Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• ZAJACZKOWSKI, ANDRZEJ

Titel

KENYA'S FLAMING SPEAR

Ist Teil von

• Kultura i społeczeństwo, 1964-10, Vol.8 (4), p.147-158

Erscheinungsjahr

1964

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Sociological Abstracts

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• An interpretation of the early career of Jomo Kenyatta, President of Kenya, who was once popularly known as 'Flaming Spear,' with special reference to his book FACING MOUNT KENYA. During his stay in Europe in the 1930's he wrote FACING MOUNT KENYA as a PhD thesis for B. Malinowski at the London Sch of Econ's. The book is written on 3 levels: (1) a sci'fic study of the Kikuyu tribe; (2) a defense of Kikuyu values; & (3) a call to Kenyan & African nat'lism. Malinowski noted in his Foreword that Kenyatta occasionally used African terminology to describe European conditions, eg he used the word 'tribe' to describe European nations. This is interpreted as Kenyatta's equalization of African & European civilizations, & as a reaction against the imperialism which preached European superiority. Kenyatta's defense of Kenyan values is illustrated by his apologia for the Kikuyu land system in which land represents the generations from the dead through the living to the unborn; his defense of cliteroectomy & the ngweko system of sexual initiation through mutual masturbation between the sexes; & his attack on imperialism through an African animal tale. Kenyatta's pol'al career is traced until his involvement with the Mau Mau. The emphasis on his tribal rather than his later nat'l leadership is explained by the fact that tribalism is still an African reality. L A. Langnas.