Originally published in 1972 and as a second edition in 1979, this widely acclaimed biography of Africa’s first modern statesman tells the story of Kenyatta’s extraordinary and enigmatic career. It is the story of a life punctuated by dramatic twists of fortune which closely reflects Africa’s emergence from colonial rule. In the preparation of this book Jeremy Murray-Brown used a variety of unpublished sources. He pieces together the background of Kenyatta’s childhood as a ‘mission boy’ in the days when Nairobi was a raw frontier settlement; of his way of life as a young ‘de-tribalized’ African in the 1920s; of his role in the controversy regarding female circumcision; his sixteen years in Britain; his visits to Russia between the wars; his trial and long years in a desert prison charged with managing Mau Mau.

The result is a rounded portrait and its objective approach to the enigmas which have surrounded the African leader places him firmly in his historical context. Set against the background of the rise and fall of British colonialism the book also makes an important contribution towards an understanding of the revolutionary forces which have moulded the shape of modern Africa.