DOCUMENT A SOURCE: Speech made by Jomo Kenyatta at the Kenya African Union Meeting in Nyeri, Kenya on July 26, 1952. NOTE: Jomo Kenyatta (1893-1978) served as the first Prime Minister (1963–1964) and President (1964–1978) of Kenya. He is considered the founding father of the Kenyan nation. ... I want you to know the purpose of the Kenya African Union. It is the biggest purpose the African has. It involves every African in Kenya and it is their mouthpiece (messenger) which asks for freedom. Kenya African Union is you and you are the Kenya Africa Union. If we unite now, each and every one of us, and each tribe to another, we will cause the implementation (achievement) in this country of what the European calls democracy. True democracy has no colour distinction (difference). It does not choose between black and white. We are here in this tremendous gathering under the Kenya African Union flag to find which road leads us from darkness into democracy. In order to find it we Africans must first achieve the right to elect our own representatives. That is surely the first principle of democracy. We are the only race in Kenya which does not elect its own representatives in the Legislature and we are going to set about to rectify (fix) this situation. We feel we are dominated by a handful of others who refuse to be just. God said this is our land . . . . We want our cattle to get fat on our land so that our children grow up in prosperity (wealth); we do not want that fat removed to feed others . . . . We want to prosper as a nation, and as a nation we demand equality, that is equal pay for equal work. Whether it is a chief, headman, or laborer he needs increased salary. He needs a salary that compares with a salary of a European who does equal work. We will never get our freedom unless we succeed in this issue. We do not want equal pay for equal work tomorrow - we want it right now . . . . If we work together as one, we must succeed. DOCUMENT B SOURCE: History of the Pan-African Congress: Colonial and Coloured Unity, a Programme of Action. Edited by George Padmore, London, England. NOTE: The Pan-African Congress was a series of seven meetings that were intended to address the issues facing Africa as a result of European colonization of most of the continent. This excerpt comes from the Fifth Pan-African Congress held in 1945 in Manchester, northwest England. There were ninety delegates, twenty six from all over Africa. These included a number of men who would later become political leaders in their newly independent African countries, such as Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya. There were also people like radical George Padmore, a journalist and author, from Trinidad, an island in the Caribbean that later received its independence from Great Britain in 1962. Despite the turnout, this conference scarcely got a mention in the British press. There were ma ...

1. DOCUMENT A
SOURCE: Speech made by Jomo Kenyatta at the Kenya African
Union Meeting in Nyeri, Kenya
on July 26, 1952.
NOTE: Jomo Kenyatta (1893-1978) served as the first Prime
Minister (1963–1964) and President
(1964–1978) of Kenya. He is considered the founding father of
the Kenyan nation.

2. ... I want you to know the purpose of the Kenya African Union.
It is the biggest purpose
the African has. It involves every African in Kenya and it is
their mouthpiece
(messenger) which asks for freedom. Kenya African Union is
you and you are the
Kenya Africa Union. If we unite now, each and every one of us,
and each tribe to
another, we will cause the implementation (achievement) in this
country of what the
European calls democracy.
True democracy has no colour distinction (difference). It does
not choose between
black and white. We are here in this tremendous gathering under
the Kenya African
Union flag to find which road leads us from darkness into
democracy. In order to find
it we Africans must first achieve the right to elect our own
representatives. That is
surely the first principle of democracy. We are the only race in
Kenya which does not
elect its own representatives in the Legislature and we are going
to set about to rectify

3. (fix) this situation. We feel we are dominated by a handful of
others who refuse to be
just.
God said this is our land . . . . We want our cattle to get fat on
our land so that our
children grow up in prosperity (wealth); we do not want that fat
removed to feed
others . . . . We want to prosper as a nation, and as a nation we
demand equality, that
is equal pay for equal work. Whether it is a chief, headman, or
laborer he needs
increased salary. He needs a salary that compares with a salary
of a European who
does equal work. We will never get our freedom unless we
succeed in this issue. We
do not want equal pay for equal work tomorrow - we want it
right now . . . . If we
work together as one, we must succeed.
DOCUMENT B
SOURCE: History of the Pan-African Congress: Colonial and
Coloured Unity, a Programme of
Action. Edited by George Padmore, London, England.

4. NOTE: The Pan-African Congress was a series of seven
meetings that were intended to address the
issues facing Africa as a result of European colonization of
most of the continent. This excerpt comes
from the Fifth Pan-African Congress held in 1945 in
Manchester, northwest England. There were
ninety delegates, twenty six from all over Africa. These
included a number of men who would later
become political leaders in their newly independent African
countries, such as Jomo Kenyatta of
Kenya. There were also people like radical George Padmore, a
journalist and author, from Trinidad,
an island in the Caribbean that later received its independence
from Great Britain in 1962.

5. Despite the turnout, this conference scarcely got a mention in
the British press. There were many
resolutions passed, including one calling for racial
discrimination to be made a criminal offense. The
main resolution criticized imperialism and capitalism.
The Challenge to Colonial Powers
The delegates to the Fifth Pan-African Congress believe in
peace. How could it be
otherwise when for centuries the African people have been the
victims of violence
and slavery? Yet if the Western world is still determined to rule
mankind by force,
then Africans, as a last resort, may have to appeal to (use) force
in the effort to
achieve freedom . . .
We are determined to be free. We want education. We want the
right to earn a
decent living, the right to express our thoughts and emotions, to
adopt and create
forms of beauty. We demand for Black Africa autonomy (self-
rule) and
independence . . .

6. We are not ashamed to have been an age-long patient people.
We continue willingly
to sacrifice and strive. But we are unwilling to starve any longer
while doing the
world’s drudgery (hard work) in order to support by our poverty
and ignorance false
aristocracy (upper class) and discarded imperialism.
Therefore, we shall complain, demand, and accuse. We will
make the world listen to
the facts of our condition. We will fight in every way we can
for freedom,
democracy, and social betterment.
Name________________________________________________
Period/#____________
Close Read: Gandhi’s Letter to the Viceroy
Read the letter that Gandhi wrote to Britain’s viceroy Lord
Irwin on March 2, 1930 and answer the questions.
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7. 3
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8. 21
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Dear Friend,
Before embarking on Civil Disobedience...I would again
approach you and find a way out.
My personal faith is absolutely clear. I cannot intentionally
hurt anything that lives, much less fellow human beings,
even though they may do the greatest wrong to me and

9. mine. Whilst, therefore, I hold the British rule to be a curse, I
do not intend harm to a single Englishman or to any
legitimate interest he may have in India.
I must not be misunderstood. Though I hold the British rule
in India to be a curse, I do not, therefore, consider
Englishmen in general to be worse than any other people on
earth. I have the privilege of claiming many Englishmen as
dearest friends. Indeed much that I have learnt of the evil of
British rule is due to the writings of frank and courageous
Englishmen who have not hesitated to tell the unpalatable
[unappealing] truth about that rule.
And why do I regard the British rule as a curse?
It has impoverished [made poor] the dumb [unable to speak]
millions by a system of progressive exploitation and by a
ruinously expensive military and civil administration which
the country can never afford.

10. It has reduced us politically to serfdom. It has sapped the
foundations of our culture. And, by the policy of disarmament
[taking away of weapons], it has degraded us spiritually.
1. Identify one piece of evidence from lines
6-11 that demonstrates that Gandhi believed
in nonviolence.
2. What are Gandhi’s views of British rule and
of Englishmen? Are they the same thing?
(l.13-20)

11. 3. In lines 22-34, Gandhi explains why he
regards British rule as a “curse.” In your own
words, explain his reasons.
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12. 41
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13. 59
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Lacking the inward strength, we have been reduced, by all
but universal disarmament, to a State bordering on cowardly
helplessness.
...I have been recently telling the public what Independence
should really mean.
Let me put before you some of the salient points.
The terrific pressure of land revenue, which furnishes a large
part of the total, must undergo considerable modification in

14. an Independent India … The ryot [Indian peasant] has
remained as helpless as ever... But the British system
seems to be designed to crush the very life out of him ... The
tax [specifically a tax on the making and selling of salt]
shows itself still more burdensome on the poor man when it
is remembered that salt is the one thing he must eat more
than the rich man both individually and collectively. The drink
and drug revenue, too, is derived from the poor. It saps the
foundations both of their health and morals ... If the weight of
taxation has crushed the poor from above, the destruction of
the central supplementary industry, i.e. hand-spinning, has
undermined their capacity for producing wealth.
...This transformation is impossible without Independence…
Not one of the great British political parties, it seems to me,
is prepared to give up the Indian spoils to which Great
Britain helps herself from day to day, often, in spite of the
unanimous opposition of opinion.

15. ...if India is to live as a nation, if the slow death by starvation
of her people is to stop, some remedy must be found for
immediate relief… Great Britain would defend her Indian
commerce and interests by all the forces at her command.
India must consequently evolve force enough to free herself
4. Write a synonym for the word “salient.”
5. What does Gandhi mean by “land revenue”
in line 41?

16. 6. According to Gandhi, identify three ways
British rule harmed the Indian economy.
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18. 89
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from that embrace of death.
... the conviction is growing deeper and deeper in me that
nothing but unadulterated non-violence can check the

19. organised violence of the British Government. Many think
that non-violence is not an active force. My experience,
limited though it undoubtedly is, shows that non-violence can
be an intensely active force. It is my purpose to set in motion
that force as well against the organised violent force of the
British rule as the unorganised violent force of the growing
party of violence. To sit still would be to give rein to both the
forces above mentioned. Having an unquestioning and
immovable faith in the efficacy of non-violence, as I know it,
it would be sinful on my part to wait any longer.
I know that in embarking on non-violence I shall be running
what might fairly be termed a mad risk. But the victories of
truth have never been won without risks, often of the gravest
character. Conversion of a nation that has consciously or
unconsciously preyed upon another, far more numerous, far
more ancient and no less cultured than itself, is worth any
amount of risk.

20. I have deliberately used the word conversion. For my
ambition is no less than to convert the British people,
through non-violence, and thus make them see the wrong
they have done to India. I do not seek to harm your people. I
want to serve them even as I want to serve my own...If the
people [of India] join me as I expect they will, the sufferings
they will undergo, unless the British nation sooner retraces
its steps, will be enough to melt the stoniest hearts...
I remain
Your sincerely friend
M.K. Gandhi
7. Circle the metaphor in the passage to the
left. What two things are being compared?
8. According to Gandhi, how can Indians
defeat the British?

21. 9. Define efficacy
10. Why does Gandhi use the word
“conversion” (l. 86) to describe the effect he
hopes to have on the British people?
Source: Letter from Gandhi to the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, 2 March
1930.
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/india/indianindepe
ndence/indiannat/source3/
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/india/indianindepe
ndence/indiannat/source3/
Read the following primary source: Letter from Gandhi to the
Viceroy Then post an initial response to the questions below.
You should write like an essay 500 words.

22. What are some of the explicit and implicit criticism of
colonialism in the commentary by Gandhi and Kenyatta? What
forms the basis of the new kind of identity they envision for
their people? What are their hopes for their people? Do you
see evidence in their commentary of the more general ideologies
discussed by the textbook readings?