РефератыИностранный языкKoKomo Kenyatta Essay Research Paper KENYATTA

Komo Kenyatta Essay Research Paper KENYATTA

Komo Kenyatta Essay, Research Paper


KENYATTA ….. Taa ya Kenya or Swahili for the ‘Light of Kenya’ was the


man who brought the light of independence to Kenya. Indeed, he was a


beacon, a rallying point for suffering Kenyans to fight for their rights,


justice and freedom.


His brilliance gave strength and aspiration to people beyond the


boundaries of Kenya, indeed beyond the shores of Africa. Just as one light


shines in total darkness and provides a raliying point, so did Ken-yatta


become the focus of the freedom fight for Kenya over half a century to


dispell the darkness and injustice of colonialism. Before matter can


become light, it has to suffer the rigours of heat. So did Kenyatta


suffer the rigorous of imprisonment to bring independence to Kenya. As the


founding father of Kenya, and its undisputed leader, he came to be known


as Mzee, Swahili for a respected eider.


No chronology can adequately reflect the many sided achievements of


Mzee Kenyatta. His life is the life of the free Kenya nation chronicled


here.


There is Kenyatta the leader who united all races and tribes for the


freedom struggle; Kenyatta the orator who held his listeners entranced,


Kenyatta the journalist who launched the first indigenous paper to voice


his people’s demands; Kenyatta the scholar who wrote the first serious


study about his people; Kenyatta the teacher who initiated love for


Kenyah culture and heritage; Kenyatta the farmer who loved his land and


urged his people to return to it; Kenyatta the biographer who documented


his ’suffering without bitterness’; Kenyatta the conser-vationist who


protected Kenya’s priceless fauna and flora; Kenyatta the father figure


who showered love and affection on all; Kenyatta the democrat who


upheld the democratic principle of one-man one-vote; Kenyatta the eider


statesman who counselled other Heads of State, and finally Kenyatta the


visionary who had a glorious image of Kenya’s future and toiled to realise


it.


Since ideas are more enduring than human bodies and sacrifices last


longer than sermons thus the light that is Kenyatta burns on to illuminate


the path of Kenya.


Kenyatta, Jomo (1897?-1978), first prime minister (1963-1964) and then


first president (1964-1978) of Kenya. Kenyatta was Kenya’s founding


father, a conservative nationalist who led the East African nation to


independence from Britain in 1963.


Kenyatta was born in Gatundu in the part of British East Africa that is


now Kenya; the year of his birth is uncertain, but most scholars agree


he was born in the 1890s. He was born into the Kikuyu ethnic group,


Kenya’s largest. Named Kamau wa Ngengi at birth, he later adopted the


surname Kenyatta (from the Kikuyu word for a type of beaded belt he wore)


and then the first name Jomo. Kenyatta was educated by Presbyterian


missionaries and by 1921 had moved to the city of Nairobi. There he became


involved in early African protest movements, joining the Kikuyu Central


Association (KCA) in 1924. He quickly emerged as a leader within the


KCA, and in 1928 he became editor of the movement’s newspaper. In 1929


and 1931 Kenyatta visited England to present KCA demands for the return


of African land lost to European settlers and for increased political


and economic opportunity for Africans in Kenya, which had become a colony


within British East Africa in 1920. Kenyatta had little success,


however.


Kenyatta remained in Europe for almost 15 years, during which he


attended various schools and universities, traveled extensively, and


published numerous articles and pamphlets on Kenya and the plight of Kenyans


under colonial rule. While attending the London School of Economics,


Kenyatta studied under noted British anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski


and published his seminal work, Facing Mount Kenya (1938). In this book,


Kenyatta described traditional Kikuyu society as well-ordered and


harmonious and criticized the disruptive changes brought by colonialism.


Facing Mount Kenya was well received in Great Britain as a defense of


African culture, and it established Kenyatta’s credentials as spokesperson


for his people.


Following World War II (1939-1945), Kenyatta became an outspoken


nationalist, demanding Kenyan self-government and independence from Great


Britain. Together with other prominent African nationalist figures, such


as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Kenyatta helped organize the fifth


Pan-African Congress in Great Britain in 1945. The congress, modeled after the


four congresses organized by black American intellectual W. E. B. Du Bois


between 1919 and 1927 and attended by black leaders and intellectuals


from around the world, affirmed the goals of African nationalism and


unity. In September 1946 Kenyatta returned to Kenya, and in June 1947 he


became president of the first colony-wide African political


organization, the Kenya African Union (KAU), which had been formed more than two


years earlier. Recruiting both Kikuyu and non-Kikuyu support, Kenyatta


devoted considerable energy to KAU’s efforts to win self-government under


African leadership. KAU was unsuccessful, however, and African


resistance to colonial policies and the supremacy of European settlers in Kenya


took on a more militant tone. In 1952 an extremist Kikuyu guerrilla


movement called Mau Mau began advocating violence against the colonial


government and white settlers(see Mau Mau rebellion). Never a radical,


Kenyatta did not advocate violence to achieve African political goals.


Nevertheless, the colonial authorities arrested him and five other KAU


leaders in October 1952 for allegedly managing Mau Mau. The six leaders


were tried and, in April 1953, convicted.


Kenyatta spent almost nine years in jail and detention. By the time he


was freed in August 1961, Kenya was moving towards self-government


under African leadership, and Kenyatta had been embraced as the colony’s


most important independence leader. Shortly after his release, Kenyatta


assumed the leadership of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), a


party founded in 1960 and supported by the Kikuyu and Luo. He led the


party to victory in the pre-independence elections of May 1963 and was


named prime minister of Kenya in June. Kenyatta led Kenya to formal


independence in December of that year. Kenya was established as a republic in


December 1964, and Kenyatta was elected Kenya’s first presiden

t the


same month.


As president, Kenyatta, known affectionately to Kenyans as mzee


(Swahili for “old man”), strove to unify the new nation of Kenya. He worked to


establish harmonious race relations, safeguarding whites’ property


rights and appealing to both whites and the African majority to forget past


injustices. Kenyatta adopted the slogan “Harambee” (Swahili for “let’s


all pull together”), asking whites and Africans to work together for


the development of Kenya. He promoted capitalist economic policies,


encouraged foreign investment in Kenya, and adopted a pro-Western foreign


policy. Such policies were unpopular with radicals within KANU, who


advocated socialism for Kenya. However, Kenyatta isolated this element of


KANU, forcing radical vice president Oginga Odinga and his supporters out


of the party in 1966. Odinga formed the rival Kenya People’s Union


(KPU), which drew much support from Odinga’s ethnic group, the Luo.


Kenyatta used his extensive presidential powers and control of the media to


counter the challenge to his leadership and appealed for Kikuyu ethnic


solidarity. The 1969 assassination of cabinet minister Tom Mboya a Luo


ally of Kenyatta’s by a Kikuyu led to months of tension and violence


between the Luo and the Kikuyu. Kenyatta banned Odinga’s party, detained


its leaders, and called elections in which only KANU was allowed to


participate. For the remainder of his presidency, Kenya was effectively a


one-party state, and Kenyatta made use of detention, appeals to ethnic


loyalties, and careful appointment of government jobs to maintain his


commanding position in Kenya’s political system. Kenyatta was reelected


president in 1969 and 1974, unopposed each time. Until the mid-1970s


Kenya maintained a high economic growth rate under Kenyatta’s leadership,


due to a favorable international market for Kenya’s main exports and


external economic assistance.


After 1970 Kenyatta’s advancing age kept him from the day-to-day


management of government affairs. He intervened only when necessary to settle


disputed issues. Critics maintained that Kenyatta’s relative isolation


resulted in increasing domination of Kenya’s affairs by well-connected


Kikuyu who acquired great wealth as a result. Despite such criticism,


however, no serious challenge to Kenyatta’s leadership emerged. Kenyatta


died in office in 1978 and was succeeded by Kenyan vice president


Daniel arap Moi. Moi pledged to continue Kenyatta’s work, labeling his own


program Nyayo (Swahili for “footsteps”).. Kenyatta was revered after his


death as the father of modern Kenya. His published works include


Suffering Without Bitterness (1968), a collection of reminiscences and


speeches.


Kenyan independence involved some of the most characteristic elements


of the African liberation movements: trivial division, settler


resistance, a wavering colonial policy and a charismatic black leader, Jomo


Kenyatta. The grandson of a medicine man of the Kikuyu, Kenya s dominant


tribe, Kenyatta was unsure of the date and year of his birth, probably


1891. Like other modern revolutionaries, his name was an adopted one;


Jomo means “burning spear” and Kenyatta refers to the beaded belt, or


kinyata, that he habitually wore.


Kenyatta spend much of his youth traveling in Europe. He returned home


in the 1920 s, became secretary of the Kikuyu Central Association and


began to involve himself in his country s future. In 1929 and again in


1931 he went to London to argue his tribe s rights to the land on which


it had settled.. The British government refused to grant his request by


allowed the Kikuyu to establish their own schools. Over the following


years he attended the London School of Economics and wrote


anthropological studies of his people as well as an autobiography, Facing Mount


Kenya (1938), that became a bible of the independence movement.


In October 1945, Kenyatta was one of the organizers of the landmark


Pan-African Congress that met in Manchester, England. Seizing the postwar


moment, young radicals such as Kwame Nkrumah demanded full independence


for Africa. When Kenyatta returned to Kenya in September 1946, he


became president of the Kenya Africa Union (KAU), a political party that


sought to unify Kenya s tribes. While urging his followers to act with


discipline and restraint, he fought for African voting rights, the


elimination of racial discrimination and the return of tribal lands.


When the British rejected these demands, Kikuyu militants organized a


terrorist underground, the Mau Mau, which prompted the declaration of a


state of emergency, Kenyatta was accused of masterminding the Mau Mau,


a charge almost certainly false; unquestionably, however, the KAU had


links to the Mau Mau, and in 1952 Kenyatta was imprisioned. But British


ascendancy was on the wane, and with Ghana s independence in 1957,


Kenya s drive toward nationhood accelerated. The KAU, now the dominant


black party, refused any participation in a transitional government until


Kenyatta was freed. In 1961, he returned home in triumph, his captivity


having made him the moral leader of his people s struggle. In December


1963 he became the first president of the Republic of Kenya.


Kenyatta s firmest base of support was among the Kikuyu, who formed but


20% of the black population of Kenya. As president, he reached out not


only to other tribes but also to white and Asian settlers, assuring


them of their place in a multiracial society. Europeans continued to serve


in his government, and despite his rhetorical commitment to the slogans


of “African Socialism,” he rejected Soviet assistance and built up a


wealthy black proprietor class under settlement schemes financed by the


British treasury and the World Bank. This elite continued as the


backbone of support for his successor, Daniel Arap Moi (born 1924).


A man of enormous vitality, Kenyatta, more than any other figure, came


to represent the new Africa on the world stage. never losing touch with


his origins — he lived on a farm outside his capital, Nairobi, and


regularly worked the land — he became a familiar figure at international


conferences and assemblies. Wearing alternately impeccably tailored


suits and resplendent tribal robes, he symbolized both the revolutionary


charisma that had built modern Africa and the political pragmatism by


which he hoped to forge its future. He died in 1978.

Сохранить в соц. сетях:
Обсуждение:
comments powered by Disqus

Название реферата: Komo Kenyatta Essay Research Paper KENYATTA

Слов:2180
Символов:15307
Размер:29.90 Кб.