Kenyatta, Jomo (c. 1895-1978)
Born around 1895 in southern Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta (c. 1895-1978) or Kamau wa Ngengi (his name from his youth) is a Kenyan ethnologist, pan-African activist and politician. As a representative of an association defending the land interests of the Kikuyu dispossessed by the white settlers, he went to London in 1929. He remained in Europe until 1946, meeting more and more with the English-speaking and anti-colonial intelligentsia. In 1938, he published Facing Mount Kenya, The Traditional Life of the Gikuyu, a book based on a master’s degree in anthropology under the supervision of Bronislaw Malinowski. It is the first ethnological monograph on his people by a colonial subject. A hero of Kenyan decolonization, he became the first president of the newly independent country from 1964 until his death in 1978.
Keywords: Social and cultural anthropology | Ethnology | British colonialism | Pan-Africanism | Anticolonialism | Kenya | Kikuyu | Bronislaw Malinowski
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« Ethnographies rivales : les Kikuyu dans le miroir de l’ethnologie coloniale (Kenya) »
Anne‑Marie Peatrik, 2019
Au cours d’une précédente recherche sur la singulière histoire de Facing Mount Kenya. The tribal life of the Gikuyu (1938) de Jomo Kenyatta, première monographie d’ethnologie universitaire réalisée sur son peuple par un Africain, tour à tour ignorée, décriée ou célébrée, il est apparu que (…)
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“Jomo Kenyatta’s Facing Mount Kenya and its Rival Ethnographies: The Kikuyu in the Mirror of Colonial Anthropology”
Anne‑Marie Peatrik, 2021
Facing Mount Kenya: The Tribal Life of the Gikuyu (1938) by Jomo Kenyatta was the first academic anthropological monograph to be written by an African about his people. It has led a tumultuous existence, being ignored, disparaged and celebrated in turn. During previous research into the (…)
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“Rivalidades e diálogos em torno da etnografia malinowskiana de Jomo Kenyatta”
Anne‑Marie Peatrik, 2020
Facing Mount Kenya. The Tribal Life of the Gikuyu (1938), de Jomo Kenyatta, é a primeira monografia académica, de âmbito antropológico, produzida por um africano sobre o seu próprio povo, obra celebrada por uns, condenada por outros, quando não ignorada . A história desta monografia é (…)