{UAH} How Johnston Kenyatta (initially Johnston Kamau) became Jomo Kenyatta.

How Johnston Kenyatta (initially Johnston  Kamau) became Jomo Kenyatta. 

In 1938, Jomo Kenyatta decided to publish his  book 'Facing  Mount Kenya'  which had   formed the core part of his  diploma thesis  at London  School of Economics under the supervision of Prof. Bronisław Kasper Malinowski

Together  with his close ally in London Mbiyu Koinange, they brainstormed  on how to give the external part of the book an African  outlook. 

This included the name of the author  which needed to be more African and the author  himself needed to appear  as an Agikuyu elder.

" Our main object was to give the book on Agikuyu by an elderly Mugikuyu, an elderly tone in contrast to books written by non-Africans about us.'What others can do, we too can do'," Mbiyu  recalled. 

For the author's photograph that was to appear in the preface, Kenyatta  posed in a blue monkey  cloak and a  hyrax he  borrowed from Mbiyu.  For the spear the two  sharpened  a wood.

Even though  Kenyatta wanted to get rid of the name Johnston  he wanted  to retain  J  that was to be included in an African  name to accompany the second  name Kenyatta.

Huddled in Kenyatta's  small room at Cambridge  Street near Victoria Station, the two sons of Agikuyu  went back and forth over  a suitable  name. 

 An impatient Mbiyu asked Kenyatta, "Why all this trouble, man, don't you have a name?"

"'My name is Kamau,"  Kenyatta replied. 

 "And your  father's  name?" Mbiyu interrupted.   

"Ngengi," Kenyatta  responded. 

"Then why on earth are we taking all this trouble to find names while you have 'Kamau wa Ngengi'?" Mbiyu retorted.

At that point a cornered  Kenyatta hesitated for a while before  calmly  responding  "You see, I am known by the name Kenyatta, I want to retain it." 

According  to Mbiyu "We proceeded to make a combination of vowels and consonants until we agreed on 'Jomo'." Therefore  Johnston  Kenyatta became  Jomo Kenyatta.

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