia uiguano nikio kiumanite na
Writing for Kenya Page 47